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The Final Weekend:

The legislature continues at a whirlwind pace to meet its adjournment by midnight Sunday.  Most committees have shut down for the year, leaving the powerful finance committees, the conference committees and the floor of the House and Senate as the places where all the action takes place.  Today in the House there are 15 pieces of legislation on the calendar, with another seven actions pending.  The Senate has 10 pieces of legislation on their calendar with another four action items pending.  The House adjourned at 10:30 last night and could go later this evening.  The big items are the operating and capital budgets, but many other pieces of legislation are being heard in the finance committees and on the floor.  NEA-Alaska remains in Juneau to monitor activities over the busy weekend. We will publish another Legislative Update on Monday.

Higher Education Scholarships (SB 174 and SCR 19):

The Senate passed SB 174 on a 19-1 vote on Wednesday.  The legislation is now in the House Finance Committee where it is scheduled for a hearing today.  The Senate also passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 19 to create the “Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force.”  This resolution takes a page from the successful task force on K-12 three years ago.  If SCR 19 passes the House, there would be a task force consisting of five senators, five representatives, and one member appointed by the Governor.  This task force may help to address the need to show progress toward Governor Parnell’s merit scholarship proposal.  The governor has threatened a special session if his legislation is not passed in the next few days.  Stay tuned.

General Obligation (GO) Bonds (House Bill 424):

The house passed HB 424 earlier this week allowing for the state to bond for approximately $397 million in projects.  This package would go before the voters of Alaska on November 2.  Some of the largest projects are:

This legislation still has to go through the senate.  The last GO bond package in 2002 totaled approximately $237 million.

Please look Monday afternoon for a report on the activities of the weekend sessions and committee meetings. 

Five Days to Go:

The legislature continues to move forward towards a Sunday evening adjournment.  Many pieces of legislation are being heard on the House and Senate floors.  The House session went past 10 pm last night and the Senate was in session for several hours today.  The House has seven bills on their calendar today with seven more actions pending.  The Senate today had nine pieces of legislation on the calendar and three more actions pending.  The Senate passed the capital budget today (see next story) as well as a bill to allow more Alaskan students to further their postsecondary education in Alaska.  Read on.

Capital Budget (Senate Bill 230):

The senate passed the capital budget this afternoon by a 19-1 vote.  Many adjectives have been used to describe the FY 2011 capital budget “Bloated, Enormous, Needed and Timely” to name just a few. 

Sen. Stedman walked the Senate through a list of the projects in the budget and compared the budget favorably to the one crafted in 2008.  The projects touch all corners of Alaska and will undoubtedly put many Alaskans to work.  Road construction, building construction and repair, school maintenance and potentially new school construction will keep the contractors humming along.  The total capital budget comes in at about $2.4 billion with another $400 million potentially available depending on Alaska voters this November (see next story on GO bonds).

Sen. Stedman commented specifically on a $5 million fire department in South Anchorage.  He commented truthfully that Alaska’s first responders need and deserve the most up to date and first class training and facilities in order to respond to Alaska’s citizenry.  Ironically he mentioned nothing of the second class retirement system that has forced several Alaskans to take their expensive first class training and head to the lower 48 where they can get a dignified retirement for themselves and their family for putting their lives on the line.

Brian Partch of the Alaska Professional Firefighters Association commented at the March 29th public meeting on a return to defined benefit that at least three of his colleagues were in the process of relocating to Oregon and Washington.  They will be taking their training and skills with them.  New buildings and up to date equipment are nice and appreciated, but a return to Tier III PERS and Tier II TRS is needed to keep the best and brightest in Alaska.

General Obligation (GO) Bonds (House Bill 424):

The House passed HB 424 last night allowing for the State to bond for approximately $397 million in projects.  This package will go before the voters of Alaska on November 2, 2010.  Some of the largest projects are:

This legislation still has to go through the senate.  As mentioned previously the last GO bond package in 2002 was approximately $237 million.

Postsecondary Scholarships (SB 174):

Today, the state senate on a 15-5 vote passed SB 174 which is looking more and more like the vehicle to get postsecondary scholarships in Alaska moving forward.  SB 174 expands the University of Alaska’s scholar program to the top 15% of Alaska high school students and allows for needs based assistance with priority to high need fields determined by the Alaska Department of Labor.  The legislation also allows for funding a minimum of five students to attend outside academic institutions in each field of dentistry, optometry and pharmacy.

This legislation will now go to the House, where changes can still be made before Sunday.

Calendar:

04/14/10 – House Education Committee    8:00 am – Update on the Graduation Rate Working Group.

Dozen days to go:

The legislative session continues to move forward towards the April 18th adjournment date.  Floor sessions are being conducted daily, and the House of Representatives has named their conference committee for the FY 2011 operating budget (House Bill 300).  The committee includes Reps. Mike Hawker, Bill Stoltze, and Les Gara.  The Senate should be naming their three-member committee this week, and when that happens the legislature will be under the “24-hour rule.”

The 24-hour rule simply means that instead of a five-day notice for public hearings, the notice requirement is reduced to 24 hours.  This allows more legislation to be scheduled and heard by committees.  This is the second session of the 26th Alaska Legislature.  Simply put, any legislation that does not pass by adjournment will die.  Next year it all starts over again with new faces and new numbers for legislation.

NEA-Alaska continues to monitor the session and advocate for hearings on a return to a defined benefit pension system (Senate Bill 23 and House Bill 30).  Nothing has been scheduled.

Public meeting on Defined Benefit:

Last week the Alaskan Public Pension Coalition conducted a public meeting on the return to defined benefit.  Some 22 legislators attended the one-hour meeting, and almost 90 employees (teachers, police officers, firefighters, etc) attended as well.

There remains no hearing scheduled by the committee chairs that hold that power (Rep. Kurt Olson – Soldotna and Sen. Bert Stedman – Sitka).  With permission we have included the article “Power of the Chair” from the Alaska Budget Report of April 1, 2010.  To read article, click on Power of the Chair. (Copyright ABR Co. Used by permission contact: rbraun@alaska.com)

More Floor and Less Committee Action:

As we enter the final days the action shifts to the floor of the House and Senate, the Finance committees and the conference committees on the operating and capital budgets.  NEA-Alaska will provide updates as needed to keep you abreast of the action in Juneau.

Calendar:

House and Senate Education – Joint Committee – 04/07/10 – 8:00 AM – presentation/update on Moore v State of Alaska
House Finance 04/07/10 – 1:30 PM – HB 237 – School Construction/Debt Reimbursement
Senate Finance 04/08/10 – 9:00 AM – SB 213 – Funding for school meals
House Chambers 04/09/10 – 11:00 AM – joint session of legislature – confirmation of Governor’s appointments.

 
Day 80…10 More left:

 The 26th Alaska legislature is moving towards adjourning on April 18th. Most of the action has moved to the important Finance committees and to the floors of the House and Senate.

The Conference committees on the operating budget (HB 300) have been appointed:

Senate: Hoffman (Bethel), Stedman (Sitka) and Thomas (Fairbanks)
House: Hawker (Anchorage), Stoltze (Chugiak/Mat-Su) and Gara (Anchorage)

With the appointments of the conference committees the legislature is now under the “24-hour rule.” This means that legislation can be scheduled for a hearing with only 24 hours notice instead of the usual five day notice. NEA-Alaska will continue to monitor all legislation for potential hearings including Senate Bill 23 and House Bill 30 to return to a dignified, secure, defined benefit retirement system for public employees. Nothing has been scheduled to date.
 
House and Senate Education Committees – Moore v Alaska:
 Yesterday, NEA-Alaska attended a joint hearing of the Senate and House Education Committees to address outstanding orders in the Moore v Alaska lawsuit from 2007. Judge Sharon Gleason has ruled that the State of Alaska has not been active enough in intervention efforts in underperforming districts. These districts are Yupiit, Lower Yukon, Yukon Flats, Yukon-Koyukuk and the Northwest Arctic Borough.

The Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) told lawmakers what the state was doing to address the concerns including the hiring of content specialists and teacher mentors. This week testing is occurring (SBA’s) and DEED says they will know more on how the intervention is working. The state has 60 days to address the orders of Judge Gleason.

Alaska State Senate – SB 235 – “An Act relating to Charter School Approval and Funding.”

This legislation passed the state senate on a 20-0 vote. This legislation removes the cap from charter schools in Alaska. The cap was 60 and only 26 charter schools are operating in Alaska. With the passage of SB 235 (which now moves to the House) Alaska will be in compliance with federal grant programs and will be able to apply for federal start up funds and other federal monies tied to no restrictions on charter schools.

Local school boards and districts act as a check and balance on the proliferation of charter schools and ensure the charter schools are necessary and create increased educational choices for Alaska’s students and parents.
 
House Finance – HB 424 – General Obligation (GO) Bonds:
 The House Finance Committee heard the beginnings of a general obligation bond package today. The initial place holder is $1 million dollars. The last GO bond package (passed in 2002) ended up at $237 million. Stay tuned for further information.