For the second year in a row, the Alaska Legislature passed a balanced budget that stays within Alaska’s income and avoids drawing from our savings. The Fiscal Year 2025 capital and operating budgets include:

 

·     A dividend of $1,655 paid to every Alaskan this fall, which includes a $295 energy relief payment approved in the FY24 budget

·     Any additional revenue will be split between an energy relief payment next fall and the State’s savings accounts

·     $80 - $100 million in surplus after funding the operating and capital budgets that didn’t require taxing hard working Alaskans

 

 

Education

 

·     $175 million in one-time funding for statewide K-12 education which will help keep Kenai Peninsula schools open, maintain educational programs like voc-ed, and keep pools and theaters open for student and community use

·     $7.3 million for pupil transportation

·     $5.2 million to support the Alaska Reads Act for K-3rd graders

·     $5.5 million to backfill the FY22 underfunding of the KPBSD by the Alaska Department of Education as required by maintenance of equity provisions from the federal government 

 

Seniors and disabled Alaskans

 

·     $3 million for senior citizen services including meals-on-wheels and transportation

·     $245,000 for improvements to senior centers in Kenai, Nikiski, and Sterling

·     $10 million to increase reimbursement rates for in-home and personal care assistants to help senior and disabled Alaskans stay in their homes

 

Protecting Alaska’s rights

 

·     $500,000 in additional funds for the Statehood Defense Fund to challenge Federal overreach of Alaska’s waters, lakes, and submerged lands

 

Roads

 

·     $1.3 million to hire more people for snow removal and other maintenance for Southcentral Alaska, including the Kenai Peninsula

·     $2.7 million for drainage improvements to address the devastating flooding that occurs along Kalifornsky Beach Road

·     $88.6 million for road improvements in Kenai, Soldotna, and across the borough to upgrade lighting, repave crumbling asphalt, and realign roadways to improve safety

 

Energy

 

·     $1.4 million for the Dixon Diversion project at Bradley Lake to increase the output of the dam by 50 percent, providing the least expensive power on the Railbelt 

 

Public Safety

 

·     $846,000 in emergency and emergency response improvements in Cooper Landing, Funny River, Bear Creek, and Moose Pass

·     $945,000 for improvements to wastewater and solid waste infrastructure in Kenai and across the Borough.

·     $3.7 million for grants to 34 programs across the state that provide shelter and other services to victims and others impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault.

 

I’m thankful that my colleagues in the Legislature and I were able to put together a budget that funds necessary services, stays within our means, and provides for infrastructure that will create additional economic opportunity for decades into the future. 

 

 

Senator Jesse Bjorkman | State Capitol Room 3, Juneau, AK 99801-1182