Mike's E-News

It’s Operating Budget Week in the House– House Finance released their Committee Substitute last week and held public hearings.  Today, House Finance will take up the amendment process with the intention of passing the bill and then taking it up on the House floor by Wednesday (there are meetings scheduled both in the morning and afternoon for Tuesday and Wednesday to finish this process.)  When the bill will moves to the House floor, this will be the final opportunity for amendments on the House side.  The plan is to move the bill out of the House and send it on to the Senate for their review by the end of the week.

Alaskans can expect to see action on the Supplemental bill on the House side and the Capital bill on the Senate side in the next week or two.

We are making progress on revising House Bill 369 which should be ready to move from the Resources Committee onto the House Finance Committee sometime next week.  House Resources adopted some minor changes within the bill during its first two hearings and I expect a couple of more changes when it is heard again.  The House Resources meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 8^th at 1PM.

I want to thank Scott Hamann for his testimony at Monday’s hearing.  Public testimony is still open and if anyone wishes to testify, the opportunity to do so will be available on Monday.

 CS HB 369 RES

A copy of the revised bill is attached to this posting.

The House Press Office has instituted a new program called “Ask the Speaker.”  The second installment will be on my website and the House Majority website today or tomorrow.  If you have questions that you wish to have posed during our next segments, please send them to me at representative_mike_chenault@legis.state.ak.us.  I look forward to your comments, suggestions and questions.

Last Saturday, Senator Wagoner, Representative Olson and I held a town hall meeting at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Chambers.  About 50 people were in attendance and the topics ranged from state and borough employees retirement systems, personal use fishing, education, the Board of fish process and site selection, fighting federal encroachment on states’ rights and support for some of the programs and capital projects that are being requested by Peninsula organizations.

I really appreciate the turnout and wish to thank Pat Hawkins from KSRM who supplied the doughnuts and Sue Wright of my staff who was instrumental in putting the meeting together.  I especially want to thank those of you that turned out on a nice Saturday morning and took the time to express your views on issues of importance to you.

I find these meetings informational and gives us the opportunity to meet face to face during session.  I look forward to any comments you may have as session progresses.  My phone number is 1-800-469-3779 or you can reach me at my e-mail address which is posted on this website.

By the way, I am not attending Energy Council Conference in Washington, D.C. and will be home for the weekend.  I plan on attending the House Finance public testimony teleconference on the operating budget at the Kenai LIO Thursday afternoon and hopefully, will be on Sound Off on KSRM Friday morning.

There has been a lot of discussion in the press and among Alaskans regarding the Legislature’s sending a delegation to participate in the upcoming Energy Council.  The question of the importance of sending a number of Legislator’s has also been an issue.

No other state relies on oil production for nearly 90 percent of its general fund revenue the way Alaska does.  We have the federal government and other agencies that are in our business every day, continuing to slow down or shut down resource development across this state.  And yes, we do need a big presence in D.C. We need to make sure they hear our voice when we say we want to control our own destiny.

House Finance Subcommittees are done and Committee Substitutes will be introduced today in House Finance!   Public Testimony on these bills will continue through Wednesday.  This is the opportunity for Alaskans statewide to weigh in on the changes of the Governor and the House Finance Subcommittees.   I’ve listed the schedules for Tuesday and Wednesday below if you are interested in participating.

Next week the Operating and Mental Health Bills will be amended in full House Finance and then moved to the House Floor.

House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, sits down to answer questions, some submitted by Alaskans, in this week’s debut episode of “Ask the Speaker”.  Alaskans are invited to submit questions for future episodes: http://housemajority.org/chenault/.

                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                               PRESS RELEASE

BILL PROPOSES IN-STATE GASLINE BE BROUGHT ON-LINE BY 2015

Speaker’s HB 369 unifies effort with Joint In-State Gasline Development Team

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, Juneau, Alaska – House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, today introduced House Bill 369, legislation unifying state agencies and proposing to create the Joint In-State Gasline Development Team within the Office of the Governor to ensure that construction of an in-state gasline is ready to begin by July 2011, with gas flowing by 2015.

I got the opportunity to involuntarily tour Southeast Alaska on Monday.  Due to low lying fog over the Juneau airport for most of the day Monday, my flight was diverted to Sitka where I got to spend the day.  I had the chance to catch up with my colleagues who were likewise stranded and talk on my cell with my staff while waiting for the fog to clear and the resuming of flights back to our capital city.   After leaving Kenai at 5:10AM, I reached my final destination at about 7:30PM the same evening.  I usually like to head back on Sunday nights, however the flight was full and the only seats available were Monday morning.  All in all, it made for a long day.

This report regarding rural fuel prices was just released from the Attorney General’s office.  I thought you may find it of interest.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            

February 18, 2010

 Attorney General and Institute of Social and Economic Research Release Reports on Rural Fuel Prices

Anchorage, Alaska – Independent reports on the pricing of fuel in rural Alaska were released today by the Alaska Department of Law and the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage.