State Government

The public comment period for phase 1 of the controversial Cascade Point Ferry Terminal in Juneau closes tomorrow, Jan. 9. 

The state’s proposed ferry terminal would be located about 30 miles north of the Auke Bay ferry terminal, on land owned by Goldbelt Incorporated, an Alaska Native Corporation. The project is slated to cost tens of millions of dollars.

Phase 1 of the project involves site preparation. The Alaska Department of Transportation already approved a $28.5 million contract for phase 1 construction to begin this summer. In December, the state signed a $1.3 million contract with Juneau Hydropower for equipment to electrify the proposed dock. 

The state has been pushing for the new terminal for several years, saying it would benefit travelers by reducing operating costs and travel time between Juneau, Haines and Skagway. 

The project stands to benefit the proposed New Amalga gold mine in Juneau, which would be established near the face of Herbert Glacier. In a press release last month, the Canadian company that proposed the mine, Grande Portage Resources, announced that it is working with Goldbelt to design an ore barge dock alongside Cascade Point.

Leaders in Skagway and Haines oppose the project. Members of the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board have questioned the motives behind it. Some organizations, like the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, have called it a bad idea when the money could be spent on improving the ferry system for riders. The Juneau Assembly hasn’t taken a stance on it.

The state’s comment period was initially set to end on Nov. 28 but was extended through Jan. 9. Comments can be submitted via email to gjc@mlfaalaska.com or through DOT’s Cascade Point webpage form.   

The state plans to open another comment period for phase 2 of the project, which will involve construction of the ferry terminal itself. 

The City of Hoonah declared a local emergency this week following heavy snowstorms in the region. 

On Tuesday night, the Hoonah City Council unanimously approved a disaster declaration, which opens the door for the Southeast community to request aid from the state. Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the declaration Thursday morning. 

Hoonah’s City Administrator, Dennis Gray Jr., says the small community on Chichagof Island has been overwhelmed with the snow and needs assistance. As of yesterday morning, the National Weather Service in Juneau recorded that Hoonah had received at least three feet of snow since late December. 

“We’re facing the same issues that Juneau is,” he said. “We had three boats sink in our harbor. We have two that are still sunk and causing damage to the floats.”

Hoonah’s declaration comes around the same time that city and tribal leaders in Juneau announced a joint disaster declaration after back-to-back snowstorms dumped more than four feet of snow on Juneau.

Gray said Hoonah city staff and residents are struggling to keep up with snow removal on buildings, boats and roads. He said multiple porches and trailers have collapsed or been damaged due to the increasingly heavy snowpack. 

“We had eight men on top of our wastewater plant shoveling off snow to make sure it didn’t collapse,” he said. “It’s just a big mess.”

Gray said the city is requesting assistance from the state primarily to help recover the two large sunken vessels that local equipment is unable to remove from the harbor. 

Both Hoonah and the capital city are bracing for an atmospheric river expected to hit Southeast on Thursday evening that will bring heavy rain and potential flooding. 

The commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Family and Community Services has departed that position to take a job with the Trump administration.

Kim Kovol has accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced last week. Her last day working for the state was on Friday, and Tracy Dompeling, the department’s deputy commissioner, assumed the role of acting commissioner, the statement said.

The department’s primary divisions are the Division of Juvenile Justice, the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, the Alaska Pioneer Homes and the Office of Children’s Services.

Kovol was the first commissioner of the Department of Family and Community Services, which was created in 2022. Up to then, its functions were part of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Through an executive order, Dunleavy split that department into two: the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Community Services.

In his statement, Dunleavy said Kovol was a “strong and dedicated leader” for the redesigned department. “As the first Commissioner of DFCS, she built a foundation focused on service, accountability, and support for Alaska’s most vulnerable populations. I thank her for her service and wish her every success in this next role,” he said.

Kovol said she was honored to have served in that role. “I am incredibly grateful to the staff, partners, and communities who have supported our work. Together, we have made meaningful progress for Alaska families, youth, and elders, and I will always be proud of what we have accomplished,” she said in the statement.

Kovol is the second Alaska department head to leave state service to join the Trump administration. Almost a year ago, Emma Pokon left her position as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation to become the Pacific Northwest regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Dunleavy in May chose Randy Bates to be the department’s new commissioner. Bates was formerly director of DEC’s Division of Water.

With Kovol’s departure, there are now five state departments with leaders who currently lack legislative approval.

In addition to Bates, Dunleavy has named commissioner-designees for the Department of Law and the Department of Natural Resources. Dunleavy in August named Stephen Cox, a former U.S. attorney in Texas, as Alaska’s attorney general, replacing Treg Taylor, a Republican who is running for governor.

Dunleavy also named John Crowther, a DNR veteran, as his choice to be permanent commissioner. Crowther became acting commissioner after John Boyle resigned from the position in October.

Bates, Cox and Crowther are subject to legislative confirmation after lawmakers convene later this month for their 2026 session.

The state Department of Revenue is currently being led by an acting commissioner, Janelle Earls, who assumed the job in August after Adam Crum left the commissioner post. Crum is another Republican candidate for governor.

Dunleavy has not yet named his choices for the commissioner posts at the Department of Revenue or the Department of Family and Community Services, said Jeff Turner, the governor’s spokesperson. Earls and Dompeling are currently acting commissioners and it is not clear whether the governor will name commissioner-designees for those positions, he said.

Dunleavy is in the last year of his second term. He is term limited and may not run for reelection.

For many, the New Year signals a fresh start. But for Alaskans, it also means it’s time to apply for the Permanent Fund dividend.

Applications for the 2026 PFD opened Thursday, with online filing starting at 9 a.m. Over 600,000 Alaskans receive the PFD each year, which is usually paid out in October.

It’s not yet clear how much the 2026 dividend will be.

In 2025, Alaskans received $1,000 — the smallest PFD in state history when adjusted for inflation.

The Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy will determine the 2026 PFD amount during the upcoming legislative session, which starts Jan. 20.

Dunleavy’s budget proposal would pay roughly $3,600 per eligible resident, but passing it through the Legislature is a long shot. It would require using about half of the state’s savings — more than $1.5 billion from the Constitutional Budget Reserve, which is the state’s main rainy-day fund.

Already, some lawmakers have raised concern about withdrawing that much from savings, arguing that a large PFD is unwise given low oil prices. Others say the money would be better spent on priorities such as public school funding.

To be eligible for a PFD, you must be an Alaska resident for the entire calendar year, and intend to stay in the state.

Alaskans have until March 31 to apply. You can file online at mypfd.alaska.gov or pick up an application at any Permanent Fund Division office.

Individuals who have been impacted by Typhoon Halong may be eligible for unemployment benefits.

On Dec. 26, the Alaska Department of Labor announced that anyone who lived or was employed at the time of the disaster in the Lower Kuskokwim Regional Education Attendance Area (REAA), the Lower Yukon REAA, or the Northwest Arctic Borough areas may be eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance.

That’s a special kind of unemployment benefit that supports people whose ability to work was impacted by a disaster.

To qualify, the typhoon must have impacted your ability to return to the place where you worked, or you must have sustained an typhoon-related injury that impacted your ability to work. People who suddenly became a major support to their household following a death related to the typhoon may also be eligible. If you were scheduled to begin work in an area impacted by the typhoon, you may also qualify.

The assistance payments would be between $153 and $370 per week for up to 27 weeks. The deadline to apply is Feb. 20, 2026.

People who want to apply will be asked for their social security numbers, as well as dates they worked and contact information for employers. Self-employed people or those who were previously unemployed may also be eligible, and they will be asked to provide a record of their wages.

For more information and to see if you might qualify, call 907-465-4691. Free interpreter services are available.

Framed by the fireplace in Alaska’s governor’s mansion earlier this month, Gov. Mike Dunleavy shook hands and posed for pictures in the final holiday open house of his two terms as Alaska’s top elected official.

Dunleavy is prohibited from running for another term, and 14 candidates have already signed up to run for his office in the 2026 elections. One of those candidates, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom stood next to Dunleavy at the open house, smiling alongside her husband.

Speaking to reporters before the open house, Dunleavy said the highlight of the year at a statewide level was the signing of a gas pipeline contract with developer Glenfarne.

“It started what I think is going to be a real pipeline,” Dunleavy said. “It’s something that the state has dreamed about for decades, ever since the trans-Alaska oil pipeline came into being.”

Since January, when Glenfarne announced it was buying into the long-pursued Alaska LNG pipeline project, it’s announced a series of preliminary agreements from international companies interested in buying gas.

To date, it doesn’t have firm deals for either buying or selling, and it is expected to make a go/no-go decision on the first phase of the project — a pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska for in-state use — within the next month.

“I think in January there’s going to be some major announcements that will solidify that this pipeline as a go,” Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy said he’s also been pleased with rising forecasts for Alaska North Slope oil. In November, the federal Energy Information Administration predicted that North Slope production would grow 13% in 2026, reaching levels that haven’t been seen since 2018.

“That’s good for Alaska as well,” Dunleavy said, “because of the renaissance on the Slope.”

The state’s unemployment rate is holding below 5%, he noted.

“When you look at the turmoil across the country and you look at the turmoil across the world, I think Alaska is in pretty good shape. … We have a lot of resources here, and I think we have a lot of great people,” he said.

Asked for the lowest point of the year on a statewide basis, Dunleavy said: “You’re always dealing with disasters. Under my tenure, there’s been 73 declared disasters … we had the issue out in Western Alaska, and so we have to add now a typhoon to our mix of volcanoes, earthquakes and so forth.”

Dunleavy himself was affected by the recent Matanuska-Susitna Borough windstorm disaster, and his wife couldn’t attend the holiday open house as a result.

“We lost some of our roofing on a building or two out there, and the heat went out,” he said.

While disasters are part of living in Alaska, he said Typhoon Halong was something extra.

“I would say that whenever a disaster impacts people at the visceral level, at the local level, at their household level — we got hit hard with that typhoon,” he said.

For much of the year, as in his conversation with reporters, the governor preferred to focus on the positives.

Earlier this year, Dunleavy said the arrival of the Trump administration was “like Christmas every morning” for Alaska.

Since Trump was sworn into office, his administration has relaxed restrictions on oil and gas drilling on the North Slope. It has advanced the Ambler Access Project, which promises to open a large mining area in Northwest Alaska.

The Interior Department has also pushed forward the road between Cold Bay and King Cove and proposals to explore for oil in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Dunleavy administration has been enthusiastic in its support of those actions, but most have been tied up in federal court and will be for months or years.

The ANWR drilling issue, for example, won’t even come before a federal judge until late 2026, according to a status update published this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

The Trump-backed Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress this year will deliver millions of dollars in construction projects to the state, and other legislation will provide millions more, but other projects — particularly those involving renewable energy and projects intended to deal with climate change — were eliminated.

“Christmas every morning” entailed other metaphorical bits of coal for Alaska this year: The extended government shutdown left thousands of Alaskans unpaid for over a month, and the cuts instituted by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency caused significant amounts of uncertainty.

In the long run, DOGE doesn’t appear to have significantly affected the number of federal jobs here: The latest available figures show more federal employees in the state than there were at the start of the year.

While some federal grants targeted by DOGE have since been restored, many were not. Public radio stations and arts organizations laid off staff and curtailed their work.

Tariffs, visa issues and a prolonged dispute with Canada threatened the summer tourist season, but a feared Yukon boycott never appeared, and the number of cruise ship passengers traveling to Alaska increased slightly, to a new record high of more than 1.7 million.

At the holiday open house, Dunleavy said there’s plenty to look forward to in the coming year and in the years once he leaves office.

“There’s just a whole host of things — the possibility of data farms, artificial intelligence, and how that’s gonna revolutionize not just the world, but here in Alaska, I think we could become a data transportation center because of our proximity on the globe. So I think you’re going to see a number of announcements throughout the year that I think will set the stage for a great several decades going forward,” he said.