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Education funds, energy issues and incentives to keep Alaska workers in the state are some of the priorities for lawmakers in this years legislative session.

The priorities of the senate majority caucus, the 17 members, we have put education funding at the very top.

The second is working on retirement and a pension plan, and the third is on energy issues How much time will debate over the permanent fund dividend take up and where are the largest areas of consensus and division for legislators?

Well talk to reporters who are covering the second session of the 33rd legislature, right now, on Alaska Insight.

The Alaska legislature started business earlier this week and there is a lot to contend with as the state grapples with perennial concerns such as public safety, outmigration of working age Alaskans, education funding, high energy prices and of course, the amount of the permanent fund dividend.

What are the political dynamics in this year's session and how are lawmakers working to find consensus?

Tonight well talk with journalists covering the session, but before we get to that discussion, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Medias collaborative statewide news network.

North Slope oil production is expected to rise significantly in the next decade, according to a state production forecast presented to lawmakers on Wednesday.

For the past five years, production has been flat or declined, but its expected to stay stable through mid-2025 before increasing by more than 30 percent by mid-2032 as the Willow and Pikka oil projects ramp up production.

Pikka is expected to start production in 2026, with Willow following in 2029.

Three southcentral Alaska inmates have died in state custody during the first half of January, just weeks into the year following 2023 statewide total of ten inmate deaths.

According to the Alaska Department of Corrections, one of the deaths, an 82-year-old serving a 45-year sentence was expected.

The other two inmates had not yet been sentenced.

A DOC spokesperson declined to answer detailed questions about the deaths, citing the departments duties as a medical provider to protect patient privacy.

The Alaska Department of Health is recommending widespread testing for syphilis among adults under 45 in the state as cases of the infection skyrocket.

Rates of syphilis have increased dramatically in recent years across the country, but Alaska currently has one of the highest, ranking eighth in the nation in 2022.

Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink in a statement recommended all sexually active adults get tested if theyre unsure of their status, and to test any time they have a new sexual partner.

Untreated syphilis can cause multiple debilitating health conditions, and even death.

You can find the full version of these and many more stories on our website, alaskapublic.org or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion.

The second session of the 33rd legislature got underway earlier this week.

Last night, both chambers convened for a vote to override the governor's veto of two education funding.

That vote failed 33 to 26.

Before we hear more about those deliberations from last night, here are a few lawmakers with their thoughts on education funding.

These statements were made before the vote last night to override took place.

We're going to take a whack at the apple and some of the things that we want to see in terms of accountability.

Some things we want to see in terms of of correspondence, schools, transportation.

There is also the teacher retention bonuses that the governor has introduced.

We've also been in this bill priorities of of the of the Senate majority caucus of 17 members.

We have put education at the very top.

The second is the working on on the retirement pension plan and a third is on energy issues.

Also other issues out there that are very important to us that we'll be working on this session.

So the Senate we did pass a bill last year to increase the base base to an allocation, and that's our position that passed overwhelmingly.

And and then in the budget, we included a full I think it was a $680 amount.

We I think there are many who would have preferred a higher amount.

It was this majority that brought forward the large education increase in the budget.

So we've proven our support for education.

It was a negotiation with the governor.

The governor said not so much.

And we're listening to that.

And so as we move forward, I think there will be more negotiation as we work through the process with the Senate.

I commend the House majority for putting forward their vision as to how to move forward on education funding.

But from my perspective, having just spent six months at home talking to constituents and teachers and students, this will fall.

Far short of what they.

Need to just hold the status quo.

Joining me tonight to discuss the work in front of lawmakers for this session is Alaska Public Media's State Government reporter Eric Stone.

And Iris Samuels is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News.

Iris covers state government and a lot of other things for the Daily News.

Thanks for being here, Iris and Eric.

To be here.

Eric joining us from Juneau.

Glad you could be on hand.

I know it's very, very busy.

Eric, lawmakers had five days to attempt an override of the governor's veto.

Last night.

They took that vote.

They needed three quarters of the combined chambers to override and it failed.

Tell us what happened.

So I'll start by backing up just a little bit.

Sure.

On Tuesday, on the first day of the session, the House minority leader, who you heard from earlier, independent Representative Kelvin Schrager of Anchorage, he called on the House to go into joint session to consider overriding the governor's veto of $87 million in one time education funding.

And immediately, there was a twist.

Representative David Eastman of Wasilla Republicans stood up and said the Alaska Constitution mandates a joint session to consider the vetoed bills never wound up failing 2020.

And then we'll fast forward to yesterday.

During the House floor session, the minority tried again.

This time it was independent Representative Rebecca HUME Shoot, who asked for the joint session vote.

And Eastman stood up again, made the similar argument about the Constitution mandating a session for the vetoes.

And then he also got support from House Democrat Andy Josephson.

So the House then recessed for several hours to talk things out behind closed doors in a caucus meeting.

And eventually, Cathy Tilton, the House speaker and Wasilla Republican, actually came out and called for a joint session without a vote.

And but even then, she said she was confident the votes weren't there to override it.

So the the vote that helped, you know, the votes the votes weren't there.

The vote eventually failed 33 to 26.

Most of the 17 members in the Senate majority caucus voted for the override with the exception of three of its Republican members.

The House vote looked pretty similar to to the previous 20 to 20 vote on the joint session wound up being 2119 with Eastman voting against the overrides.

And yeah, so that's where that's where things stand.

As of last night, the vetoes have not been overridden.

And so just to be clear, so that it was it they took this action because of concerns over constitutional requirements more than they thought they had changed anyone's mind and that they would actually move forward with this override.

That's right.

Yeah.

Basically, the speaker did it to assuage concerns from members of her members for caucus.

So much lots of tension and things happening already in this first week.

Iris, we heard lawmakers talking about education funding at the start of the program.

There was a rally in Anchorage last week and hundreds of people showed up to support an increase to the base student allocation.

The BSA is one of the big political footballs after that vote failed last night.

Did you have time to get reaction from lawmakers about what they they'll possibly attempt now?

So I think it's important to say that from the get go, we knew that the chances of overriding the governor's veto were very, very low.

And that's because Alaska has a very high threshold for overriding a governor's veto.

So last night's vote was really about getting lawmakers on the record.

And the real focus among education advocates, really among all lawmakers, is about thinking about education long term.

That veto was related to a one time funding allocation.

And lawmakers say that really the important thing is about thinking about funding education and thinking about education related policy more broadly in the long term.

And that's what we heard last night after the vote.

And so the full chamber vote was 33 to 26.

And Eric, pick it up there.

What lawmakers said about plans.

Does the veto override vote last night give you any clue as to how regular the votes may go on education and other hot button issues?

Iris, you were saying that, you know, they're talking about other ways to to maybe do a more permanent increase.

But after this vote last night, Eric, what do you think about the chances of consensus on other issues?

Well, what we saw last night were three votes from the House majority caucus.

The 23 member House majority caucus peeled off to vote for that one time education funding.

In those those three lawmakers were independent Brice Edmond, along with Democrats Neil Foster and C.J.

McCormick.

And, you know, of course, that wasn't enough to to call the joint session.

But but, you know, they split from their colleagues on this.

And, you know, you could see that as a sign that the House majority isn't quite as cohesive as it could be.

Lawmakers, you know, didn't vote in a bloc.

And another way to view this is, you know, folks feel free to speak their mind and vote their conscience, which, you know, voters would appreciate.

Your thoughts, Iris, about that.

Yeah, I think what strikes me is that lawmakers in every district in this state have both students and parents of students.

And so education funding is important to everyone across the board.

And what we saw last year was actually several House Republicans who voted against the veto override last night supported the the original funding in the budget.

So really, what last night's vote tells us is that they don't want to go directly against Governor Mike Donnelly.

And there's a lot of reasons not to do that.

It could mean that he's less likely to support legislation that they bring forward in the future.

And to them, if it's this balance between the governor supporting their legislative policies moving forward or harping on this one time education allocation, they're going to choose the long term vision.

And so I think that that 33 votes in favor of overturning, that's not the ultimate number of people that will see supporting an increase to education funding later in the session.

So maybe the thinking is let's not get into a big dog fight right at the start of the session with the governor when there's so much work to do four months ahead.

Yet you both mentioned some of the switches and votes that happened.

Were there any that were really surprising that you saw either one of you?

You know, I can't I can't say any of those especially surprised me.

Iris, I'm curious what you think.

Yeah, I don't think I was really surprised.

One vote that stuck out to me was a vote by Senator Jesse Bjorkman.

He's a Republican from the Kenai Peninsula and he's also a former schoolteacher.

And he voted against the veto override.

But he is a strong proponent of increasing education funding moving forward.

So that's not to say that I'm really surprised about how he voted last night, but I think that it is indicative of this thought process that goes into we really need to be focusing on education funding in the future rather than in this moment in time.

Even though educators from across the state really say that that 87 million could have been really transformative for educators in the present who are facing budget shortfalls in many, if not most districts across the state.

It appears that lawmakers are focused on a longer term fix rather than this annual fight.

Eric Senator Lyman Hoffmann, a Bethel Democrat, is part of the super majority caucus in the Senate.

Before last night's vote, he says he thinks the BSA will increase between the amount that passed last session $680 and up to $1,000.

Quite a spread there.

But you noted that this will set up a fight in the House where there is a BSA bill for a $300 increase.

Seems like a lot of daylight between these bills.

What are you hearing from both chambers?

How did the vote affect plans for them?

So the plan to raise the BSA is still on and as as you mentioned there, you know, the question seems to be basically how much Republican led majority is is pitching the $300 increase.

And that sets up some conflict with between them and the Senate majority.

And of course, that that $300 increase works out to about $77 million.

And similarly, some lawmakers have pulling out that's that's less than the $87 million that was allocated in one time for funding even after the vetoes.

And educators are calling for a lot more than that, more like $350 million in BSA funding to make up for that, you know, money that has been eaten away by inflation, more or less.

You know, I expect there will be some negotiations.

But, you know, at this point, I'm hesitant to speculate on exactly where the final amount will will went.

But I'll say the Senate has a wider margin.

It had 17 out of 20 in a majority rather than 23 out of 40 in house.

But as we saw with some of the votes last night, as I as Iris mentioned, Senator Jesse Bjorkman was a you know, a notable vote against the veto overrides is not totally clear to me if they're all on the same page as far as a specific amount for the BSA increases.

Hesitant to speculate too much on that.

Thank you and I will follow up there, but also, was the prospect of running for reelection this year part of the concern for some lawmakers for even taking up a vote on education funds?

Yeah.

Not to speak too much about one lawmaker, but I think that Senator Bjorkman, again, is an example of that.

He faces a reelection campaign.

And I think that his position on education funding, but also on working well with the governor, will be a factor that goes into his campaign and into what his opponents say in that race.

As for the long term prospects for education related legislation, what we're seeing from Republicans in the House majority is this effort to combine a BSA increase with other priorities that Republicans have.

So they want to spend money differently.

In the Senate, we're seeing support for just increasing that per school formula across the board.

And then in the House, what we're seeing is support for more targeted legislation.

So funding for bonuses for teachers.

There is provision to that would basically pave the way for increasing the number of charter schools in the state and also for increasing the amount of money that goes to homeschooled students in Alaska.

There's so much to talk about in education.

We could fill the whole program.

But let's move on to other issues.

The high cost of energy for Alaskans is another big concern.

Let's hear from Representative Cathy Tilton about that.

the number one priority here for our caucus, will be to figure out how we reduce the costs of energy all across Alaska, including items that are and will be have a discussion will be around Bell Energy and Cook Inlet Gas.

And Eric.

Governor Dunleavy wants to boost boost Cook Inlet gas production for the rail belt communities as current gas supplies are expected to be depleted within a few years.

He's proposed incentives through both lower taxes, lower royalties.

He's also proposing regulatory changes for electric transmission lines along the rail belt.

Have lawmakers been receptive to these ideas?

Have.

Have you heard any discussion about it?

Yeah, certainly.

The House majority certainly has, as you heard Dalton say there, and the Senate majority seems supportive of their proposals to ease the gas crunch as well, along with some other energy measures.

As you heard at the top, Senate President Gary Stevens listed energy as one of the Senate's biggest priorities in the first day in the session.

And there's also there's also a lot of money out there from the federal climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Some of that set aside to upgrade power lines.

Governor McDonald says he plans to include state funding for that in some upcoming budget revisions.

We haven't we haven't seen that quite yet.

And yet the idea is to to lower energy costs on the rail belt, sort of part of this part of this idea to make Alaska more affordable.

And the governor also wants to create passive income through carbon sequestration.

Tell us about this plan and where the legislation is is related to both carbon storage and also stands of timber.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, our colleague Kavita George has been all over this one.

The governor signed a bill last year directing the state to explore carbon storage is such that as a major source of revenue.

There are two bills on carbon sequestration last year.

One was the so-called whole bill.

There's the whole bill in the tree Bill.

I love this.

The whole bill did not pass last session.

You know, it could move forward this session and that would basically set up a system for injecting carbon dioxide into the ground.

You know, natural gas comes out of these, you know, pockets in rock and whatnot, and you can inject the carbon dioxide back in.

There is the idea.

And that would, you know, store it and prevent it from warming up the atmosphere.

But then there's the tree bill, the tree bill passed last session, and that sets up a system for the state to sell carbon credits in exchange for pledging not to cut down trees on certain state forests.

And basically, you know, that gives companies and other entities a way to offset their own carbon emissions by making it up from elsewhere.

Now, last I heard from the governor, that was in mid-December.

We were still waiting for the regulations to allow that to go forward.

Iris.

Thank you for laying that out for us.

And Iris, I do want you to follow up there and this timber standing timber idea is similar to what see Alaska, the Alaska Native Corporation in southeast Alaska has successfully done in and over a number of years, leaving timber standing and collecting income for carbon credits.

But guess what?

Have you heard from lawmakers about the feasibility of these plans?

I think it's really an open question.

And the governor last year said that the potential revenue for the state is very large in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, but that really remains to be seen and remains to be proven in real life.

There's all kinds of complications for the state to be doing this that make it different from what it was like for Alaska.

So really, we'll have to wait and see.

Well, let's move on to the permanent fund dividend.

That certainly is always a big consideration for both Alaskans and lawmakers.

What are you hearing from lawmakers about this year's?

The governor wants a large full payment.

What do lawmakers say they can agree to, Iris?

Well, the governor wants a large payment that follows a statute written in law that hasn't been followed since 2016.

And even though the governor wants that, that would be about $3,000, a little more per Alaskan.

The governor also recognizes that it's likely not going to happen.

And the reason why it's not going to happen is because it would basically bankrupt the state within a couple of years.

So I think what we'll see this year is a discussion that's probably similar to what we saw last year in which the bipartisan majority in the Senate was much more receptive to the idea of promoting a much smaller dividend in order to use some of the income from the permanent fund to fund state services.

What we saw from the House majority last year was they were favoring a larger dividend, double what the Senate wanted, and that would have left much less money to cover those important state services that people rely on, like education or public safety.

Well, we know that that will take up a lot of oxygen during deliberations.

During the session.

A somewhat new problem for Alaska has emerged in recent years after decades of more people arriving than departing the state.

That growth trend has reversed.

Here's Fairbanks Senator Cliff Bishop talking about that.

Now its 11 straight years outmigration and it's the wrong age group moving out of Alaska.

And one of those, I contend, one of those issues is a, we're not competitive with the lower 48 and wages.

Number two, we're certainly not competitive on energy prices at energy prices.

Eric, this seems like a tough thing to turn around between the loss of high paying oil sector jobs a few years back, coupled with the wage adjustments after the pandemic.

What are lawmakers considering that could actually help this attrition that we're seeing in the state right now?

Well, if you if you talk to the House minority, they'll tell you education is is the big thing.

They're pushing to stem the tide of people leaving the state.

Basically, the contention is that, you know, Alaska's schools are, you know, are lower performing them than those in other states.

Other states are investing more in their schools, and that makes them a more attractive place for families.

And they say that, you know, increasing funding to to Alaska's schools would help stem that tide.

But you heard Senator Bishop there also reference energy prices.

That's that's been a big focus for the governor and for for House Republicans and the Republican led House majority.

But but, yeah, you know, I'm sorry I got lost there.

That's all right.

I mean, it's it's a very complicated issue.

I was follow up there.

What are you hearing in this regard?

Are there some creative ideas coming forward about how we might be able to keep more people here or hopefully attract workers?

I think that some proposals related to cost of living will be pretty significant.

But I'd say the biggest legislative proposal that's related to this is the one to revamp public pensions in Alaska.

So until 2006, Alaska had a very generous public pension program that basically made sure that if people spent their career in Alaska working in public service, whether that be as teachers or troopers, they would get a guaranteed pension.

That was very generous and that incentivized people not only to come to Alaska to work here, but to stay, because staying is what guaranteed that pension in 2006 because of several reasons, including actuarial errors.

The state could no longer afford that plan, and it was replaced with what's called a defined contribution plan.

So that means that public workers, they contribute a certain amount each month for their pension, but the amount of pension that they actually get in the end isn't guaranteed.

And that means that a lot of workers, they come here, they might love Alaska, but they realize that they just can't afford it and that their pension is not guaranteed.

And that makes them leave.

And so what the Senate majority is saying is that reintroducing a defined benefits plan and going back to that guaranteed pension will actually incentivize people to come to Alaska.

And then those that are here to stay and to make a long career here, because that will be what ensures that pension long term.

What they have currently is more like a lot of traditional four one KS or a plan like that that a lot of employers have where you pay into it and you will get some income, but there is no guarantee about what that level will be.

So a huge change and also probably an expensive change.

Wouldn't, wouldn't it be.

Yeah.

And people who are opposed to this idea really say that there's no guarantee that Alaska can pay for this and afford this moving forward, just like Alaska couldn't afford it the last time.

What proponents of this bill that we're going to see moving through the legislature this yea they say that this bill is totally different from what Alaska used to have and that there's all kinds of safeguards in there to make sure that we don't go back to what happened in 2006.

Thank you so much, Iris Samuels, Eric Stone, for being with me this evening.

Passing legislation that benefits Alaskans is a lot of work.

Different ideas about how to spend or save the state's money are as plentiful as the number of residents here.

It will take calm deliberations, respectful debate and consensus building to best manage the people's business for the future health of our state.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, alaskapublic.org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Goodnight.