LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which  distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming.  (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

State's Transportation Plan Gets Federal OK
28 Mar 2024 15:06

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    Federal officials on Wednesday approved most of Alaska’s four-y [ ... ]

New Funding Plan Ahead for Visit Sitka?
28 Mar 2024 15:02

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    At an hour-long work session with the Assembly Tuesda [ ... ]

Sitka 'Frankenstein' Puts Classic Tale in New Ligh...
28 Mar 2024 15:01

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    The story behind a classic, though often misunderstoo [ ... ]

State May Los Millions Over Ed Dept. Missteps
28 Mar 2024 14:59

By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
    The state government risks losing millions of dollars in feder [ ... ]

Gov Signs Bill On Internet In State Schools
28 Mar 2024 14:57

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday signed a bill that promise [ ... ]

Capitol Christmas Tree to Come from Tongass
28 Mar 2024 14:56

By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
    Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, known for its steep mountains [ ... ]

City League Games Thursday
28 Mar 2024 14:52

By Sentinel Staff
    Playing Wednesday in competitive division City League volleyball matches, Ca [ ... ]

March 28, 2024, Police Blotter
28 Mar 2024 14:50

Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 27
At 2:36 p.m. a dead  [ ... ]

March 28, 2024, Community Happenings
28 Mar 2024 14:48

This Week in Girls on the Run By Sitkans Against Family Violence
and The Pathways Coalition
During th [ ... ]

New RFP Sought For Managing PAC
27 Mar 2024 14:48

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The future of management and operations at the Perform [ ... ]

Seiners Get Second Day with 2 Areas to Fish
27 Mar 2024 14:46

By Sentinel Staff
    The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]

Braves Take Second in Last Minute Upset
27 Mar 2024 12:41

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    After storming into the state 3A boys basketball brac [ ... ]

Tuesday City League Volleyball
27 Mar 2024 12:39

By Sentinel Staff
    The Queen Bees’ spotless season record ended Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss [ ... ]

Kodiak Alutiiq Museum Getting New Attention
27 Mar 2024 12:37

By SHIRLEY SNEVE
Indian Country Today
    A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourist [ ... ]

House Hearing on Inmate Deaths Halted
27 Mar 2024 12:35

By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
    A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in  [ ... ]

Nominee to Bering Sea Council: Not a Trawler
27 Mar 2024 12:34

By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
    Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown o [ ... ]

March 27, 2024, Police Blotter
27 Mar 2024 12:26

Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 26
At 2:10 p.m. a man e [ ... ]

March 27, 2024, Community Happenings
27 Mar 2024 12:25

Big Rigs Sought
For April 13
The 3 to 5 Preschool’s spring fundraiser and Big Rig event is happening [ ... ]

Reassessments Raise Tax Bills for Sitkans
26 Mar 2024 15:22

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The city’s reassessment of taxable real estate, alo [ ... ]

Two Areas Opened in Herring Fishery Today
26 Mar 2024 15:21

By Sentinel Staff
The third opening in this year’s Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery was held Mon [ ... ]

Lady Wolves Rally to Take Fourth at State
26 Mar 2024 15:16

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    Sitka High’s Lady Wolves bounced back from an openi [ ... ]

Edgecumbe Girls Close Out Season Up North
26 Mar 2024 14:58

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel ports Editor
    Competing in the state 3A basketball tournament in Anc [ ... ]

City League Monday
26 Mar 2024 14:55

By Sentinel Staff
    Playing in a competitive division City League volleyball game Monday evening [ ... ]

House Votes to Broaden Rules For Review Panel Memb...
26 Mar 2024 14:52

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    A bill that passed the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday  [ ... ]

Other Articles

Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka’s 2 Legislators OK With More Work

By TOM HESSE and 

SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

Gridlock in the Alaska Legislature has now cost Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins a spot in one of the big commercial troll events of the year,.

“I had to, incredibly, regretfully withdraw from my commitment to crew for the king salmon opener,” said Kreiss-Tomkins. “That’s a huge bummer –  just in Jonathan World,” the Sitka Democrat quipped.

He was talking about the interruption in his summer plans by Gov. Walker’s call for 2016’s second special session of the Legislature, which starts July 11.

Kreiss-Tomkins and Sen. Bert Stedman will be headed back to Juneau – or possibly Anchorage – with a charge from the governor to find a long-term solution to Alaska’s fiscal woes.  

Stedman isn’t particularly pleased to be going back into session, either, but says the Legislature still has work to do to close the state’s fiscal gap.

    “It doesn’t excite me much in that regard, but it has to be done because of the financial position of the state,” he said. “We need to deal with the deficit issue.”

The Legislature finished its work on the FY 2017 budget earlier this month by once again tapping into the state’s rapidly dwindling savings accounts. 

    On Sunday the governor called the special session, the fifth for this Legislature, charging lawmakers to come up with a plan for sustainable funding for state government.

   Stedman said the governor is “on the right track” by recalling legislators.

    The House and Senate passed an oil tax reform bill during the special session that just ended, but Stedman and Kreiss-Tomkins voted against it because it was still too generous to the oil industry.

The bill recouped far less than Gov. Walker wanted to recover from the oil subsidies, but it is now on his desk to be signed or vetoed.

    “He might sign it but there’s more work to be done,” Stedman said. “We’ve got no severance tax on our oil fields and we’re a resource state.”

The governor’s decision on whether or not to sign, Kreiss-Tomkins said, could determine the success of the special session. 

“If the governor uses his veto pen on the oil tax subsidy bill I think that would kick-start some of the activity because there would be pressure to start a new bill, a more substantive bill,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. He and other House members dug in their heels against taking up proposals to use Permanent Fund earnings for the state budget, contending that it was unfair to ask Alaskans to give up some of their dividends while the oil industry was not paying its fair share.

Sitka’s delegation is on the same page when it comes to hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to oil producers on the North Slope and in Cook Inlet. Neither legislator thought House Bill 247 went far enough in cutbacks. As passed, the bill could save the state an estimated $140 million by 2020, but Kreiss-Tomkins said that’s not nearly enough considering that the state is already on the hook for $700 million worth of tax credits this year alone. 

The Permanent Fund solution proposed by the Senate didn’t advance in the House in the last special session and Kreiss-Tomkins said “something major is going to need to change if there’s going to be a different outcome in this special session.”

He added that House members are not opposed to restructuring the Permanent Fund, but feel they need to cut more from oil subsidies before they cut from Alaskans. 

“I still have a lot of difficulty even considering Permanent Fund restructure and reducing Alaska’s dividends by some $700 million when we’re allowing the same in tax subsidies and deductions to the oil industry. Those are two numbers that are difficult to swallow in the same sentence,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. 

    In the last session, Stedman voted in favor of Senate legislation to adopt a “percent of market value approach,” and cutting the Permanent Fund Dividend distributed to residents by half. The Senate passed it, but the House failed to bring it to a vote.

    Stedman said just taking the POMV approach – without using the dividend account to help fund government – would not make enough of a difference in closing the $3.5 billion-$4 billion deficit.

    “That’s the challenge, the magnitude of what we’re dealing with,” he said. “We need to switch to the percent of market value approach and have a discussion on how we’re going to fill the budget deficit. There’s no way the state can sustain this. It’s not a fun decision we have to make but that’s the way it goes.”

    As the budget crisis has drawn out, Alaska received yet another downgrade in its credit rating. Stedman said that problem is small in comparison with the overall challenges in the state budget.

    “I took notice of it but it doesn’t concern me,” he said. “It was inevitable with the price structure on oil, all energy producing states were going to be in a tight spot. That doesn’t concern me as much. We still have over $50 billion in the bank, and an oil basin still intact. It wasn’t very many years ago we were trying to get our rating increased.”

    Stedman said the state is burning through savings, and will be down to zero by the end of fiscal 2018 if the Legislature doesn’t act. 

Kreiss-Tomkins said “meaningful action” to him would be in the form of “a complete fiscal turn.” 

“It’s Permanent Fund restructure. It’s meaningful reform or cuts of tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and some mix of revenue raising options proposed by the governor,” he said.

As to where the Legislature will convene, there’s ongoing discussion over whether it will be Juneau or Anchorage.

“Given what I know, it’s looking more likely than not that the special session will convene in Anchorage and not Juneau, which is a shame,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. 

  “I hate to miss the good point of the summer but that’s the way it goes,” Stedman said. “We have too many issues on the table.”

He estimated it will take three to four weeks to finish. It will be the second special session of this year, and the fifth for this Legislature, counting the three held last year.

 

 “We may need a sixth – who knows?” Stedman joked.

You have no rights to post comments

Login Form

 

20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.

50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.

Calendar

Local Events

Instagram

Daily Sitka Sentinel on Instagram!

Facebook

Daily Sitka Sentinel on Facebook!