Fairbanks: Sen. Kawasaki Heading to Juneau, FNSB 20 Year Comprehensive Plan, PFD, AKleg.gov

January 13, 2025

Dear Neighbors,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year. After the craziness of the election, I was happy to spend time with my family and friends to recharge. Though, now that the new year has come, it is time for a new legislative session.

Which means I am headed to Juneau to work hard to ensure that Fairbanks continues to be a great place to live and raise a family. Even though I may be in our state’s capitol, that doesn't mean I don’t want to hear from my constituents. Keep reading to find out more information on how to contact me and my office with any matters that concern you.

A new year brings new challenges, but it also brings new opportunities for growth. Alaska has always been a state ready to embrace innovation. It is that explorer spirit that brought most of you to the state and keeps you here. I am excited to explore new thoughts and ideas during this legislative session to make Alaska a better place for all who live here.

In this edition of the E-News, I’ll be discussing how to keep in touch with me and my staff while we are in Juneau, PFD filing, the new 20-year Fairbanks Comprehensive plan and how you can use the BASIS resource to track what is going on during the legislative session.

How to Keep in Touch While I'm in Juneau

Senator Kawasaki in front of the State Capitol Building

During the interim, it is so nice to be able to stay in my home of Fairbanks and be easily accessible to my constituents here. My office has an open-door policy and I encourage anyone who wants to talk with me to just come by to put in their two cents. While I’m in Juneau, though, it isn’t as easy for a Fairbanksan to just drop by my office considering I’m a plane flight away. Even though I may not be as reachable in Junea as I am Fairbanks, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear from you!

Fortunately, we live in a digital age and no longer must rely on snail mail to connect us when we are miles apart. I am always an email away and take great care to respond to all digital correspondence that comes across my screen. My email address is Sen.Scott.Kawasaki@akleg.gov. Please email me with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have.

If email isn’t your style, you can always call my Juneau office directly at 907-465-3466. My staff will happily answer your call and pass on any of your ideas to me directly. Another option if you would like to meet me face to face, but don’t want to hop on a plane is for us to set up a virtual meeting. To do this, email me your request to meet virtually and my office will get that set up. Just because Juneau happens to be 620 miles away from Fairbanks doesn’t mean we have to be strangers while the legislature is in session.

File for Your PFD Today

The Alaska Department of Revenue prefers that you apply for your PFD Online

One of the benefits of being an Alaskan citizen is the yearly Permanent Fund Dividend payment. Every October it is nice to get in influx of cash for much needed heating fuel or to use for a nice night on the town. Even though the payment comes through in October, Alaskans have to file for their PFD earlier in the year between January 1^st through March 31^st. Which means NOW is the time to file for your PFD!

If you haven’t filed for your PFD before, the process is very simple and can be done online or by mail. Though the state does prefer that you turn in your application online. If you don’t have access to the internet, you can grab a paper application at the Fairbanks Dividend Information Office at 510 2^nd Ave. Suite 100 or at the Noel Wien Library. Paper applications need to be postmarked by March 31^st.

When filing, either online which is the preferred method, or with a paper application, you need to make sure you have the standard personal information on hand such as your social security number and your current mailing address. You will also need the names and contact details for two adult individuals who can verify that you do, in fact, live in Alaska. One of the bonuses when you file online is the system will save all your application information for the next year’s filing. Which saves you typing time in future years!

If done online, the whole process takes less than 10 minutes, especially if your information hasn’t changed from previous years. Remember, you have until March 31^st to file your application. Please follow this link to the myPFD portal and use your myAlaska account login information to start the application process. The link is right here! I can’t think of a better time to file for your PFD than right now!

Lend Your Voice to Fairbanks 20 Year Comprehensive Plan

Scan the QR code to take part in the Survey, you could win a prize!

According to Alaska Statute (AS 29.40.030) boroughs like the Fairbanks North Star Borough are required to maintain a comprehensive plan that guides the borough’s goals for the future. This plan covers a vast array of topics such as housing, economic development, land use and transportation. The plan also includes emergency management policies and standards. In the FNSB, this comprehensive plan spans 20 years and the last one was updated and adopted in 2005. Which means it is now time for the borough to update their comprehensive plan and they need your help!

The leaders of the borough, including Mayor Grier Hopkins, keenly want Fairbanksans to have a say in the future of the borough and the formulation of this new comprehensive plan. In that effort, the borough has designed a survey for citizens to take! This survey will be open until February 10^th, 2025. Taking the survey ensures that your opinion will be included in the vision for the FNSB for the next 20 years. Plus, you will be entered into a digital raffle and might be able to earn a prize!

Don’t let this opportunity to be a part of planning the Borough’s future slip away because if you do, you’ll have to wait 20 years for your next opportunity to participate. I took the survey myself and it took about 10 minutes to finish and after was pleased to know that my opinion was lent to this important project. To take this quick survey please follow this link. You can also track the progress of this project by visiting www.fnsb.gov/compplan. Keep checking the website for more opportunities to give your opinion. The current survey is the first of many and your opinion is essential so the borough can identify common goals amongst all citizens of the borough.

AKleg.gov: How This Resource Can Help You

Home page for the Alaska State Legislature website where BASIS can be found

The legislative session is a fast-paced flurry of bills, committee meetings, and information. How can the average citizen who wants to stay informed about the goings on of the legislature keep up with such a vast amount of data? Fortunately, the state of Alaska avidly wants its citizens to have the opportunity to be able to track the doings of the legislature and has a robust website accessible to the public that does just that! This website not only has tools for constituents to figure out who their representatives are and how to contact them, but also allows them to track bills, watch floor sessions and look up historical legislation.

When you go to AKleg.gov, you will be taken to the home page which highlights important dates and events pertaining to the legislature. There is a navigation menu on the left of the site that will take you to all the pertinent pages. place If you have never been on this site before, you can click on the “Get Started” option which will take you to a page with detailed information on how to navigate the AKleg.gov website. There is also a virtual tour of the capitol that you can take right from the comfort of your own home! More importantly, there is a tutorial on how to use BASIS the Bill Action & Status Inquiry System.

BASIS is the best way for the average citizen to track any bill they are interested in through the legislative process. This tool can be accessed by clicking the “Bills and Laws” tab on the navigation menu. From there you would be able to look up any bill starting from 1993! More importantly, you can track any current legislation and see the status of any bill that the 34^th legislature is currently working on. To do so, you would click on “Bills” in the webpage. Make sure you look at the header of the next webpage to ensure that you are looking up bills for the 34^th legislature. From there you can view bills awaiting actions, the actions that have been taken on bills and the running statistics for legislature. Such as how many bills have been introduced and passed. If there is a particular bill you want to track, but don’t want to manually check BASIS for the bill’s status there is the option to get text alerts. All you would need to do is text the bill number to 559-245-2529.

AKleg.gov is a powerful website with many different facets for information for the public to consume. It is definitely worth the time to explore the website to find your favorite features. This site will tell you which legislators are in what committees, who their staff consists of and the different legislative agencies that lend their non-partisan help to the entire process. For political nerds, this is the webpage for you! You can even view live sessions from this website. AKleg.gov is your one stop shop for everything pertaining to the Alaskan Legislature.

My Staff and I are Here for You

As always, my staff and I are still working for you. Feel free to contact my office and we will assist you with issues important to you and your family.

Working Hard for Fairbanks Families,