Mike's E-News

During the last hours of session, SB 182, an omnibus education bill, passed both houses of the legislature. The bill addressed a number of funding issues for school districts, including pupil transportation, mill rate calculation (local participation), vocational education, and a pilot program for early learning. SB160, the capital budget, included a one-time $25 million item to be distributed to school districts. HB 284, the operating budget, appropriated $329 million for the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) and Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) unfunded liability for school districts, plus $60 million to fund the Department of Education that disburses many grants to school districts.

As we prepare for special session, here’s a look at our accomplishments by our Guiding Principles, which our caucus came together to create to better vet and prioritize bills.

There are a lot of good ones passed into law, but also a lot of good ones that the Senate didn’t see fit to pass, for whatever reason.

The 27th Alaska Legislature’s final regular session closed without key legislation enabling the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to continue with its project delivering North Slope gas to Fairbanks, Southcentral and other communities. House Bill 9 sponsors Speaker Mike Chenault and Rep. Mike Hawker expressed disappointment in the Senate for failing Alaskans in need of affordable natural gas.

We held a memorial ceremony for Carl Gatto at the beginning of today’s House floor session. It’s still hard to fathom that he finally succumbed to cancer after all these years. He fought hard, never complained and continued to serve the citizens of Palmer, the Mat-Su Valley and state with distinction. You will be missed, Carl. May you rest in peace.

Here’s the audio of my floor speech:

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Here’s the video of my floor speech:

Well, I’m glad that’s over – now we get to start all over again in the Senate. Last night my colleagues in the House saw fit to pass House Bill 9, a bill I sponsored along with Rep. Mike Hawker to advance the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s efforts to secure their Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline plan to deliver our North Slope gas for our homes and businesses.

And here’s the release our Press Office sent out following the 27-12 vote:

Here is a text copy of the response to Port Authority lawyer Bill Walker’s criticism of House Bill 9, my bill (along with Rep. Mike Hawker) to help the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation get closer to delivering Alaska’s gas to Alaskans.

We distributed this to House members yesterday. Our responses are in red with Mr. Walker’s comments in black.

Bullet line and House Bill 9: TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT

But HB 9 stands on its own right.

It is common knowledge amongst the vast majority of Alaskans that the contract under AGIA with TransCanada (and now Exxon) to spend $500 million of Alaskans’ dollars to permit a gas line to take Alaska’s gas into Canada was a huge mistake. While this contract with TransCanada passed the legislature by a small margin, I am sure that if that vote were taken today, it would receive very few if any votes at all. So what are we doing to rectify this costly mistake?

There’s more than two decades of Finance Committee Co-chairs in that picture. Thanks to Bill Stoltze and his staff for coming up with the idea. If you’ve spent any time on the fifth floor of the Capitol on the House side you may have noticed the image my staff made of the Finance Co-chairs that hangs outside the committee room. Well, here’s even more.

(L-R) Back row: myself, Gene Therriault, Eldon Mulder, and Kevin Meyer; Front row: John Harris, Bill Stoltze, Al Adams, Bill Thomas, Mike Hawker, Bill Williams, and Lyman Hoffman.

I had the chance to speak with U.S. Rep. Don Young today.

I had the chance to sit down and visit with U.S. Rep. Don Young this afternoon. He met with House members to talk with us about issues in Washington, D.C., and ask us about issues we face in our districts. It’s always nice to be able to meet with members of our congressional delegation when they stop in Juneau or back home on the Peninsula.

I had the opportunity last night, along with my friend and co-sponsor of House Bill 9 Mike Hawker, to present our bill before the Legislature’s Joint In-State Gas Caucus. We walked members through the bill and spoke alongside the group we created through my HB 369 to develop the line, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.

Thanks to the Caucus and House Co-chair Mark Neuman for giving us the time and platform, following the bill’s first hearing in House Finance yesterday morning.

We had two motives last night: to provide an overview and answer any questions from members as best we could, and also to try and put to rest misinformation and arguments that, frankly, don’t do any of us any good.

We’ve attached a piece of my speech to this post, along with the words of Sen. Charlie Huggins.

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I encourage you to listen to the piece and to read the detailed report from AGDC if you have any questions. Find the report at http://www.gasline.us.com.

We shouldn’t have to spend our time chasing down and refuting bad information; we should focus on moving forward with the only viable project to deliver Alaska’s gas to Alaskans.