The Alaska State Legislature has officially gone back into session, and I am excited to be down in Juneau again to work on the important issues facing our State.
Happy May Day! May Day also marks the beginning of the “Week of Hearings” in House Finance. We will be listening to presentations on the economy and fiscal policy from various experts. These presentations will be highly informative. If you are interested in viewing them, they will begin at 1:30 pm every day. Click here for a link to the live streams.
Juneau – Representative David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks) will be holding a University of Alaska Finance Subcommittee meeting today from 1:00-4:30 p.m. to hear public testimony.
Hello from Juneau, where the legislative session marches on to Day 103. This is just a quick note about a couple of public testimony opportunities tomorrow, Saturday, April 29.
Juneau – Representative David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks) will be holding a University of Alaska Finance Subcommittee meeting on Saturday, April 29th from 1:00-4:30 p.m. to hear public testimony.
Juneau – The Alaska Senate is scheduled to take up the proposed operating budget for Fiscal Year 2018 on Thursday. The budget that passed the Alaska House of Representatives last month maintained the amount of funding for the University of Alaska at $325 million, but the Alaska Senate Majority is considering a $22 million cut that will be taken up on the Senate Floor Thursday.
Anchorage – Representative Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage) is highlighting some of the valuable research being undertaken by students and faculty at the University of Alaska by sponsoring the University of Alaska Anchorage Undergraduate Research and Discovery Symposium today in Anchorage. This comes as the Alaska Legislature is deliberating over the proposed FY 2017 budget, which includes a $50 million cut in funding for the University of Alaska. Such a cut will result in the loss of hundreds of jobs and diminish the ability of the University to conduct needed academic research.
I’m writing you from Juneau again, and it feels like dĂ©jĂ vu – we’re here past our 90 day limit again. In many ways I’m not surprised, as we’re talking about a lot of major issues this year: restructuring the Permanent Fund, income or sales taxes, reforming our oil tax credits, making significant changes to our Medicaid program, and an overhaul of our crime laws. I hoped we could finish in 90 days, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I am committed to staying as long as it takes to craft a real solution, because we cannot afford to kick the can down the road another year. My goal has always been to support a long term, comprehensive fiscal solution, and I spoke about that at a press conference earlier this month.
