Government

With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature under way, it’s a good time to check in with members of Juneau’s delegation.

Morning Host Mike Lane recently sat down with Representative Andi Story to learn what’s on her agenda for this session.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Mike Lane: The second regular session of the 34th Alaska legislature has just begun. What are your top priorities for this session?

Rep. Story: My top priorities for this session have to do with keeping our young people here, cost of living, housing is really important. And of course, education and ferries, ferries, ferries.

Mike Lane: Speaking of education, you pre-filed a bill on education funding, House Bill 261. Can you give us a brief explanation of what the bill would do if passed?

Rep. Story: Well, if you’ve been living in Juneau for a long time, you know that our education funding is backwards, that we do not get our numbers to our school districts till, like, June after the session is over. And so they are not being able to give contracts to their teaching staff, to staff at all. And so they’re living in limbo, and they leave us or we can’t maintain them. And so this bill has us do our funding a year early, where they get the number. It takes the average of the last three years student count or your last prior year student count, so whichever is greater, so we will give more stability to school districts. So that’s just critically important. And this came about because I’m on the task force for education funding. We’ve been reviewing. If you are an independent school district, you have your own taxing authority. They usually take the current year and the prior two years. But we cannot raise our own revenue. We are dependent upon what the state does and our municipalities. It allows us to focus on student achievement and not redoing budgets, and not put our community in chaos because we have to predict all this out. We don’t know our number, so I want to give confidence to our school funding budget process. 

Mike Lane: So what is your plan for getting this bill passed?

Rep. Story: I co-chair education. I’m starting to talk to people about it. I have an advantage that I’m on the task force, and so people have read that report, they’re, they’re aware of that, but just have a lot of talking to do. But people have been living this roller coaster of instability for funding for school districts, so it’s not going to be a surprise for them that we’re trying to stabilize this.

Mike Lane: What other bills have you sponsored or co-sponsored that you think could get traction or succeed this session?

Rep. Story: Well, I’m really hoping my bill, which is in house rules, on housing investments, where [Alaska Industrial Development Economic Association]will be allowed to do workforce housing, give developers loans for workforce housing of five dwelling units or more. This has been critical. We have to move on housing. There are a few things that [Alaska Housing Finance Corporation] does, but this is something AIDEA  could do that would really help developers. 

Mike Lane: How can Alaskans inside and outside of Juneau get a hold of you?

Rep. Story: 907-465-3744, of course. I’m on the website, but calling is really good. And I very frequently do Zoom meetings, you know, phone calls. And I do that with Alaska residents too. Juneau residents who do not want to drive and try and find parking downtown, they just call and we set up a meeting. So please call, please email. That is probably the number one thing we have to do is bring the community, the state in on our policies, and get their voices heard. And so I like to hear what people really want me to be working on

Mike Lane: To wrap up: As one of Juneau’s representatives, what do you see as your ultimate duties and responsibilities to the people of Juneau and all of Alaska?

Rep. Story: Really, to meet our constitutional obligations because it is so important — the people of the state. We have a lot of resources in the state. The biggest resource we have is each of us, is the people. So we want to try and bring that voice up to the the capitol that it’s important our human resources and how are we making sure we have quality of life here.

Eaglecrest Ski Area’s board of directors is pushing back against the mayor’s proposal to remove most of the board’s decision-making authority. This comes after recent leadership turnover at the mountain and ongoing financial challenges.

Last week, Mayor Beth Weldon told the Juneau Assembly she asked the city’s attorney to draft an ordinance to reduce the status of the board from an empowered board to an advisory board. The Juneau Assembly will discuss the draft ordinance at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday evening. 

As an empowered board, Eaglecrest has its own set of laws, rules and responsibilities and makes decisions without direct Assembly oversight. If it became an advisory board, members could only give advice or make recommendations to the Assembly. It would lose the authority to establish policies or make decisions without Assembly approval. 

“As we know, they’re having major financial issues, and I just think the city needs to have more oversight over what’s happening to Eaglecrest,” she said. “I think the government is standing in its way right now, and it needs to be changed.”

But, at a special meeting on Thursday evening, Eaglecrest’s board moved to draft a letter to the mayor and Assembly asking to remain an empowered board. The board intends to finish the letter this weekend, in time for the Assembly discussion during its committee of the whole meeting on Monday. 

Board member Jim Calvin said remaining an empowered board is in the community’s best interest. 

“The board is deeply engaged in gondola planning work, and we’re deeply engaged in recruiting a new GM (general manager),” he said. “We’re initiating some business planning work, and all of that is at risk of completely derailing if we’re not an empowered board.”

The tension between the Eaglecrest board and the mayor comes after the ski area’s general manager resigned and the board chair stepped down earlier this month. Eaglecrest has also had several issues with its facilities that sullied the beginning of its season, including a broken water line and issues keeping Ptarmigan lift open. 

Eaglecrest is expected to run into a multimillion-dollar deficit in the coming years to repair some broken and aging infrastructure, while boosting pay to employees and preparing to operate year-round. Its plan toward financial stability relies heavily on revenue from the gondola, which the ski area hopes to get up and running by the summer of 2028.

According to the board, the city plans to post the general manager position online next week, which will remain open until it’s filled. 

Gov. Mike Dunleavy reviewed his seven years in office and outlined his agenda for his final year during his annual State of the State address on Thursday.

“I believe the people in this room can accomplish big things, whether it’s in public education, public safety or stabilizing our fiscal situation,” Dunleavy said. “We’ve got the time to do it. We’ve got the smarts to do it. We just have to have the desire to do it.”

Dunleavy spent much of his 79-minute speech presenting a long list of accomplishments from his first seven years in office.

He highlighted the state’s recovery from an economic downturn after emerging from a recession in early 2018. Dunleavy said his administration had enabled six consecutive years of job growth.

“I know there’s a feeling that things can be better, and of course, they can,” he said. “But our economy has been getting stronger and stronger every year under my administration, and diversifying as well.”

Dunleavy also called out a significant drop in crime across Alaska. The number of crimes reported to police dropped by more than 40% between 2018 and 2024, according to the state Department of Public Safety, and violent crime fell nearly 20% over that period.

He also previewed a new “quality of life” initiative that would seek to reduce crime in Anchorage. He said he was working with Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance on the effort.

Dunleavy said the first phase is already underway, focused on retail theft, illegal camping, disorderly behavior and drug use. He says later phases will focus on drug smuggling and violent crime.

The governor also used the speech to highlight progress on the Alaska LNG project, which would bring natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska. He applauded an announcement from project developer Glenfarne saying it had secured nonbinding commitments from ExxonMobil and Hilcorp to provide gas for the pipeline, a nonbinding commitment to purchase gas by Southcentral utility Enstar and the planned Donlin Gold mine, and a variety of other deals with other companies to provide materials and support for the project.

Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval said the series of announcements indicated the project was “progressing from planning to building,” though the company stopped short of saying it had made a final investment decision.

Dunleavy said the progress on the gas line was only one piece of good news from his tenure.

“Today, we are on the cusp of realizing a decades-old dream of delivering abundant, affordable energy that will benefit all Alaskans,” he said. “Today, unlike seven years ago, oil production is increasing, reading scores are improving, and the Permanent Fund has reached record highs thanks to steady and strong leadership.”

Dunleavy also said he would work to expand the supply of housing across the state in his final year in office.

Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican leading a bipartisan caucus that has often found itself at odds with Dunleavy, said many of the accomplishments the governor touted were in fact items lawmakers had worked on, too.

“I noted down a whole lot of them, all things that we were involved in, and we appreciate the governor’s leadership on those things, but (those are) things that we have worked hard on,” he said.

Dunleavy also pitched a forthcoming fiscal plan that he said would stabilize the state’s turbulent budget, though he stopped short of outlining what the plan would include. He outlined the goal of his plan — to reduce volatility in the state budget in order to make the state a more attractive place for investment — but stopped short of providing specifics.

On Friday, he introduced two measures in that vein: a cap on government spending and a constitutional amendment that would combine the Permanent Fund into a single account and set up a new formula for dividends. On Wednesday, he said his plan would also include a “temporary, seasonal sales tax concept.”

But lawmakers in the bipartisan, Democrat-heavy House and Senate majorities said they were not optimistic the governor’s plans would pass this year. Even if they did, Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman said he did not expect them to provide immediate relief.

“Even if we move forward with a fiscal plan, it’s going to take a couple years to engage it and get the revenue collected,” he said. “So this year, I would tell the people around the state to expect something very similar to last year.”

Alaska U.S. House Rep. Nick Begich III has a new challenger.

Bill Hill, a Bristol Bay fisherman and retired teacher and school administrator, filed to run for the congressional seat as an independent candidate.

He cites the late Alaska Congressman Don Young as an inspiration.

“That’s kind of who I hope to, in some respect, mold myself after,” he said. “What’s good for Alaskans first and, you know, we need to start putting distance between politicians that are just cozying up to billionaires and special interests. And we need people that are going to work for Alaskans.”

A day after launching, Hill’s campaign announced he’d raised $200,000.

Hill has retained the campaign consulting firm Ship Creek Group, the same agency that brought early success for Mary Peltola when she launched her bid for U.S. House in the 2022 special primary election.

If elected, Hill isn’t committing to joining either the Republican or the Democratic House caucuses.

“I think that decision needs to be done thoughtfully, and that needs to be done at the appropriate time with whatever the structure of Congress looks like at that time,” he said.

Public records show he made small donations last year, through the ActBlue platform, to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and larger ones to Democrat Les Gara for his campaign in 2022 for Alaska governor.

Hill is Athabaskan, raised on Lake Iliamna and now lives in Naknek. He worked as a teacher in Naknek and Juneau, an administrator in the Lake and Peninsula School District and as superintendent of the Bristol Bay district. He’s also lived in Fairbanks and worked in construction jobs and ran a small business.

Begich, a freshman Republican, has raised more than $2 million for his re-election campaign. Democrat Matt Schultz, a Presbyterian minister from Anchorage, is also campaigning for the seat. He hasn’t had to file a fundraising report yet.

Former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola will be in Juneau Friday evening at the Crystal Saloon bar downtown to celebrate her campaign launch for U.S. Senate. 

Last week, she announced she’s running for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan. 

Peltola, a Democrat, served both a partial and full term in the U.S. House until the 2024 election, when she narrowly lost her seat to Republican Nick Begich. She became the first Alaska Native person elected to Congress when she won the 2022 special election.

Peltola has historically seen strong support from Juneau. During the 2024 election, Peltola outpaced Begich in every Juneau precinct – even in the precincts from the Juneau International Airport to Mendenhall Valley that went for Trump, according to the Alaska Division of Elections.

Her bid for the congressional seat, if successful, would give Democrats a shot at winning a majority in the Senate.

Her meet and greet will be at the Crystal Saloon on Front Street, Friday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Alaska’s state education funding formula is really complicated. It’s based on data, collected during the school year, that takes months to process. That can leave districts building budgets based on projections that might be inaccurate. Juneau Democratic Rep. Andi Story wants to address that through a bill that would change what data is used for funding calculations. 

Story, who served for years on Juneau’s school board, said there’s a level of uncertainty built into the way students are counted.

“When I was a school board member, when we were asking community members, parents to come and work on our budgets, we were always projecting cuts and not knowing what we were going to do,” she said.

Part of that uncertainty comes from not knowing exactly how many students are enrolled until later in the budgeting process. Right now, school districts count the number of students enrolled in October of their current school year. That count needs to be approved by the Department of Education and Early Development, and it determines how much state funding a school district will get for the following school year. 

Districts typically don’t receive the approved numbers until months later – in January. That lag means districts begin planning their budgets based on projections instead of actual data.

Story’s bill – House Bill 261 – would make several different changes to which student counts would be used when determining state funding for education.

Story said one of the main things her bill would do is to base student counts either on the previous school year or an average of the previous three years – numbers that would have already been processed by DEED and wouldn’t change throughout the budgeting process.

“I’ve been living in this roller coaster, and seeing how it does not build confidence in our public schools,” Story said. “And so we need to get on a more stable plan, a smart plan.”

This isn’t a new idea. Story is on the Legislature’s Task Force on Education Funding. She said this part of the bill came from a recommendation made by an education consulting agency more than 10 years ago. The idea came up again last November, during a task force meeting.

The bill also seeks to address budgeting for students with disabilities, keeping schools open

There are a couple of other pieces in this bill as well. One addresses how the state counts students that qualify for intensive services. Students with disabilities that require those services receive 13 times the amount of funding that’s typically allocated for a student. If the state determines there are fewer of those students than what the district counted, that can create serious shortfalls in its budget.

The new bill would offer four different options for how to count students who qualify for intensive services, to ensure districts receive the funding needed to support them.

Districts could count students in October or February of the current school year, in October of the previous school year, or take an average of the last three years. They could then use the number that would provide the largest amount of funding.

Story said this method would account for students who might move to other districts.

“Sometimes students move after the count date, they might move to another community, and all of a sudden that community is going to have to hire another staff person, but they’ve already budgeted,” she said. “So where do they pull that money? Because by law, we need to meet that student’s needs.”

Story’s bill also addresses how enrollment counts determine how many schools a district can have. She said small districts can sometimes fall below the threshold that allows for opening another school or keeping an existing school open if enrollment drops by just a couple students in a given year. She said taking an average would help stabilize numbers in situations where the difference of one student could have big financial consequences.

“Those big funding cliffs that really make— that really have communities on edge of, ‘Am I going to get a couple more or a couple less?’” she said.

Lon Garrison is the executive director of the Alaska Association of School Boards, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Alaska students. He said the bill would provide far more stability as school districts build out their budgets. But he said the issue of adequate education funding remains.

“That’s the piece that we have to be focused on,” Garrison said. “What are we going to do to ensure that we’re getting the student outcomes, and what resources do we need?”

It’s unclear if this bill will make its way through the Legislature. Story expects the House Education Committee, which she co-chairs, to take it up in a couple of weeks.