Applications are due by Friday, June 26th at midnight for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s mortgage and rent relief lottery. If you are struggling to pay your rent or mortgage as a result of COVID-19, you may be eligible for up for $1,200 in relief.

The primary election in August is quickly approaching, but unfortunately, Anchorage isn’t out of the woods yet when it comes to community transmission of COVID-19.

The House passed HB 313 this Tuesday, approving CARES Act funding in less than 24 hours in Juneau. The week before, the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee on which I sit approved the governor’s Revised Program Legislative Requests, or RPLs, to release the funds, but then a lawsuit was filed that could have held up the funds indefinitely.

During these unprecedented times, we have to rethink the way we do so many things. A cornerstone of our democracy is free and fair elections. In these uncertain times, we need to ensure that no Alaskan has to choose between voting and their health. This is especially important because many of our polling stations are in schools and most election workers are retirees.

In late April, the federal government sent Alaska over $1.25 billion in funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help Alaska weather the impacts of COVID-19. These funds are for small businesses, impacted Alaskans, local governments, public health efforts, and other affected sectors of the state.

These are trying times, and things are evolving rapidly. Let’s take a minute to talk about what’s happening and what we’re doing about it.

While some of these items may be replaced with CARES Act funding, it’s not clear how many of them, like school bond debt and education funding, would be related to COVID-19.

In response to COVID-19 the legislature passed a budget and an emergency disaster extension in a record 66 days, gaveling out at about 1:30am on Sunday morning.