25th Alaska State Legislature Senate Republican Caucus

A news release sent from the Republican Caucus:

Going for Broke?
On June 29, 2007, Gov. Sarah Palin signed the state’s operating and capital budgets into law, after reducing the capital budget by about $231 million in line-item vetoes. We are still evaluating individual vetoes for their impact on our communities. A few items raise concerns, but in general we support decreasing the level of state spending. In May, we wrote a letter to Gov. Palin encouraging her to carefully scrutinize the budget for areas to reduce. Some in Senate leadership described the cuts as “over the top.” However, with general fund spending in the operating budget increasing by $400 million, the administration felt compelled to cut the capital budget, which, after vetoes, still spends $477 million in general fund dollars. You can find a summary of the Fiscal Year 08 Budget here.

Special Session
The one-day special session that took place in the Egan Convention Center on June 26 was most significant for what didn’t happen. The majorities in both the house and senate called themselves back into special session to address a benefits program for seniors after continuation of the existing program stalled in the regular session.

Legislators took just seven hours to almost double the price tag of the program, from $10.3 million for the original program, to $18.5 million. What they failed to do was appropriate any money for the program, which procedurally would have required another two days. The Department of Health and Social Services plans to pay for the benefits with money from another program, but that’s due to run out in February, 2008. So, despite spending tens of thousands of dollars in travel and per diem to convene a special session, legislators still have to re-visit the issue when they reconvene in January.

While the Senate was quick to agree with the House proposal to increase benefits when public attention was focused during special session, just two months prior to that it rejected attempts by the Senate minority to increase senior benefits when the operating budget was on the floor. The minority offered two amendments to use excess money from the Legislature’s budget to increase funding for low-income seniors who are at significant risk of abuse, and to increase grants for elderly nutrition and transportation programs. Despite the net zero impact on the budget, all members of the Senate majority coalition voted no. We found this disheartening because we support assistance for low income seniors and believe this would have been a more cost effective approach than a new program.

Eye on Education
The Joint Education Funding Task Force continues to meet, with sessions scheduled throughout July and August. The Senate Republican Caucus is represented on the Task Force by Sen. Gary Wilken, who has spent much of his time in the legislature working on K-12 funding issues. The 11-member Task Force was created in the final hours of the regular session to examine the distribution of state aid for education. Sen. Wilken continues to express concerns that the group lacks the time needed to recommend a complete overhaul of the foundation formula and should instead focus on identifying problems. The Task Force is required to submit a report to the Governor by Sept. 1, 2007.

On Wednesday, July 11, the Task Force heard an overview of Anchorage Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason’s June 20 ruling in the Moore vs. Alaska lawsuit, in which she found that Alaska has “fully met its constitutional obligation to adequately fund education,” but that the state must be more aggressive in overseeing troubled school districts.

Sen. Con Bunde attended the National Forum on Education Policy in Philadelphia on July 11, where he accepted the 2007 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation on behalf of the State of Alaska. The award is for demonstrated excellence in shaping education policy. Sen. Bunde also facilitated a discussion on changes needed to No Child Left Behind.

Point Thomson
Senators Gene Therriault, Fred Dyson and Tom Wagoner continue to monitor developments surrounding the State’s decision to take back Point Thomson oil and gas leases, and have been pleased with several court rulings favorable to the State. Most recently, on June 28, Exxon Mobil paid the state a court-ordered $21,050,000 penalty for failure to abide by the terms of the expansion agreement. The payment was ordered by Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason on May 1, at the same time she denied Exxon’s request to delay the outcome of its appeal. The State also prevailed in a ruling May 9 in which Alaska Superior Court Judge Peter A. Michalski dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit ExxonMobil filed against the state asking for damages for the state’s decision to terminate the Point Thomson Unit. And on May 22, Judge Gleason denied Exxon’s request to decide one of the issues on appeal separately, a move that would have delayed the State’s effort to develop the resource. We support the administration’s effort to develop Point Thomson, which led to our introduction of Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, which puts the Legislature on record supporting the administration’s efforts to resolve the court appeal. SCR 3 was stalled in the Senate Rules Committee when the regular session adjourned. You can find more details here.

http://www.aksenateminority.com/

Senator Gene Therriault - Minority Leader
Senator Con Bunde
Senator Fred Dyson
Senator Tom Wagoner
Senator Gary Wilken

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