Alaska’s schools received the first significant permanent increase in state funding in a decade this year, after a remarkable parliamentary drama that took place over the last two years.

Sitka Representative Rebecca Himschoot doesn’t belong to either political party, but she is a career teacher, and she was a driving force behind the legislation to keep the state’s schools adequately funded.

The legislative session adjourned for the year on May 20. Himschoot recently visited KCAW and spoke with Robert Woolsey about her involvement in the effort to successfully pass school funding.

HIMSCHOOT: “There’s a lot of work that goes into an override like that. So I think for context, it’s important to realize that half of the funding the legislature appropriated in FY ‘24 had been vetoed. And then the following year, Senate Bill 140 was vetoed, which was a great compromise bill that had a lot of elements that were desired by people across the political spectrum. And then this year, House Bill 69 was vetoed, (KCAW: your bill), my bill correct, and so the legislature has been doing the will of the people we’re elected to represent for, I would say, a number of years now, only to run up against what some people call  the ‘61st vote.’ You have your 60 legislators, but without the governor, you can’t, you can’t get things done. So we’ve been trying for years to respond to what is nothing less than a crisis in our public schools across the state. And I think the override (of House Bill 57) that happened, there was a build up to that. Of course, there was a lot of conversation, a lot of hard work, a lot of compromise. So when the moment came, I think the most telling part of the override was that the Senate has to enter the House chamber. They take the role to make sure we’re all there. They pose the question, we voted and we left. There wasn’t a single floor speech that day, no one had anything to say. We’re done talking. We’ve exerted our will. We’ve exercised what we’ve been asked to do by the people of Alaska, and we’ve been doing it multiple times, and it’s time to finally act. And I think that’s what we saw that day.

KCAW: “What changed between SB 140 last year and HB 57 this year? because last year, after the veto, it’s like the wind went out of everybody’s sails, and the thing was swept off the priority list for a while. So what do you think changed? Was it that the makeup of the legislature changed, and that that kept momentum for education strong?”HIMSCHOOT: “Yes, I think there are two things that changed. One is exactly what you said, the momentum: We have coalition majorities in both bodies, so the House and Senate leadership, for the first time in many years, are aligned, and both were prioritizing education, and the reason they’re prioritizing education is the other thing that changed, which is the crisis has just grown to such a such a magnitude, that we must respond. We cannot kick the can anymore. When you see what’s happening in our schools and across the state, it doesn’t matter if it’s a rural school or an urban school, everyone is in crisis. When you see that, you have to respond, so by having aligned bodies and by allowing the crisis to get as bad as it has, yeah, collectively,  the will to do something, grows.”

Note: Although the legislature overrode Gov. Dunleavy’s third veto of education funding last month, there’s a possibility that he could still veto the actual appropriation of the funding anytime before June 19. A veto that late in the year, however, would throw many districts into financial disarray just as school is about to begin, and many legislators doubt that even this governor – a former school superintendent himself – would choose that option.

Sen. Bert Stedman sheds light on budget process

With over two decades under his belt in the Alaska Senate, Bert Stedman never appears terribly disturbed by what happens in the state capitol. He’s seen his share of both wins and losses, and understands that balancing those opposites are how things work in the legislature.

Stedman stopped by KCAW recently to reflect on the last legislative session. He spoke with Robert Woolsey.

I bumped into Sen. Bert Stedman in Harrigan Centennial Hall on the day of Sitka’s special election (May 28). Everyone else was weighing in at the ballot box on whether to limit cruise traffic in town.

Stedman was there to speak to the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was holding a two-day meeting. Stedman wants to see the fund modernized, and protected by a constitutional amendment that would prevent a simple majority of the legislature from draining the Constitutional Budget Reserve – where earnings from the fund are socked away.

He also wouldn’t mind if the Senate had a say in appointing trustees, but he doesn’t think that will happen.

“We don’t have the ability to confirm them, although we would like to,” said Stedman. “But we got this pesky document called the Constitution and Separation of Powers in the way, so we’re unable to accomplish that. And we would obviously like that (ability), but we do not. So they are appointed by the governor, and hopefully we’ll go back to the way it has historically been managed. And I’m not saying that there’s political cronyism going on today, but there seemed to be a whiff of it in here a little bit ago, and hope we put that in the rear view mirror and never see it again.”

On other money matters, Stedman has extraordinary influence. He co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which writes both the state’s operating and capital budgets. One positive outcome of this year’s legislative session was a $700 increase in per-pupil funding for schools – the BSA, or base student allocation. That $700 figure came out of Stedman’s committee.

“So we were pursuing the $680 BSA with the numeric within the budget plan to get to a balanced budget,” he said, “and we got an agreement from most of our colleagues – at least the recognition that there wasn’t going to be a $1,500 or $1,000 BSA, and we’re gonna have to have a different number. But some of them wish the number was different from $680. It could be $679 or $681, they were just tired of hearing $680. So the next day we decided, ‘Well, let’s just add $20 bucks. $700 is a nice round number. That’s where it came from. Just that simple.”

Stedman voted to sustain the governor’s veto of two previous bills that had larger increases to schools, but he joined 45 other legislators in overriding the governor’s veto of the $700 increase. However, he knows the issue is not settled.

“My guess is that this discussion is far from over,” said Stedman. “We have housing issues with teachers in a lot of the rural parts of the state. The retention issue – a lot of us believe that’s fundamentally based in salaries. Some of the entry level salaries are too low to retain them. When a young Sitkan graduates from Sitka High School, goes off and gets a teaching certificate, and then goes to work in the Midwest or Florida or wherever, because they can pay them more as an entry level teacher than we can in Alaska, something’s wrong. We have a higher cost of living. And then you take a look at Sitka, in particular, we have extremely high housing, so we get a double-whammy.”

Stedman, a Republican, shares the chairmanship of the Finance Committee with Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel. Hoffman manages the operating budget; Stedman takes the capital budget, the money for maintaining and building state infrastructure. Both budgets are closely connected to the price of oil, Alaska’s most valuable export.

Stedman is frustrated by policy from the Trump administration that runs counter to Alaska’s interests.

“The headwinds just keep getting worse out of Washington,” he said. “I mean, almost every other week there’s some bad news: We’re going to lose, you know, Medicaid reimbursements, and and then right before we left (at adjournment), it was LIHEAP (low income fuel assistance) for a lot of citizens, including some in Sitka. Anyway, there’s a whole litany of things on the hit list in Washington, and we don’t know how bad they’re going to be, but they weren’t positive. And the direction out of Washington to move oil prices down to stimulate the economy, that’s good for California, but it’s not good for Alaska, because we are an oil-based economy.”

Oil is very volatile right now; Stedman’s committee worked to cover basic capital expenses assuming the price would not drop below $66 per barrel. He says many of the expenses covered in this budget should be double – even triple – what the state can afford. Gone are the billions available only a decade-and-a-half ago. He sees more lean times ahead, if the White House gets its way.

“What I mentioned many, many times to my colleagues in both the House and the Senate, when they would bring up the budget, I’d just flat tell them, nobody’s getting anything,” Stedman said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re in the majority, or the minority, how long you’ve been here, what position you are in – it’s zero. Everybody gets a lump of coal. And next year, if we end up at $60 a barrel, you’re not even going to get the coal. You’re just going to get the bag it came in this year.”

Sen. Bert Stedman represents Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, and all communities in between. He’ll run for his sixth full term next year.

In an 11 to 9 vote Friday morning, the Senate passed a stripped-down version of House Bill 69, removing all policy items and leaving only the funding increase. Later that day, the House passed the amended bill 21-16. Three Senate majority members, including Sitka Republican Senator Bert Stedman, voted against the bill. Stedman said he supported increasing education funding, but he didn’t see how this funding could fit into a balanced budget. 

“We also have to have a balanced budget by the Constitution, and it’s very difficult when we’re already 200 million [dollars] underwater to fit this in and make it work,” he said during Friday’s floor session.

In an interview with KCAW on Monday, Sitka Independent Representative Rebecca Himschoot said funding Alaska’s public schools is also a constitutional obligation.

“The Constitution doesn’t say we should maintain our schools when we have the money to do it,” she said. “We are obligated to maintain our schools.”

Governor Mike Dunleavy called the bill a “joke” and said he will veto it. Himschoot, who sponsored the bill, said that’s not necessarily the end. 

“We have the opportunity to override,” she said. “We still have a month of session left. There’s a lot — there’s a lot we can still do.”

The amended version of House Bill 69 now goes to the governor. A veto override would require a two-thirds vote from the legislature. 

Note: Mt. Edgecumbe’s proposed ’25 budget also includes reductions to the school’s classified staff, reduced hours for residential staff, and the elimination of sports travel and extra-duty contracts except what can be supported by the Student Activities Fund. Read the full budget presentation to the Advisory Board.

Travis Vaughn is a parent to Mt. Edgecumbe’s Class of 2024 co-valedictorian. Another child is a senior this year, also near the top of the class in academics, and a state contender in Wrestling.

Vaughn is the president of Mt. Edgecumbe’s Advisory Board. He says board members weren’t completely surprised when they were presented with the proposed budget for next year. Probably baffled is a better word. 

“The problem is we’ve made school funding so opaque in this country that nobody can understand it,” said Vaughn. “That’s the source of the real problem, and nobody wants to pay… I don’t know what you do with half the teachers. How does that work? 

The Advisory Board doesn’t oversee Mt. Edgecumbe like a local school board. That’s the job of the State Board of Education. Vaughn and his fellow Advisory Board members keep an eye on the things that make a school more than just a brick building with classrooms. Mt. Edgecumbe currently has 32 teachers for its 420 students. Rolling staff back to 15 or 17 positions, plus eliminating the competitive sports programs, is what Vaughn calls “carnage.” I asked him if he believed the school itself was in jeopardy.

Vaughn: What’s the point of a high school with no teachers, no sports, no cultural activities?

KCAW: Will Mt. Edgecumbe close, conceivably?

Vaughn: I don’t think so. I don’t think that that’s a realistic possibility. I don’t think that the political powers that be, they probably understand that that is a disaster that they don’t want to touch because we have alumni in every voting district in the state, and I don’t think they really want to drive us off a cliff.

Listen to the full interview with MEHS Advisory Board president Travis Vaughn.

Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot co-chairs the House Education Committee. “ The problem is that Edgecumbe, when you start cutting into the bone, you impact the program so significantly that you start to wonder if you can even have a school,” she said.

Himschoot has introduced legislation (HB69) to catch-up state education funding with inflation over the next three years. The BSA, or base student allocation – hasn’t significantly increased since 2016. Most school districts, like Sitka’s, have been able to stay afloat by increasing class sizes, and shifting some expenses onto local government. Himschoot says Mt. Edgecumbe is more akin to the 19 rural schools in Alaska’s Regional Education Attendance Areas, or REAA’s, that are not supported by a local tax base.

“And that puts them in an exceedingly difficult position,” she said, “because there is nowhere else to turn. And so that has helped to make the case for why a base student allocation increase is so desperately needed across the state – that’s all those schools have.”

Himschoot’s bill has broad support in the House, but her colleagues have already proposed substitute language (CSHB69) limiting the BSA increase to $1,000, with a $450 reading incentive grant. That language could get the bill passed in the House, but the Senate is a different matter. Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

“Frankly, we have significant deficit issues we’re trying to deal with, and those big BSA numbers are probably not going to materialize,” Stedman said.

Stedman managed to find some extra instructional funding for Mt. Edgecumbe last year. It’s not clear to him how the school’s situation could have become so dire in so short a time, with more or less the same number of students and same revenues as this year.

“We’ll have a conversation with the Department of Education, which we do every year at Edgecumbe, and take a look at it,” said Stedman. “But it doesn’t seem to smell right to me.”

Administration’s response: Mt. Edgecumbe’s budget crisis emerged from the COVID pandemic

KCAW received this email from Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent Suzzuk Huntington:

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mt. Edgecumbe High School increased its staffing while reducing its enrollment to keep a number of rooms empty to mitigate illness for quarantine or isolation. During this time, we added staff to address the increased mental health needs and needs related to learning loss. Now that this federal funding has expired and the pandemic is over, MEHS is moving back to our pre-pandemic staffing ratios with class sizes from as low as six to as high as 30, depending on the course and student interest.

Last school year, the impact of our reduced enrollment came to light when the Fall OASIS data was finalized at 398 students. It caused us to look closely at our management plan. We requested and received support from our state leadership to offset increases in some of our fixed costs and focused the bulk of our efforts building our student enrollment back to pre-pandemic levels. This included sending early-round acceptance letters in April, which has long been our practice. We also re-instituted the process of offering acceptance to students in August, as returning students or accepted students change their minds and decide not to attend MEHS after all. This continued right up to the first day of classes. We were partially successful in our efforts to increase enrollment, but we did not reach the 435-445 target. We started the year with 429 students and had 417 for our official fall count. 

Mt. Edgecumbe teachers first learned about some possible cuts last December, and they were reassured by the Commissioner’s office that Mt. Edgecumbe would stay open. But Matt Hunter, president of the union representing teachers (Teacher’s Education Association – Mt. Edgecumbe, or TEAM), doesn’t think it would be the same school if half of the teaching positions were eliminated.

“Our students really thrive when they can have classes like art and music and electives,” he said. “And if we don’t have that, it will be hard to attract kids. So… there’s always efficiencies, but oftentimes they come with a cost that maybe isn’t foreseen.”

Hunter says Mt. Edgecumbe has an incredibly strong program and teaching team. He hopes there will be some reassurance from the legislature soon, before his members begin looking for jobs elsewhere.

In the meantime, Travis Vaughn says the Advisory Board supports the work of Mt. Edgecumbe’s superintendent and the Department of Education – and he’s not laying blame on the legislature, or even the governor. Nevertheless he remains frustrated with state education funding. He sees it as a shell game, and he wouldn’t mind if Alaskans were more upset about it.

“People need to organize on their own and start demanding this money, because for our government to tell teachers, cops and firefighters that there’s no money is just a lie,” said Vaughn.

Having once managed large government contracts for the Army, Vaughn is wary of the “word salad” that accompanies the state education budget. “It’s a magician’s trick,” he says, “to distract you while the man in the black hat walks out the back door with all the money.”  

The decision by the Sitka School Board to move ahead with a major staff cut came just hours after some relatively good news from Juneau. The Senate Finance Committee – co-chaired by Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman – had drafted a balanced state budget for next year that included a one-time $680 increase in per-pupil funding for K-12 education, and the budget had won approval from the full Senate.

Gov. Dunleavy in March vetoed an education bill with a permanent increase of $680 in per pupil funding, and last year he vetoed half of a one-time appropriation, and sent public schools an extra $340.

During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Dunleavy told reporters he’d let the full $680 stand this time around.

“I’ve told people I’m open to an increase in one-time funding, especially to help with the inflationary issues, yes,” said Gov. Dunleavy.

“Does your number match their (the legislature’s) number?” asked Becky Bohrer, with the Associated Press.

“I don’t have a pencil on me here,” responded Dunleavy, “but if it’s close to the $680-something, yes.”

The Sitka School Board, however, chose to stick with a budget carefully built around only a $500 increase, as a way to hedge its bets. Board member Phil Burdick explained why.

“So we’re going to have to go based on this $500,” said Burdick. “Or decide we want to do a $680 budget, trusting the governor. (Laughter in audience.)  That was not a joke.”

Definitely not a joke. The Sitka School District has been faced with budget cuts and potential staff reductions in the past, but those have almost always been managed through retirements, or teachers leaving voluntarily for work elsewhere. This time, however, 16 teachers are getting laid off. The remaining staff will be reshuffled among the five schools, but the direct loss in positions will be:

3.5 fewer positions at Sitka High,

.5 fewer positions at Pacific High,

3.5 fewer positions at Blatchley Middle School,

5 fewer positions at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary,

and 3 fewer position at Xóots Elementary.

Course offerings will also be limited. There will be nine fewer electives offered at Sitka High, and 18 fewer electives at Blatchley. Pupil-to-Teacher ratios in elementary classrooms – or PTRs – will increase, to 18 at Xóots and 24 at Keet Gooshi Heen.

PTRs will also go up at Blatchley and Sitka High, but those classes are structured differently than at the elementary level, so they average lower. Nevertheless, high school Biology teacher Stacy Golden offered some insight into what it will look like.

“So I just want to give you an idea of how my life has changed this week, to give you an idea of what it’s like,” said Golden. “So I currently have about 128 students. Next year, I will have at least 150 students. And I’ll do it, and I’ll make it work. And in my higher elective classes that thrive at those numbers of 15, because I’m the Biology teacher. So it’s all place-based and tons of outside and tons of field trips. I run into the same dynamic that any other teacher would: when I’ve got 25 kids, it’s a whole lot harder to deal with them in these more remote environments than it is for 15. Again, I’ll make it work.”

If the governor approves the operating budget with the one-time increase of $680 per pupil, it will save four teaching jobs in Sitka – for next year. The year after, if the governor continues to resist increasing funding for schools, Superintendent Deidre Jenson said things would be worse, and the district would likely have to close and consolidate schools, as has been done this year in Juneau, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.

The budget decisions made by the Sitka  board this spring have been driven by the numbers, and how many jobs may be lost. Board member Phil Burdick wondered what else was being lost.

“We have a strategic plan that talks a lot about equity. We have a strategic plan that talks about closing learning gaps, opportunity gaps, achievement gaps,” Burdick said, “and I get that it is complex at the secondary level. But those numbers don’t make sense to me. I can’t get into the weeds about how staff manage their buildings. And I’m going to trust that they know what’s best for their buildings. But from what I see, I still see higher butts in seats at the lower level than I do at the upper level.”

The school board has a statutory obligation to pass a budget by May 1, so that is what it did (4-0 with Steve Morse absent and excused). But non-retention notices don’t have to go out to teachers until May 13. Board president Tristan Guevin said the district should consider this a placeholder budget until more information came in about the state operating budget, and other variables like insurance premiums, and federal “Secure Rural Schools” funding. He called for a special meeting on May 9, to give the administration more time to adjust the numbers and plan for next year in a way that would help the district recover its momentum. Even with the possibility of saving four teaching jobs, that is a tall order. “In my time in Sitka,” said Guevin, “I’ve never come close to seeing reductions like this.”

With about half of absentee and early ballots now in for some Alaska districts following Tuesday’s election, Rebecca Himschoot and Bert Stedman appear likely to represent Sitka and Petersburg and outlying communities in the new legislative session in Juneau this January. Stedman’s Senate District also includes Ketchikan and surrounding communities, and his lead over his challenger will almost certainly hold.

All election results are still unofficial, but Rebecca Himschoot’s combined total of election night votes and early/absentee votes has firmed up her lead over Kenny Karl Skaflestad, with 57% of the vote (3,053) to Skaflestad’s 43% (2,313).

While it’s mathematically possible for Skaflestad to win, the former Hoonah mayor would have to pick up nearly all of the outstanding advance votes to come out on top.

Himschoot, a Sitka Assembly member running for state office as an independent, is relieved the campaign is over.

“Obviously, I’m really pleased with the outcome that we’re seeing right now,” said Himschoot. “And I’m hesitating to make any bold statements, but certainly I’m very optimistic, and it looks like things are gonna go the way I want it to. And then I’m just really, really pleased with that outcome. And I’m really pleased with the campaign. And I think the biggest feeling I have right now is gratitude. I just feel really incredibly grateful to my team, to the voters.”

Himschoot says she’s also feeling exhausted. House District 2 is more than Sitka and Petersburg: there are about 15 communities scattered across the region, and Himschoot spent much of her campaign getting to know them.

That Bert Stedman is well-known is an understatement. He’s been representing all the communities of Senate A, which includes both House Districts 2 and 1, since he was appointed by then-Governor Frank Murkowski 19 years ago. With about half the outstanding absentee and early votes now counted, his election-night lead over Petersburg challenger – and fellow Republican – Mike Sheldon remains solid: over 68% (6,958) for Stedman, to 33% for Sheldon (3,197).

Stedman began visiting communities around the district the third week of July. He says it’s been a tiring campaign, but also gratifying.

“It’s been quite a long haul, covered a lot of a lot of communities, met a lot of people,” said Stedman. “But it is humbling and very appreciative that 70% of the district voted in favor of my reelection to represent them for another four years after 19 years of service. It’s it’s very nice.”

Stedman could return to the senate with significant clout, depending on the outcome of close races in Southcentral Alaska. Over his nearly two-decades in the legislature, he’s had ranking committee assignments in both bipartisan coalitions and Republican majorities. The strong nod from voters in Southeast could help him land another leadership assignment when the state senate organizes next January. 

“I’ve got a lot of experience in years,” he said. “So even if the vote count was substantially different than it is today, I’d still be in a very good position when it comes to organizational positioning, just due to knowledge of the of the inner workings of the legislature, and seniority.”

Although the legislative races for House 2 and Senate A may have settled, that’s because both only had two candidates. Other statewide races with three or more candidates – including governor, US Senator, and US Representative – won’t be decided until November 23, when ranked-choice ballots are tabulated for any race where no candidate has received over 50% of votes.

The state budget Gov. Dunleavy signed into law in June has a surplus of almost $2 billion, but that won’t necessarily translate into the windfall megaprojects of Alaska’s first oil boom.

Rather, the wartime surplus is going to fill all the financial potholes in the state government, schools,  and agencies that deepened during the last decade of low oil prices.

In part three of our interview series with Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee, KCAW’s Robert Woolsey asked Stedman to share his insights into how Alaska is spending its unexpected wealth this year.

Part one: Read or listen to Sen. Stedman’s position on using Sitka’s Permanent Fund to build a marine haulout.

Part two: Read or listen to Sen. Stedman discuss the Katlian Bay Road, and what the project could mean for future road construction along the Southeast coast.

Every $10 increase in the price of oil = $1 billion for Alaska

The main thing to remember about oil prices – and who isn’t reminded every time they fill up a car? – is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, and the subsequent embargo of Russian oil, pushed oil from $80 per barrel, to $120 per barrel.

In Alaska, every $10 dollar increase in the price of oil amounts to about $1 billion in state revenue.

This all happened fast. The Alaska legislature was in session. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee said there was consensus nevertheless to build a conservative budget that breaks even at pre-war prices, but funnels money into the state’s two major savings accounts, into the Permanent Fund, and into some other select programs, if the price meets or exceeds certain benchmarks.

“And the reason we wanted a structure like this, is we wanted to get the discussion on the table of how do we save our windfall revenue in the event of,  and when it comes – and it does come from time to time,” said Stedman. “So we don’t just balloon up our expenditures or squander it off on frivolous spending, but actually make it beneficial for decades.”

This is a little different approach than the early years of Alaska’s oil boom, when it seemed that there was no end in sight to oil revenues. Times have changed, of course, and Stedman has watched Alaska spend more than it’s earned every year since 2012. Now the budget’s got these “levers” to make sure nothing’s spent unless the revenue is there. For example: $85 oil is the basic budget; $87 oil starts forward funding of the state’s public schools, or paying for schools two years at a time, rather than one; $101 oil begins to refill the nearly-empty Constitutional Budget Reserve; $111 oil and above is deposited into the Permanent Fund. 

The Big Picture: Where’s the surplus going?

This year’s supplemental budget process added hundreds of millions of dollars to the FY22 budget, including $221 million earmarked for local governments to pay off school bond debt.

Even with that extra spending, a huge surplus remained to be diverted into various savings accounts:

• $199 million to the constitutionally protected portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund;
• $300 million to the Statutory Budget Reserve, a savings account that can be spent with a majority vote of the House and Senate and the approval of the governor;
• $342 million to the Higher Education Investment Fund, which funds college scholarships and the state’s equivalent of medical school;
• $19 million to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s vessel replacement fund; and
• $1 billion to the Constitutional Budget Reserve, a savings account that requires a three-quarters vote of the House and Senate and approval of the governor.

The higher education fund and the ferry system fund were drained by the Legislature’s failure to approve a supermajority vote last year. 

The money deposited into the funds this year should refill them, if Dunleavy signs legislation that would prevent them from being drained again.

– As reported by James Brooks, in the nonpartisan Alaska Beacon

The Permanent Fund Dividend remains divisive

Stedman would like to see even more money go into the Constitutional Budget Reserve, the state’s main savings account, but it’s not an especially sexy policy. We already know what the main distraction will be in the capitol next year.

“But then there’s also the debate over the dividend,” he said.

The Permanent Fund Dividend captures the interest of Alaskans like nothing else. But it presents a problem for conservatives like Stedman who have a very restrained approach to government spending, even when that spending is a cash payout to residents. He says the dividend formula is from a different era.

“You know, we have the dividend formula that was put in place 40 years ago, under a totally different portfolio structure – it was all bonds,” Stedman said. “And then the split was 50% of the earnings, roughly, to the people for the dividends and the other 50% to the state, and the state reinvested their monies, and we now have a little less than $80 billion in there. But the payout of that old structured formula is significant. It would be probably $4,200, this year, somewhere in there. And you cannot cash flow, the math doesn’t work. You can’t cash flow that and meet (the state’s) other obligations.”

The final compromise on the dividend this year was $2,600, with an additional $600 in energy relief, for a total of $3,200. 

In aggregate, the dividend is just over $2 billion. Stedman is not opposed to sending checks to residents, but he thinks it’s important to the overall debate to consider the trade-offs.

“The state is in dire need of infrastructure,” said Stedman. “We can look around our own community and see that, and as you go from community to community. Alaska’s a young  state, there’s a lot of things that need to be built. We’ve got to expand our energy generation capacity throughout Southeast, including Sitka. We’ve got to start looking in that direction again. It’s  just something to consider: You’ve got to have a balance, you’ve got to meet your obligations, and run your state and make sure your economy’s  cooking along and people have jobs and kids are getting educated. So it’s not something where one issue is prioritized over everything else.”

Curbing the impulse to spend in a windfall year

And what about the big projects? The roads, bridges, ferry terminals, and other capital spending that rides on the coattails of high oil prices? Stedman says the legislature allocated twice as much to projects in the current budget than in recent years, but he himself was reluctant to go overboard.

“A lot of members wanted to have an even bigger capital budget and buy more things for their communities, with the election year and all that stuff,” said Stedman. “I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to concentrate on fixing the fiscal position of the state. So we don’t go into another oil dip, and then we’re totally crippled. And I certainly didn’t want to start new, bigger projects, and then have the finances turned around on us, and we’re stuck with a bunch of this deferred maintenance that we already have, and projects that are underway that are now in trouble, and we don’t have the resources to help them. So I wanted to concentration on the state looking at their deferred maintenance. And the state’s more responsible for that than the local maintenance. And taking a look at at building our savings position, along with increasing the fiscal position of the cities and communities, because they’ve been hit hard also.

The biggest immediate benefit to Sitka is not building something new, but paying for some things already built. The city will get a check for just over $4 million to cover school bond debt reimbursement that had been vetoed by the governor in his first year in office. The bonds paid for numerous improvements and remodels in the Sitka School district over the past decade. Stedman also wanted to knock off the total $200 million in deferred maintenance for Alaska’s schools, but he says “I did not prevail in that position.” Instead, the senate opted to allocate half that amount.

Former state legislator Les Gara is the only Democrat in a field of ten candidates vying for the job of Alaska’s governor this fall.

He left his seat representing Anchorage in 2019, after serving in the House for 13 years.

That same year, Michael Dunleavy defeated incumbent Bill Walker to win the governor’s office, and Gara has not been pleased with Dunleavy’s policies or leadership so far.

Gara was on a whistlestop tour of Southeast last week (6-10-22), including Sitka, where he spoke with  KCAW’s Robert Woolsey.

Listen to an extended interview with Democratic candidate for governor Rep. Les Gara.

The challenge for anyone running against the current governor is money. Gov. Dunleavy favors the largest possible dividends from Alaska’s Permanent Fund. The legislature controls the state’s purse however, and has consistently held the governor in check in order to not drain the state’s savings accounts, and dividends have been a bit more modest as a result.  

Still, a big check from the state is the only campaign promise many voters will need to hear this year. Les Gara thinks Gov. Dunleavy is not disclosing the full cost of large dividends.

“Well, first, it’s a false promise. And that’s why I’m running,” Gara said. “This governor has made the state poor. He’s made a resource-rich state poor, by giving away our oil for almost nothing. So we have $1.3 billion less in state funds, because we give away $1.3 billion in oil companies subsidies the oil industry does not need. And without that money, he makes false promises about the PFD, which he knows he can only fund by cutting schools, cutting our construction budget, cutting reimbursement to communities for school construction, cutting Senior Services, cutting Children’s Services, and not building a single state sponsored renewable energy project anywhere in the state in his whole three years. He’s done nothing.”

Gara is the only Democrat that voters will see on the August 16 primary election ballot for governor. Outside of the Republican incumbent, of the other eight candidates Gara’s major rival is likely former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent. Nowadays when politics can seem polarized to the point of hostility, Gara says he found common ground with Walker during the latter’s term in office.

“Bill and I get along fine,” he said. “The thing that we have in common is we both believe that you should put your politics to the side when you can build something better for the greater good. And there there are times where both of us were able to do that.”

Nevertheless, Gara has to draw a hard line between himself and Walker. Among other issues, Gara is staking out marriage equality, a woman’s right to choose, and school funding.

“I’m pro choice, he’s pro life,” Gara said, bluntly. “I believe that it’s not my business who marries whom. I believe in equal rights for all. He believes marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe in strong educational funding every year that doesn’t go down. His first two years as governor, he cut education funding by over $80 million at a time when we should have been cutting oil company cash credit payments that we were giving them instead. That was the disagreement we had back then.”

If elected governor, Gara would likely be sworn in along with a Republican majority in the Alaska Senate. He says he’ll have allies like Republican Sen. Bert Stedman of Sitka, who’s been a consistent fiscal conservative, often at odds with Gov. Dunleavy, and some of the more extreme views of the senate majority. (Note: Sen. Bert Stedman is being challenged this year by fellow Republican Michael Sheldon of Petersburg.)

“Bert and I both agree we’re not getting a fair share for our oil,” Gara explained. “The choices this governor has made people make are false: He’s made you choose a permanent fund dividend or schools, or a marine highway, or a university, or job training, or a construction budget that we could use to build renewable energy across the state. He’s left over 50 communities with no police whatsoever. That’s 19th Century policing for a community that has no police where somebody is assaulted or God forbid, even raped, and the aggressor gets to lord over them for a day or two days until a trooper flies and that’s injustice, not justice. And that’s what this governor has done. And it’s a false choice to say we have to pick between those things, and turn people against each other, turn permanent fund supporters against school supporters, against university supporters, against marine highway supporters, against rural Alaska supporters. We don’t have to turn people against each other.”

During his visit to Southeast, Gara traveled between communities by air. With cutbacks to the Alaska Marine Highway, surface transportation has become impractical for quick hops. Gara says he never balked when Sitka legislators Stedman, or Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, pushed for a better deal for the ferry system.

“I always worked with the Southeast legislators, Jonathan, Bert, and others,” Gara said, “and when they said ‘this is what we need to make the very system vibrant,’ I said ‘I support you.’ Right? Because in Southcentral Alaska, the state subsidizes asphalt. It’s not like those roads are free. The state subsidizes them. So people who live on the road system cannot complain that the ferry system also costs money. The mode of transportation down here is water. The mode of transportation between communities on the road system is asphalt. Both deserve support. And so I’ve always been a strong marine highway supporter.”

Gara’s visit to Sitka coincided with the June meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council – five of whose seven members are nominated by the governor of Alaska. Gara understands that this is far from an inconsequential responsibility – and he understands those consequences.

“And you know, you’ve got people like Linda Behnken in this community who are taking the lead and saying dumping 1,000 tons of halibut dead to the bottom of the Bering Sea — that’s not rational fisheries policy,” said Gara. “Killing 550,000 chums just on the Bering Sea, when the western Alaska communities don’t have chums to to eat, to put on their table for subsistence, or to commercial fish. That’s not sane fishing policy, we can change that. As governor, I get to appoint the majority of the members to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. I get to nominate them, they’ll get appointed. And so we get the majority of the seats as Alaskans. As Governor, I can change that — I couldn’t change that as a legislator. This governor has given away our fisheries, to outside interests, to Seattle-based factory trawlers. This fishery belongs to the people of the State of Alaska, so we can have vibrant communities where people who rely on fish for food get fish for food, where people who rely on fish for income get fish for income, and even more people rely on fish just to have a little bit of fun get to have some fun.”

Gara so far is trailing former Gov. Bill Walker in fundraising, by about $170,000 – having raised $539,000 to Walker’s $712,000 – but as of March this year he reported having raised over $200,000 more than incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Gara’s running mate for Lt. Governor is Jessica Cook, a sixth-grade teacher from Palmer.

Note: The 2022 Alaska Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, August 16, to narrow down the field of candidates not only for governor, but also for the US Congress and the Alaska Legislature.  The Primary Election will coincide with a Special Election to determine who will take the late Don Young’s seat in Congress just until January of next year.

Under the first draft of a state redistricting plan released late Thursday, Southeast Alaska keeps all four of its current House seats despite losing population in all but one of those constituencies since 2010. 

A five-person panel is redrawing legislative districts using recent census figures. It’s a once-in-a-decade exercise that sets the boundaries of political constituencies.

A decade ago Southeast lost a Senate and a House seat when the districts were redrawn due to population shifts. That’s largely due to faster growth in the Rail Belt, which can shift political clout to the road system.

“There’s always a concern that Southeast as a region is not able to grow economically and especially at the rate that the Mat-Su area is,” Robert Venables of Southeast Conference, a nonpartisan civic and business organization told CoastAlaska. “And so even if we didn’t lose population, which we are, we can’t keep up with the pace that they are increasing.”

Yakutat brought back into Southeast’s legislative orbit

There would be some major reshuffling in 2022. The new legislative maps would create a largely rural coastal House district from Yakutat down south along the outer coast, to Sitka, Prince of Wales Island and all the way to Hyder on the Canadian border. 

Ketchikan’s House district would be split with areas south of the city limits joined up with this 600-odd mile long coastal district largely represented now by Sitka Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. 

It’s unclear from the level of detail provided in which district Ketchikan independent Rep. Dan Ortiz’s residence would fall, and whether he’d be competing with the Sitka Democrat in the 2022 legislative election.

But redistricting sometimes affects sitting lawmakers.

“We’ve seen the lines drawn where the incumbent is now in a different district and has to run against that incumbent or actually move addresses,” Venables said.

The areas lost by Ketchikan’s current district includes parts of Prince of Wales and Metlakatla which would be linked with the outer coast. 

Capital seats reshuffled with Haines and Skagway

The capital Juneau keeps its two Democratic-held House seats with a reshuffling that would remove Haines and Skagway from Juneau’s Democratic-leaning downtown areas. Instead, the upper Lynn Canal would be joined with Juneau’s Republican-leaning Mendenhall Valley. 

Southeast’s two incumbent senators, Bert Stedman and Jesse Kiehl, would be largely unaffected and their residences would still remain within the new boundaries.

Now that the maps have been released, the Alaska Redistricting Board will take public input before beginning a series of statewide meetings. 

The redistricting board, which is appointed by all three branches of government, is working against a November 10 deadline to finalize the maps. That may not be the end of the line. Redistricting carries implications for political clout and the final boundaries often end up decided in court.

Former state Sen. Albert Kookesh has died. The Angoon Democrat served his community in the Alaska Legislature for 14 years. He was 72 year old.

Albert Kookesh represented Angoon in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1997-2004, before moving over to the Alaska Senate for another seven years from 2005-2012.

Kookesh’s senate territory was a huge, mostly-rural district that covered Metlakatla to the Bering Sea, and was quickly branded “The Iceworm District,” for its resemblance to the long, skinny relative of the common earthworm that lives in glacial ice.

The Iceworm District was split during redistricting in 2012, when Southeast Alaska lost its third senator to population growth in the Mat-Su. Senate colleagues Albert Kookesh and Sitka’s Bert Stedman were forced into a showdown that year that neither really wanted.

“Albert and myself had several conversations well before the election campaigning even started,” said Stedman, “and one of the things we wanted to make sure didn’t happen was that no matter who was selected as a senator in Southeast, that we didn’t have a divisive election and a divided senate district.”

Stedman won the seat, and Kookesh ended his legislative career — but his influence didn’t end. Sen. Stedman says former Sen. Kookesh remained a prominent voice in Southeast issues.

“When he was out of the senate, we’d have conversations about policy issues also,” said Stedman, “because he grew up in Southeast and knew the country very, very well.”

A Statement on the passing of Sen. Albert Kookesh, from the Sealaska Heritage Institute

We are devastated to say that our dear friend, the great Tlingit leader Albert Kookesh, has Walked Into The Forest. He was 72.Albert was Eagle of the Teiḵweidí (Brown Bear) clan, Child of the L’eeneidí (Dog Salmon) clan. His Tlingit name was Kaasháan. Albert was a true Aan Yadí — a noble person — and his leadership was felt everywhere. He received his B.A. from Alaska Methodist University and his Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Washington. He helped form Sealaska and was an early director, elected as an independent candidate in 1976. And his legacy there touched everyone. He was a guiding force in helping Sealaska settle its final land entitlement; he helped pass legislation that allowed shareholder descendants born after 1971 to enroll in the corporation and claim their birthright and to provide special benefits to Elders; he advocated for a scholarship endowment that has since helped thousands of Native people attain a higher education. He was also instrumental in establishing the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) endowment. His leadership paved the way for monetizing Sealaska’s timber without harvesting it through the sale of carbon credits, which brought significant revenues to Sealaska. He led the way as the chair of Sealaska for so many years. Albert spent time in the trenches, working for our people. He was an advocate for Alaska Native affairs for many years, starting with the ANB Grand Camp, where he served as Grand Secretary and Grand President and honed his leadership skills. Albert also served as a member and later co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) for 16 years. As co-chair of AFN, he helped protect subsistence rights when opponents were trying to strip federal protections and advocated for the recognition of Alaska tribes. He was an instrumental supporter of the construction of Sealaska Heritage’s Walter Soboleff Building, and he, as a state senator together with state representative Bill Thomas, helped secure $5 million for its construction.He served our people on so many levels: Through Sealaska, AFN, and ANB; as a director of First Alaskans Institute; as a lawmaker who served in the House and Senate for 16 years; as vice president of Sealaska Heritage’s board of trustees.SHI President Rosita Worl, who campaigned with Albert on many issues and considered him a dear friend, addressed him at a recent ceremony held in Angoon just prior to his passing, where she, on behalf of Sealaska, presented him with a ceremonial headdress with Bear ears and abalone —known as g̱̱angóosh in Tlingit — in gratitude for his service. “Your footsteps are everywhere. Your leadership is everywhere. You went through some hard times when you were penalized for standing up for our rights. You were the one to take the brunt of it,” Worl said, referring to a time in 2009 when the state cited three Southeast Native fishermen, including Albert, accusing them of taking more sockeye than their permits allowed.Albert, who embraced the battle, and the other fishermen fought the case all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, where they argued the 15-fish bag limit allowed by the permit was arbitrary and failed to account for the traditional approach to sockeye harvest in Angoon. The court agreed in 2015 and dismissed the case, which set an important precedent in favor of subsistence rights.He was a man of the people, always there to help when people asked for his assistance. He was like a godfather in that way, always giving favors whenever he could. He even took children into his home for years when they needed support. Among his greatest legacies are his gifts to his family and his home community. He chose to remain in Angoon to ensure that his children were grounded in their culture. At the same time, he instilled in them the value of seeking higher education, and many are now serving the Native community as educators and organizational executives. “These are the legacies. These are the legacies that you have bequeathed to our children and to our future generations,” Worl said. “Gunalchéesh, Albert. Your name will always be remembered.” Condolences to Albert’s family, his clan, and all of the people he touched along the way.

Kookesh was a 1967 graduate of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, and a Gold Medal basketball player. He went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Alaska Methodist University in 1971, and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Washington in 1976.

Kookesh never practiced law, however, a fact he was always quick to point out to reporters: He was a legislator, he would say, not a lawyer.

Kookesh divided his time between his legislative duties and service on the boards of both the regional Native corporation, Sealaska Inc., and the village corporation for Angoon, Kootznoowoo, Inc. 

The Alaska House Majority Coalition issued a statement recognizing the extraordinary legacy of Kookesh: Former Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon wrote, “Albert was a lifelong advocate for his people, a force in Alaska politics, and a legendary Alaska Native leader. He achieved the trifecta of serving in the Senate, as co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives, and as president of the Sealaska board.” Edgmon concluded, “My thoughts are with his wife, Sally, his entire family, and the community of Angoon.”

Bert Stedman has clinched his fifth term in the Alaska State Senate.

Over 3,000 absentee and early ballots still haven’t been counted (as of press time on 11-12-20) from House District 36, which includes Wrangell, Ketchikan, and many Prince of Wales Island communities, but Stedman holds an undisputable lead with a more than 10-to-1 advantage (11,173 votes to 749 write-ins — or, roughly 93-percent of the votes counted so far).

The Sitka Republican ran unopposed on the ballot, although Petersburg Republican Michael Sheldon had registered as a write-in.

Stedman says he’s thankful to the residents of his district for turning out in such large numbers during the pandemic, or for taking the extra pains to cast mail-in ballots. He’ll begin the next session as one of the legislature’s most senior members, with 18 years of service. However, he says it could be one of the most challenging sessions of his career.

“A lot of the easy decisions have already been made,” he said. “We still have a structural deficit at hand, and we’ve depleted our savings accounts down to effectively zero. My concern is that people will take the easy way out and start liquidating the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve.”

Stedman is a moderate Republican, who has been willing to work with Democrats and independents in the past on protecting the Permanent Fund, and on other issues important to coastal communities. The final composition of the Alaska senate will depend on the outcome of at least one key race in South Anchorage (Senate District N), where Republicans have favored the more conservative wing of the party.

Stedman is concerned about what will happen when campaign rhetoric meets reality in the state capital.

“If you listened to some of the platforms during the election it was ‘Vote for me, I’ll give you a bigger dividend, and I’ll give you a bigger dividend than the next guy, and no taxes, and a new ferry boat (or whatever’s handy in the district),’” said Stedman. “But the math doesn’t work, it just doesn’t work. And we have got to deal with the anti-math caucus.”

As co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee in his last term, Stedman has been one of the most influential members of the senate. It’s not clear yet what his role will be over the next four years, in either a straight Republican majority, or in a coalition with members of both parties. Meetings to work out these issues are currently underway in Anchorage.

The 32nd Alaska Legislature is scheduled to open on January 19, 2021, in Juneau.

A note on the possible organization of the Alaska Senate in the 32nd Legislature: Analysts expect that the Permanent Fund Dividend might be the wedge that splits the straight Republican majority in the senate, into urban and rural coalitions. The release of the governor’s draft budget on December 15 is widely expected to draw down the Power Cost Equalization Fund in order to balance the budget, and to pay residents a full dividend. PCE is critical for offsetting high utility costs in rural Alaska. Finding an eleven-vote majority to support that plan could change the dynamics in the senate. Additionally, Ballot Measure 2 (Ranked-choice voting and open primaries), if it passes, might pull some Republican legislators to more moderate positions, since all voters — and not just Republicans — will be casting ballots for them during the state’s primary elections in 2022.