Alaska

Leading members of the Alaska House of Representatives said Friday that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s ambitious long-term state fiscal plan has almost no support among legislators and is almost certainly dead on arrival.

House leaders spoke with reporters Friday morning, a day after members of the House Finance Committee heard two hours of public testimony on the governor’s proposed statewide sales tax, the cornerstone of his multi-part proposal to bring state expenses and revenue into line over the next five years.

Every Alaskan who testified — almost 30 in total — was against the tax.

“This is just pure speculation on my part, but what you hear folks in the hall say is, if there’s a vote today on the sales tax, it could be a zero to 60 vote,” said Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome and co-chair of the House Finance Committee.

House Minority Leader DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, said there might be a handful of legislators who would still support the governor’s plan, but it’s pretty clear that it lacks the support it needs to become law.

“From the testimony that was taken last night in House Finance — when everyone who called in spoke in opposition — it certainly makes it hard to think there’s a lot of people that aren’t very cautious about saying they’re for the governor’s plan,” she said.

The governor’s plan calls for a seasonal statewide sales tax, changes to the state’s oil and corporate taxes, a constitutionally guaranteed Permanent Fund dividend formula, changes to the structure of the Alaska Permanent Fund and a tighter spending cap in state law.

Those changes are being proposed because oil and investment revenue can’t keep up with demand for services and dividends, and lawmakers are unwilling to cut services any more than they already have.

Since 2015, legislators and governors have cut state agencies’ budgets by 16.6%, after accounting for inflation. The state’s capital budget, which pays for new construction and maintenance, has been cut by more than 80%.

Every year since 2016, the Permanent Fund dividend has been cut below the amount called for in state law.

With so much deferred maintenance, public schools — particularly in rural Alaska — are decaying and literally collapsing. The state is now facing a lawsuit alleging that school funding is so low that it violates the Alaska Constitution.

Dunleavy’s proposal would be a way to stanch the fiscal bleeding. The new taxes are intended to be temporary because the Dunleavy administration expects North Slope oil production to rise, boosting state revenue, and it expects that a proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline will be built and generate more money for the state.

Even before this week’s presentations and public testimony, many legislators were skeptical of the plan, and saw the new taxes as merely a way to pay a larger Permanent Fund dividend.

“I’m a logic person,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Cronk, R-Tok, on Jan. 28, one day after the governor debuted his plan.“We’re going to tax those people that are productive so everybody gets a check? That don’t work for me. … That’s just not logical to me,” he said.

Lawmakers analyzed the sales tax first, in a series of hearings this week, but because it received such a negative reaction in public testimony, legislators are now wondering if it’s worth considering any other part of the governor’s fiscal plan, given that they are all viewed as one package.

Foster said it doesn’t look like the governor’s proposal could be amended and improved enough to get sufficient support in the Capitol.

“Sometimes, you could say, ‘We’re kind of close on things, and there’s a lot of great areas that we can work on,’ but this one just seems to be — folks are just really, really unhappy,” he said.

There are costs to inaction as well. The Institute of Social and Economic Research recently estimated that the state has missed out on 2-3% of its gross domestic product over the past 10 years because of the lack of a fiscal plan. Without a long-term structure, legislators have gotten dragged into annual debates over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, which has prevented them from discussing other pressing issues.

Some lawmakers have concerns beyond the sales tax. Johnson thinks the governor’s proposal for a revised fiscal cap is inadequate. Because it would be in state law, rather than in the constitution, future legislators could ignore it just as they do the current Permanent Fund dividend formula.

That’s why she calls it a “spending beanie,” instead of a spending cap.

“I personally think it’s rather small, and it would be easily overcome,” she said. “And for that reason, I think of it as a spending beanie.”

Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said he’s skeptical of this proposal’s chances after years of other attempts to enact a fiscal plan.

“I won’t regale you with tales from years past, but on the Finance Committee, we have spent weeks and weeks going through a lot of this stuff, and it never got a compromise when it came to the floor. So that’s the issue at hand here,” he said.

Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage and another Finance co-chair, said that after hearing Thursday’s public testimony, he’s not sure the governor’s proposal can be successful either. “There is so much education that still needs to take place and studying that needs to be done for us to be able to move it forward in a way that would get broad support,” he said.

“I think folks are just kind of waiting until next year before we, you know, really take a serious stab at some of those things, like the income tax,” Foster said.

“I have higher hopes for next year than I do this year. You know, a new executive leadership branch and the leadership there,” he said.

Later in the day, in a one-on-one interview with the Alaska Beacon, Dunleavy said lawmakers are going to be disappointed if they think that negotiating with a new governor will be any easier.

Dunleavy is term-limited and leaves office in December.

“A governor who goes in there and puts out a plan like this in their first or second year, they’re going to get the same thing we’re getting now,” Dunleavy said. “And that doesn’t work.”

When an Alaskan flies to Seattle and looks out the airplane window, they’ll see construction cranes dotting the skyline, Dunleavy said.

“Washington is a state that does not have an income tax. It’s a sales tax. Washington’s economy is actually pretty good,” he said.

He referred to a fiscal analysis performed by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage, which found that a seasonal sales tax with large exemptions would fall more on nonresidents than an income tax would.

“The sales tax is the best thing we could come up with,” he said, referring to that analysis.

Reducing the PFD to balance the budget — the Legislature’s preferred policy since 2016 — is the most regressive option, harming poor Alaskans more than rich ones, ISER found.

“Taking the PFD is the worst thing you can do for the average person,” Dunleavy said.

He appeared frustrated by legislators’ actions and the lack of an alternative plan coming from the House or Senate.

“I’ve never seen a fiscal plan introduced,” Dunleavy said. “The closest I’ve ever seen was the first fiscal working group just a couple years ago.”

In 2017, the Alaska House of Representatives approved a state income tax as part of a three-part fiscal plan, but it did not become law.

The state Senate, including Dunleavy, voted down the income tax, killing the House’s plan.

“A tax is not a fiscal plan,” Dunleavy said when asked about that history.

He said that with 120 days in the legislative session, lawmakers have time to work on the issue and figure things out.

“Here you go: My last year, there’s no political skin in the game. I’m not going to lose anything because I’m not running for anything. And here’s an opportunity for these guys, and out of the gate, they said, ‘There’s not enough time.’ So if there’s not enough time for this,” Dunleavy said, “What are they spending their time on?”

The family of one of the victims who died in a Bering Air plane crash last year is suing the regional airline. The news came a day before the anniversary of the crash, which killed all 10 people on board and shook communities in Northwest Alaska.

Bering Air Flight 445 was on its regularly scheduled route from Unalakleet to Nome when it crashed about 30 miles southeast of Nome.

The family of JaDee Moncur, one of the passengers, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Nome Superior Court on Thursday.

“It’s a hard week one year the same week after the accident,” said Casey DuBose, an attorney with Aviation Law Group, which is based in Seattle and represents the family. “But as we’ve done our investigation, we have enough evidence, and we decided it’s time to get moving forward with this litigation so that their family can get answers and some justice out of this terrible incident.”

Bering Air did not respond to a request for comment as of Thursday.

The federal National Transportation Safety Board has not released its full investigation into the crash. However, a preliminary report found that the Cessna Caravan was almost a thousand pounds overweight when it flew into icing conditions.

The plaintiffs argue that led to the crash.

“This aircraft flew into an area of known ice, and we think that that’s ultimately the cause of what had the aircraft lose control,” DuBose said. “As you fly into icing conditions, that ice, as it accumulates on the airframe, adds an incredible amount of weight, very rapidly.”

The court complaint also alleges that the plane flew without adequate safeguards for the conditions, though that has not been confirmed by federal investigators. DuBose said the allegations are based on the NTSB’s preliminary report and an independent investigation by the law group.

The crash victims included a mentor to new teachers, a school counselor and two employees with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium who were traveling to service a local water plant. Moncur, 52, was one of six victims from Southcentral Alaska.

Moncur was born in Wyoming and moved to Alaska in 2008, his family had said in an obituary. An avid outdoorsman and church volunteer, Moncur worked as a project engineer and lived in Eagle River. He is survived by his wife and three adult children.

The family said in a written statement that they appreciate the outpouring of support they have received throughout the year.

“In the wake of this tragedy, we have taken legal action to seek answers and accountability regarding the circumstances of the crash,” the family said. “We hope that through this process, we can contribute to greater aviation safety so that others do not have to endure what we have.”

NTSB officials said they anticipate the final investigation into the crash to be released in early summer.

The number of out-of-state workers in Alaska is continuing to rise and is near an all-time high, according to a new report published this week by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In 2024, almost 23% of non-federal jobs in Alaska were held by someone who did not live in the state. Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar earned from a non-federal job.

In some industries, the proportion of nonresident workers was much higher:

Among oil and gas workers, 40.5% were nonresidents. Among miners, nonresidents made up 44.2% of all workers, and nonresidents averaged higher wages than residents did.

The state has been collecting nonresident worker data since 1990, and the new figures are the second-highest on record, behind only 1992, which used a different job classification system. That year, 23.7% of Alaska workers were nonresidents.

The proportion of nonresident workers has been rising steadily since the COVID-19 pandemic emergency layoffs of 2020.

Rob Krieger, an economist with the Department of Labor, wrote about the new report in an article for this month’s Alaska Trends magazine.

He noted that the rise comes amid a decline in the number of Alaskans who are between 18 and 64 years old, what economists call “prime working age.”

From 2013 to 2024, the number of Alaskans in that age range has declined by about 34,000 people, or 7%.

During that stretch, more people have moved out of the state than have moved in, and the state’s average age has risen steadily, leading to more deaths and fewer births.

“It’s pretty clear that is kind of what’s contributing to what we’re seeing with employers having to rely heavily on nonresidents,” he said.

“Every industry now is starting to lean more heavily on nonresidents, including ones that have historically not. Even things like state government and local government, we’re starting to see more nonresidents,” Krieger said.

In most industries, nonresidents earned less than residents did because nonresidents tended to hold seasonal jobs.

Across the state, nonresidents averaged $16,302 in wages for any given quarter of the year. Residents averaged $16,531, indicating that nonresidents and residents were generally paid about the same.

Gunnar Schultz, a Department of Labor analyst who compiled this year’s report, said the numbers are based on unemployment insurance reports filed by employers with the state. Alaska requires employers and employees to pay into the state’s unemployment insurance fund.

Those numbers are then contrasted with Permanent Fund dividend applications.

“Did you apply for a 2024 PFD or 2025 PFD? If you applied for neither, you’re a nonresident,” he said.

Alaska had almost 15,500 federal workers in 2024; those aren’t included in the report, nor are members of the military and self-employed Alaskans.

That last category includes many commercial fishermen.

The report separately analyzed those jobs, and based on permit data and other information, “nonresidents were an estimated 49 percent of the harvesting workforce, which includes permit holders and their crew, and nonresidents took in 57 percent of gross harvesting earnings.”

After proposing to build a new cabin near Juneau’s Herbert Glacier, the U.S. Forest Service released a draft decision last month abandoning it. 

The cabin site was initially selected due to public interest. It would have been built within a mining claim block across the river from the proposed New Amalga gold mine owned by Grande Portage Resources, Ltd. The Forest Service approved exploratory drilling at New Amalga in April. 

But Paul Robbins, a public affairs officer for Tongass National Forest, said the agency’s decision to cancel the cabin is unrelated to mining interests and is instead due to the challenging location and limited staff capacity. This comes after the agency lost a third of its staff in Alaska last year. 

“The proposed cabin site’s elevation, distance from the trail, design requirements and the need to move materials through difficult terrain all add to the complexity of that cabin project,” Robbins said.

He said the agency’s landscape architects and engineers could be overwhelmed with work if they moved forward with building the cabin.  

But some residents in Juneau submitted public comments saying they don’t believe those reasons are genuine. 

“Cancelling the project seems to be influenced by mining interest across the river which would inherently be hard to make compatible,” wrote Riley Moser, a Juneau resident. “It appears that the Forest Service is bending to corporate interests instead of listening to the needs and concerns of the public.”

Staff from the Alaska Miners Association and Grande Portage submitted comments to the agency before the draft decision, saying that building a cabin near the proposed mine could lead to disputes over how the land is used.

“Selection of a site to be used for recreational lodging, which can be easily placed anywhere, within an area of active mineral exploration could unnecessarily invite land use conflicts that do not and should not exist, and could incite litigation and appeals for years,” wrote Deantha Skibinksi, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.

Kyle Mehalek, a technical specialist at Grande Portage, wrote that “it would be incredibly challenging, likely impossible, to protect the proposed cabin from potential visual and noise impacts with the same effectiveness as the existing trail.”

The cabin would have been part of the Alaska Cabins Project, the Forest Service’s biggest public-use cabin expansion plan in 50 years, which plans to bring around 25 new cabins to the Chugach and Tongass National Forests, including four in Juneau at Mendenhall Campground, Montana Meadows, Treadwell Ditch Trail and Dupont Beach.

Robbins said cancelling this cabin won’t affect the other proposed cabins. He said the Forest Service plans to reroute part of Herbert Glacier Trail and build a scenic overlook there instead. 

Although there is a lot of public support for building a cabin near Herbert Glacier, Robbins said the agency is unlikely to change course.

“Only because our decision was based on the complexity and capacity, not on whether or not the site was popular,” he said. “We know the site is popular, that’s why we wanted to initially build a cabin there.”

A public comment period to object to the cancellation closes March 9.

Nineteen people have applied to be Juneau School District’s next superintendent, according to search firm McPherson & Jacobson.

The job posting to replace outgoing Superintendent Frank Hauser was open for more than three weeks before closing Thursday. The search firm will use data from surveys and stakeholder meetings to narrow down the candidates.

Meanwhile, the Juneau School Board is continuing to collect public feedback.

Consultants met with various groups inside and outside of the district. Board President Britteny Cioni-Haywood said the board is heavily relying on a community survey to understand what people want to see in a superintendent.

“We’re not going to catch everyone in one-on-one meetings, and so that default is back to that survey, that then anyone in the community can have their voice heard in the process by utilizing that tool,” she said.

As of Thursday afternoon, there had been more than 300 responses to the survey, said board member David Noon, who acts as a liaison between the consultants and the board.

Within the district, search firm consultants met with several stakeholder groups, including teachers, district staff, administrators, student governments, and site council parents. They also met with the University of Alaska Southeast, U.S. Coast Guard and Juneau’s delegation of state lawmakers.

The search firm plans to hold another meeting with the district’s site councils on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. Only a handful of parents attended the first one on Tuesday.

Noon said the board will conduct multiple interviews with finalists before selecting a new superintendent. He said there will be some type of public forum with finalists for the position, but the board hasn’t decided on a date or specific format yet.

“As a board, we haven’t talked about what that was going to look like,” he said. “It can take any shape that we want it to.”According to the timeline for the superintendent search on the district’s website, the board plans to select a new superintendent in the second week of March. The new superintendent is expected to begin on July 1.

A Sitka-based cruise line is closing its doors. Alaskan Dream Cruises announced Wednesday that it has ceased operations and cancelled all future sailings.

In a post on its website, the cruise company said since 2011, it’s had the “privilege of sharing the wonders of Alaska and the richness of our Alaska Native heritage with incredible guests from across the globe.”

The company is owned by Allen Marine, a local maritime business that’s been offering wildlife and sightseeing tours in Southeast Alaska for about five decades.

“We’re really proud that we were a homegrown and Indigenous-owned line right here in Sitka,” said Allen Marine spokesperson Zak Kirkpatrick. “And that grew into world class cruises and winning national awards and appearing in worldwide publications, which was really something we’re proud about.”

Alaskan Dream Cruises operated four overnight cruise vessels that each held between 40 and 80 passengers, according to Kirkpatrick. Cruises lasted between five and eight nights, and offered a comprehensive look at the Inside Passage, with activities like hiking, kayaking and paddle boarding.

Kirkpatrick said the decision to get out of the overnight cruise business was “intentional and necessary” for the sustainability of the company.

“When you just kind of boil it down, the company is just planning to refocus 100% of our resources on what we consider our founding strengths and roots, which are the day tour excursions and the shipyard operations and marine services,” he said.

In 2025, Alaskan Dream Cruises employed 95 seasonal workers and about 10 year-round workers, and Allen Marine employed 305 seasonal workers and about 100 year-round workers for its other services, according to Kirkpatrick. With the closure, he said Allen Marine won’t be hiring for the overnight boats this cruise season.

The company said it’s directly communicating with all guests about reservations and processing refunds.