Protecting Your Rights: Serving Sand Lake, Spenard and Turnagain

December 17, 2020

In this issue:

• Governor Releases Budget

• MOA Small Business Assistance

• Election Audit

• COVID-19 Testing Locations

• Alaska Criminal Justice Commission Annual Report

• Community Events

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On December 11, Governor Dunleavy released his proposal for the operating, capital, and mental health budgets for Fiscal Year 2022, which will begin on July 1, 2021.

Governor Dunleavy Releases FY2022 Budget

The governor has proposed a budget for FY22 that largely flat funds essential services and adds two dividend payments totaling $5,000 per person. The governor's dividend proposal is for a supplemental 2020 dividend of $2,000 in the spring and a regular 2021 dividend of $3,000 in the fall for a total of $5,000 per person. Paying $5,000 in dividends will cost a total of $5.1 billion. The proposed FY22 budget remains largely unchanged from the current fiscal year. The governor also proposed a capital bond for voters to approve that includes borrowing up to $350 million to upgrade the state’s roads, bridges, airports, and other infrastructure.

In addition to the FY22 5% draw of $3 billion from the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve (based on 5% of the total market value of the entire Permanent Fund–called the "POMV draw") already slated for this year to pay for state government, the governor is proposing taking an extra $3.2 billion from the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account (ERA) to pay for the two dividends. In sum, the governor proposes a total withdrawal of $6.3 billion from the ERA, which is more than twice the amount allowed under state law.

The Governor's proposed operating budget for FY22 (not including the dividends) is $195.8 million less in Undesignated General Funds (UGF) than FY21. The following are some of the services cut in the governor's FY22 proposed budget:

$95 million from the Department of Health and Social Services (this is the largest reduction compared to FY21 due to one-time COVID funding counted in the FY21 budget)
$35.1 million from Medicaid
$16.5 million from the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities ($2.5 million of which is from the Alaska Marine Highway System and the remainder is largely one-time savings due to federal airport money available from the CARES Act)
$20 million from the University of Alaska (the third year of the Governor’s compact with the University)
$2.4 million minor reductions from other agencies

The following are some of the spending increases in the governor's FY22 proposed budget:

$13.5 million for Department of Public Safety
School bond debt reimbursement funded at 50%
Funds Alaska Psychiatric Institute to run at full capacity
Fully funds K-12 education (there was a $26 million decrease to formula funding because of students who left to be homeschooled for 2020-2021 school year)

The governor's proposal is not fiscally sustainable without substantial new revenue or substantial reductions, and it is not a responsible action plan for Alaska. Once again, it will fall to the Legislature during the 2021 session to come up with a responsible financial strategy that strengthens our economy, supports essential services, improves public safety, and moves Alaska forward.

Public input continues to be critical. Please email Rep.Matt.Claman@akleg.gov or call our office, 269-0130, with any questions or concerns. You can also contact Governor Dunleavy. You may reach his office via email at this web page or via phone: 465-3500.

Municipality Announces Third Round of Small Business Assistance

Last week, the Municipality of Anchorage announced that the third round of the Small Business Relief Grant program applications will open Friday, December 18, 2020 and close on January 11, 2021 at 5:00 PM. More than $7 million will be available for small businesses, which will go to previously wait-listed businesses and an expanded pool of new applicants. The relief funding supports business operations, including but not limited to, payroll, rent, utilities, and paying vendors.

Award recipients will receive $10,000 each once CILC completes processing applications from eligible businesses.

Eligible applicants for the new $1.9 million application round must:

Be located in the Municipality of Anchorage;
Have earned $2 million or less in gross revenue in 2019;
Have been harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic;
Were open and operating on or before by March 1, 2020;
Not be a business restricted to patrons above the age of 18 or 21 (e.g., liquor store, bar, smoke shop, marijuana dispensary, adult entertainment); and
If the business is a sole proprietorship, single-member LLC, or corporation with only one shareholder, the owner must receive at least 75% of their personal gross income from the business in a typical year

Applicants that received funding in a previous round of the Small Business Grant program are not eligible for an additional award.

Eligible entities may apply online at cookinletlending.com beginning December 18. Applications may also be emailed to reliefgrant@cookinletlending.com or be submitted in person at 3600 Spenard Road, Suite 100.

More information may be found on the CILC website. For up-to-date information on new relief opportunities and public health measures, businesses can sign up for text alerts at http://muni.org/smbizalerts.

Election Audit Confirms Results

An election audit ordered by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer has confirmed the passage of Ballot Measure 2 in this year's General Election. The measure, which reforms Alaska's election and campaign finance laws, passed by a narrow margin in the General Election, with 174,032 Alaskans voting for the measure and 170,251 voting against.

Following the 2020 General Election, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer ordered an audit of the election to assure Alaskan voters of the outcome of the narrowly-passed Ballot Measure 2. The audit, which involved election employees hand counting each of the 361,400 ballots cast in this year's general election, confirmed the passage of Ballot Measure 2. The audit also assured Alaskans that the equipment the Division of Elections uses to count ballots is 99% accurate: only 24 votes out of 361,000 differed from the results certified by the Division of Elections in November.

Provisions of Ballot Measure 2 include installing ranked-choice voting and open "top four" primaries in Alaska as well as enhanced campaign finance requirements.

Free COVID-19 Testing Locations

The Municipality of Anchorage is offering free COVID-19 testing–no referral required–at a number of locations throughout Anchorage. The MOA recommends that you preregister to expedite the process at the testing locations. The CDC and Alaska health officials strongly recommend you get tested if you have symptoms of COVID-19 or think you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, even if you are asymptomatic.

The following locations are offering free COVID-19 tests every Monday-Saturday from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM:

Z.J. Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street
Changepoint Church, 6689 Changepoint Drive
Muldoon Community Assembly, 7041 Debarr Road
Eagle River, 11801 Business Boulevard (Across from Eagle River People Mover Transit Center)

A fifth location, 4115 Lake Otis Parkway, is offering free testing every day (Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM; Sat-Sun, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM).

You can find registration information for each of the testing sites here.

Alaska Criminal Justice Commission Releases Annual Report

In October, the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission released its 2020 Annual Report. This is the sixth report the ACJC has published since the Commission was created.

The Commission’s work since the 2019 Annual Report has focused on areas of concern to the Legislature, the Executive, the Judiciary, and to the public, including concerns regarding: victims’ rights and services; domestic violence; rehabilitation, reentry and recidivism reduction; and youth justice. Of note in the report is the data collected on the prosecution of sex crimes.

In 2019, the Legislature required the Department of Law to collect data on the processing of felony sex crimes. The following is a summary of the required data. Between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, 621 sex offense cases were referred to the Department of Law from law enforcement agencies statewide. Of these cases, 293 referrals were not prosecuted and 302 referrals were accepted for prosecution as a sex offense, while 16 referrals were still being screened by the Department of Law. An additional 20 cases that had been referred as non-sex offense cases were accepted for prosecution as sex offense cases.

The data provided for FY 2019 demonstrate the length of time it takes to prosecute sex offense cases. Of the 322 cases accepted for prosecution as sex offense cases, over 70% are still in active prosecution. The extent of the impact of COVID on the length of time to prosecute sex offenses has not yet been measured, but the pandemic is impacting the speed with which these cases are resolved. The figure above shows the outcomes of all sex offense cases referred to the Department of Law in FY19.