With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature beginning on Tuesday, it’s a good time to check in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities, predictions and plans for the session.
Sen. Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) spoke with KTOO’s Mike Lane about what he expects to see this year.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mike Lane: We’re in the studio with Sen. Jesse Kiehl. Welcome Senator.
Sen. Kiehl: Well, thank you.
Mike Lane: How are you feeling about going into the second regular session?
Sen. Kiehl: Well, I’m, I’m excited to have everybody come back to the capital city. It’s always, always good to have colleagues from around the state gather at the Capitol and get to work. And also, you know, catch up a little bit. Some of these folks are even friends.
Mike Lane: Is there anything that you’re looking forward to or not looking forward to in this particular session?
Sen. Kiehl: Well, I think that the biggest question is going to be, what issues catch fire and get the most traction? Crucially, the thing you always have to do has got to be a budget, right? The Constitution limits us to one year at a time. Gives us some duties — public safety, public health, managing our resources, education, couple other things. And so we we have to pass and fund a budget. And one thing I’m not looking forward to is making that balance. That’s going to be, without a doubt, one of the biggest and most difficult issues in front of the Legislature this year. That’s not new. The Governor, who has for all of his terms, stood squarely in the way of any kind of fiscal plan with a reasonable possibility of happening, has said that this year he’s proposing one. If the governor proposes something that is serious, if the governor proposes something that has a kerosene snowballs chance in Hades of passing, then that will be, I think, the primary issue of the session. If it’s something that can’t get the votes, won’t get the votes Alaskans aren’t going to support, then we won’t probably spend huge amounts of time and effort on that. I’m a fiscal plan guy. We need to stabilize the state’s resources, stabilize the state’s ability to do the basic things we all need a government to do, infrastructure, safety, education, et cetera, can’t do them on your own. And so we have a structural deficit. And with the price of oil down and looking to maybe go down further, balancing the books is going to be really brutal this year, without some revenue.
Mike Lane: With that said, are there any other pressing or urgent issues that you believe are being overlooked at this time?
Sen. Kiehl: Well, I don’t know about overlooked, right? The other thing that has the potential to take a huge amount of time is this, this 50-year dream of a gas line, and if that project gets cash or customers, if it’s got customers with a balance sheet who will sign on the line? Yes, I’m in to buy gas that comes through this pipeline. Well, then we have some very serious and major issues as a Legislature that we’re going to have to work on to make sure that gas line can happen.
Mike Lane: All right, fair enough. And we touched very briefly on the budget. Where do you believe cuts are necessary?
Sen. Kiehl: We have done a lot of cutting already. We have done a huge amount, and so we are always looking at the most efficient way to deliver government services. But Alaskans, by and large, want the services the state provides. It just comes down to that. So we’re going to dig in. We’re going to get down to the nitty gritty and talk to everybody and figure out, what is the more effective, efficient way to deliver that necessary government service, what’s the most efficient, effective way to do that. We’re talking about saving 10s of 1000s or hundreds of 1000s of dollars a year max, and that counts. We’re going to work on it. But it’s not hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s not a budget deficit. And so we will always do those things, because we always need to do the best we can for Alaskans, but that’s not going to solve our budget issue.
Mike Lane: My last question. How can Alaska secure the PFD for the next five to 10 years?
Sen. Kiehl: Fundamentally, the most important thing we’re going to need is some additional revenue with a moderate new revenue stream, or probably it’s a couple of little streams — right? — that come together to a moderate amount. We can stabilize, we can provide public safety, good education, infrastructure. We can run roads and ferries and airports, do the things that the Constitution requires us do, that Alaskans need us to do and still have a PFD going forward.
Mike Lane: And Senator, is there anything I didn’t ask you that you’d like to touch on?
Sen. Kiehl: I’ll just say it is such a privilege to represent the capital city. This town welcomes legislators, welcomes staff from all over the state. Agree with them, disagree with them. They’r here serving the public. They’re serving their constituents. They’re here to do a job for all of Alaska. And I’m always proud of the capital city welcoming my colleagues from around the state. I’m looking forward to that happening again this year. It’s going to be a hard session. I hope it’s a productive one.
Mike Lane: It is the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature, it begins Tuesday the 20th of January. Senator, thanks for joining me.
Sen. Kiehl: Thanks so much for having me.
