Senate Majority Coalition Website

State Senator District E

Senate Majority Leader

Senator Cathy Giessel Newsletter

UPDATES

Issues affecting

your family, community and jobs.

July 20, 2023

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Rain or shine, the best place to be on a Saturday is one of our nearby Farmers Markets! The produce is in! So is the fresh fish, fresh pasta, wonderful ice cream, healthy doggie treats...its endless variety.

As we worry about the Port of Alaska and wait for its repair & reconstruction, supporting our local farmers brings us closer to being self-sufficient for food.

What you spend at a Farmers Market goes directly into the hands of the people who produced it. No grocery store middleman.

Find my husband and me at the South Anchorage Farmers Market every Saturday!

Directory to Alaska's Farmers Markets.

Items in this Newsletter:

· Alaska's Permanent Fund Estimates

· Rural Energy Challenges webinar

· Alaska's Childcare Shortage

· Upcoming ANILCA Training

· Safer Seward Highway FAQs

· News From Girdwood Health Clinic

· Current Topics, Economy, Health Care, Energy

· Alaska History

· Resource Values, Permanent Fund

Email me

Alaska's Permanent Fund New Estimates

New estimate shows Alaska's Permanent Fund could be out of spendable money in 3-4 years. Alaska Beacon

I shared this information with you about 3 months ago in this newsletter, and spoke about it at the Anchorage Chamber luncheon about a month ago. The days of big Dividends is gone; the days of flowing state revenues, without some form of broad revenue stream (not oil) is coming true.

Permanent Fund earnings could run dry by 2026. Alaska's News Source

Don’t Miss Upcoming Energy Symposiums!

Join us for a series of eight symposiums on energy issues in Alaska. Learn about the challenges, opportunities, and other factors that Alaska Energy Security Task Force members must consider as part of the development of a statewide energy plan.

Symposium presentations will be virtual, with a panel of task force members and members of the public participating.

The next two symposiums will be:

Topic: Alaska Rural Energy: Challenges and Opportunities for Reducing the Cost of Energy

When: Thursday, July 20, 2023, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. AKDT

Topic: Alaska Energy Statistics & Economics

When: Thursday, July 27, 2023, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. AKDT

Join the symposiums at https://alaska.zoom.us/j/87596890686?pwd=VTdWWFM5M1AydVp2eTU2bkdxR2RvZz09.

For more information on the symposiums, please email Brittany Smart.

Did you miss last week's symposium presentation?

Watch the "Future Natural Gas Supply for the Alaska Railbelt" here.

Alaska's Childcare Shortage and Task Force

Childcare shortages impacting working parents, students and the military remain a critical issue in Alaska. The Governor’s Child Care Task Force held its second meeting on Wednesday, July 12. They brought in representatives from JBER, UAF, Bristol Bay Native Association and the Bering Strait Native Association to discuss what’s working, what isn’t, and possible solutions.

Highlighted as problems/barriers in the childcare industry were:

1) unobtainable standards

2) too much bureaucratic red tape

3) trainings for licensees often requires expensive travel and is prohibitive

4) state guidelines more restrictive than federal guidelines and is a deterrent

5) fingerprint checks take too long and wastes valuable time

6) compensation for certified childcare workers is too low and offers no enticement into the field

Some solutions that were offered during this meeting were:

1) increase the reimbursement rate to childcare providers to actually cover the costs

2) have the state look at a separate set of guidelines for rural/tribal providers

3) Look at providing universal pre-K in Alaska

4) merge/collaborate with established HeadStart programs with reliable federal funding source

The next meeting of the Task Force is Wednesday, July 26 at 12pm. They plan to discuss licensing issues, background checks/fingerprinting and compare state and federal regulations for childcare providers.

Below are two articles about the meeting:

Members of Alaska's child care task force raise concerns about staffing, cost, and licensing issues. Alaska Public Media

Operators of Alaska childcare centers say they are having trouble finding staff to meet high demand. That includes operators on Joint-Base Elmendorf Richardson, where staffing constraints mean centers on base are able to serve just under 400 children — a fraction of their capacity.

JBER development centers at 50% capacity with waitlist in the hundreds. Alaska's News Source

“Over half our childcare spaces are left empty due to staffing,” Chief of Child and Youth Programs Heather Weafer said. “So we have 208 authorizations for childcare workers, direct care staff. And we are sitting at 58%.”

For more information about the Task Force, its mission, schedule, and meeting minutes, you can find them here.

"Anyone who wants to understand Alaska and its future must understand ANILCA... the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980"

Upcoming ANILCA Training

November 28 – December 1, 2023

8:30 am to 1:00 pm Alaska Time

Via Zoom Webinar

Course includes:

· Summary of Alaska’s land history from Territorial days to present

· Context of ANILCA’s passage, e.g., issues of the day that led to the “Great Compromise”

· Overview of ANILCA statutory provision

· Key access provisions for traditional activities, subsistence, inholdings, transportation & utility systems

· Subsistence on federal lands

· Wilderness reviews and management

· ANILCA implementation

Click here for more information and registration

Course questions? Contact Roger Pearson, ANILCA Training moderator at

rpearson@institutenorth.org

Registration and logistical questions? Contact Hanna Eklund at 907-313-6986 or

heklund@institutenorth.org

Safer Seward Highway FAQs & Website Update

We want to thank everyone who has participated in the Safer Seward Highway Project. Whether you attended a public meeting, submitted a comment or have been following the project online, your participation is crucial to this project’s success.

We have received excellent feedback and input from the community and are working on responses to your comments. In the meantime, we have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) flyer to the project library in response to the questions we hear most often. Please take a look.

The 2022 Safety Corridors Audit has also been added to the project library. This report has been recently released by the DOT&PF and will be an important piece of our analysis of how to make the Seward Highway safer.

There have been several updates made to the website so please, check it out. We will keep you posted with new information as we progress.

Enjoy your summer and stay safe,

The Safer Seward Highway Project Team

Go to the Safer Seward Highway Website

News from Girdwood Health Clinic

The Girdwood Health Clinic, in its new facility in Girdwood, has capacity to accept patients from South Anchorage that are having trouble locating primary care services that accept Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare. This includes behavioral health services like group therapy and med management.

GHCI Phone (907)783-1355

Current Topics

8 highly-respectable jobs that pay much less than people think. Insider

Some professions instantly bring dollar signs to mind. If you enter a field like medicine or law, it's safe to assume you're setting yourself up to earn a decent living. Then there are jobs we expect would bring in a significant income mainly because of their prestige, the advanced level of training required, or the rigorous on-the-job demands.

Printed newspaper emerging in Girdwood. Alaska's News Source

Girdwood has primarily gone without a local paper since the Glacier City Gazette printed its last edition at the end of 2020. There have been a handful of short-term, temporary news projects and publications since then, none as sweeping as Turnagain News - launched in May by journalist Soren Wuerth and local radio personality Jon Scudder. The new website, and soon-to-be paper, covers several communities including Girdwood.

Graphite One Awarded $37.5 Million Department of Defense Grant Under the Defense Production Act. Graphite One Inc

A group of attorneys and volunteers helped nearly 2,000 Alaskans get food stamps during backlog. Alaska Beacon

Sarah Carver, a senior attorney for Alaska Legal Services, said there are more than 200 volunteers throughout the state in dozens of communities, but a core group of about 10 of them managed most of the food stamp cases this year. She runs the Justice for All program that trains people like Fenn and Amy on how to advocate for fair hearings.

Economy

State challenges Juneau's 'outside the cap' funding to district. Juneau Empire

The state may put the Juneau School District in a $2.28 million hole by disallowing an allocation of that amount from the city because it exceeds the statutory “funding cap” for education spending, according to a letter from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Politics

Murkowski Introduces "Improving ARCTIC Act" to Secure Wins for Alaska in Farm Bill. Kiny Radio

Nonattorney advocates to represent Alaskans in court under new waiver. Alaska Beacon

Did you know that Alaska Public Defenders office is understaffed? The Office can’t hire enough attorneys to staff their offices now. Hiring bonuses are being offered but fresh graduates hired can’t manage many cases until they get some experience under their belts. This is why we need to raise the level of benefits by putting in place a Defined Benefit Pension system.

Alaska’s Supreme Court, with support from the state’s bar association, approved a waiver at the end of last year that will allow specially trained nonlawyers to represent Alaskans in court for some issues.

The curious case of Dunleavy's education vetoes. ADN

The only hint of an explanation offered by his spokesperson was that Dunleavy “recognizes that schools need to address inflationary pressures while still preserving general fund dollars,” a rationale that holds very little water given the governor’s signing of some of the largest budgets Alaska has seen, bloated by unsustainable Permanent Fund dividend draws that have left the state’s last major accessible savings account in danger of being drained in just a few years.

Department of Defense, citing critical mineral needs, boosts Nome-area graphite mining project. Alaska Beacon

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $37.5 million grant to boost an Alaska mine project that would produce a mineral deemed critical to electronics and batteries: graphite.

$37.5M graphite mining grant gets bipartisan praise from Alaska delegation, governor. Alaska's News Source

“Once operational, production from Graphite One will substantially reduce the U.S.’ wholesale dependence on China and other nations for natural graphite,” the release said. “For at least three decades, the U.S. has imported 100 percent of its supply of this critical mineral, which is used for everything from headphones to the advanced rechargeable batteries in smartphones and electric vehicles.”

Alaska needs to protect our right to repair. ADN

Limits on repair are bad for consumers. People like being able to fix the stuff they own. People also like to have the option to patronize local businesses rather than rely on dealers from giant companies that charge prohibitively expensive costs.

Fisheries

How do state fish and wildlife management agencies benefit me? Outdoor Heritage Foundation of Alaska

To effectively conserve our nation’s public trust resources, state fish and wildlife management agencies require both the authority and the ability to manage. Protecting their authority to manage is done by ensuring that management decisions are driven by agency personnel with the expertise, experience, and access to critical data necessary for successful fish and wildlife management. Protecting agencies' ability to manage is done by ensuring that legislation does not negatively impact the well-established revenue streams, including the primary framework offered through the American System of Conservation Funding, which provide agency experts with the resources necessary to carry out their missions. This installment of the CSF Summer Webinar Series explores the important role that these agencies play in conservation and how they may be best supported as they seek to carry out that role.

Health Care

Legislators, activists continue push to regulate drug pricing middlemen. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Pharmacy Benefit Managers: These little-known companies purchase drugs from the manufacturers and place them on lists that become the medicines covered by a prescription drug plan or hospital. In exchange for better placement on these coveted lists, manufacturers offer the drugs to pharmacy benefit managers at a discount or a rebate.

(My comment - Who actually decides what your medication costs? Read this article to understand why, for the last 10 years, I’ve sponsored legislation to rein in PBMs. And the PBMs spend lots of money blocking my bills.)

Seniors' health care use is up, United Health says. Axios

More Americans are also seeking behavioral care for anxiety, depression and substance use, reflecting an increasing ease seeking help.

Alaska History

· July 22 - Ted Stevens Day!

· 1902, July 22 - Felix Pedro discovers gold, establishing Fairbanks.

· 1995, July 22 - 42.6 million red salmon harvested in Bristol Bay

· 1907, July 23 - Chugach National Forest established

· 1914, July 24 - Gold discovered near Livengood

· 2009, July 26 - Sarah Palin resigns as first woman Governor of Alaska

Alaska Oil Resource Values

Alaska North Slope crude oil price (7/18/23): $81.60

FY24 budget (begins 7/1) is fully funded at forecast $73/barrel oil.

Price on 9/30/22: $86.91

Price on 6/29/22: $116.84

Price on 3/8/22: $125.44

Price on 12/22/21: $75.55

ANS production (7/18/23): 437,307 bpd

Chevron's troubled carbon capture and storage at Gorgon set to worsen in 2023. WA Today

Carbon storage at Gorgon is of international interest as it is the largest attempt in the world to bury CO2 to reduce carbon pollution. Its disappointing record to date is tarnishing the credibility of a technology that some tout as essential to slowing climate change and others damn as an excuse to produce more fossil fuels.

(My comment - Why this matters: If this effort is flagging, will the bugs be worked out by the time Alaska is ready to inject into depleted Cook Inlet and North Slope reservoirs?)

Alaska Permanent Fund

Alaska Permanent Fund (July 18, 2023)

Fund's total value was $79,742,800,000.

The Principal total includes:

• $52.2 billion in permanent savings contributions

• $ 9.1 billion in unrealized gains

The Earnings Reserve Account total includes:

• $4.8 billion of uncommitted realized earnings

• $3.5 billion for the FY24 POMV draw

• $4.2 billion for FY23 Inflation Proofing of the Principal

• $2.2 billion in unrealized gains

PFD payout from ERA, 1980-2022: $26.6 B