A Windy Welcome

January 17, 2020

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Gusts over 100 mph would be national news elsewhere. Here in Southeast Alaska we called them Thursday. But hey - neither rain nor -50 in Tok nor gusts in Lynn Canal can stop the legislature from convening next week! It's great to see all the legislators and staff coming back into the Capitol.

It was great to see so many people at Wednesday's town hall! Thanks to Reps. Hannan and Story, who make a great team!

Brand New Bunch

Dozens of new bills got pre-filed in advance of this session. There are some really great ones in there. For example: Rep. Fields' HB 187 stops the state from sending inmates to outside prisons except in rare, individual cases. That will help stop Outside prison gangs from infiltrating Alaska, reduce recidivism, and keep jobs here. There's also Sen. Stevens' SB 130, which extends our tax credit for value-added processing of salmon and herring, and applies it to pollock and cod too. Adding value to Alaska resources - right here in Alaska - is the way to go.

There are also some pre-filed bills that don't head in the best direction for our state. HB 194 would force consolidation down to 18 school districts around Alaska. As a general rule, I think local control best meets the needs of communities. There's also SB 146, which makes selling cigarettes a crime. There's no question about tobacco's costs and health effects. But regulation does a much better job at changing behavior than outright prohibition, which tends to drive things onto the black market.

Overall, it's an interesting group of bills. We won't get bored this session.

I loved listening to The Dippers rehearse the Alaska Flag Song for the first day of session.

Gusty and Gracious

If you're in Juneau, I hope you'll join me at Juneau's annual Legislative Welcome Reception. It's this Wednesday (Jan. 22), at Centennial Hall from 5-6:30pm. It's a great opportunity to speak with legislators from around the state. Please welcome them to our capital city!

It was great talking with the Juneau Assembly and CBJ staff about the how the city, state, and federal governments can work together better.

Ferries and Frustration

The Marine Transportation Advisory Board met Wednesday. It was a painful meeting, but at least it was long.

DOT gave the board and the public the Northern Economics report on 'reshaping' AMHS about an hour before the meeting. After a quarter of a million dollars and three months of extended deadlines, it's wildly unimpressive. I mean, the deep dive on food sales was neat, but it didn't say anything about replacing aged ships. And while many of the ideas promoted cutting wages, there was no analysis of how much we could cut pay and still have workers qualified to run the boats. (Also, according to the consultants, the mayor of Haines is a man who lives in the interior village of Hughes.)

One thing the report did make clear - something many of us already understand - is that we can't just privatize AMHS, short of functionally ending the system. For this we spent $250,000?

We have serious work to do on the ferry system. While the report left a lot of important questions unanswered, I do hope it will drive an understanding of the need to invest in this critical piece of transportation infrastructure as we get into next year's budget discussions.

Welcome aboard, Calvin!

Our Office

Finally, I want to welcome the latest member of my staff. Calvin Zuelow was born and raised in Juneau. He's a UAS student interning in my office this session. The poor guy doesn't know what he's signed up for, but he's a fantastic addition to the team. And he's too late to back out now.

All my best,