Alaska school districts are sitting on $242 million in unspent Covid funds
By Sarah Montalbano – Alaska Policy Forum The state of Alaska published the Alaska K–12 Education COVID-19 Federal Relief Funding Dashboard to make transparent how much federal COVID-19 relief funding school districts received and how the
OPINION: Don’t impose new taxes when Alaska is illegally sitting on $12 billion
The Alaska constitution states the following: Ҥ 7. Dedicated Funds РThe proceeds of any state tax or license shall not be dedicated to any special purpose, except as provided in section 15 of this article or when required by the federal government
OPINION: Plan to give Alaska lawmakers a 67% raise is both flawed policy and process
In response to the 67% pay raise proposal for legislators, I introduced Senate Bill (SB) 111 “Rejecting Legislators’ Salary Increase” last week. Not only is this legislation a responsible step considering the fiscal shortfall the Legislature faces,
OPINION: Cash-poor Anchorage can’t afford more bonding debt
By Rob Yundt & Jodi Taylor Recently, regional banks in the U.S. and one major international bank have either collapsed, are in crisis, or have been rescued by larger banks due to liquidity issues. Given these financial headwinds, this is a great time to
Breaking down exactly how Alaska funds K-12 education
By Sarah Montalbano – Alaska Policy Forum Understanding K-12 education financing is important for taxpayers to know where their money is going and how it is being used to provide a quality education for Alaska’s children. The “Citizen’s Guide to K-12
Bills aim to protect Alaska PFDs from state spending, while mandating statutory payouts
Rep. Ben Carpenter (R- Nikiski) has introduced two constitutional amendment bills to guarantee that Alaskans are paid a Permanent Fund Dividend in accord with state statute rather than leaving the amount to lawmakers to debate each year. HJR 7 would return
OPINION: How Carbon Credits would work
The state has little involvement in Carbon Credits except to sell a storage area, known as Carbon Sequestration, or sell a CO2 filter, known as Carbon Offsets. These bills are merely a framework to allow us to get started investigating the
AK lawmaker demands more educational funds, while deriding calls for greater accountability
State Sen. Loki Tobin (D-Anchorage) blasted her fellow lawmakers who are wary of pumping hundreds of millions in additional funding into Alaska’s failing public education system without added accountability measures. Tobin’s Feb. 13 speech on the Senate
Alaska’s Senate majority considers slashing PFD to add $250M to public education
Alaska’s Democratic-controlled Senate majority caucus is attempting to justify deep cuts to this year’s Permanent Fund Dividend checks in order to pump an extra $250 million dollars into public education, along with paying down massive amounts of
OPINION: Gov. Dunleavy aims to entangle Alaska in a ‘socialist liberal’ carbon tax scheme
At the blink of an eye, a governor who was elected to office promoting libertarian conservative ideals, begins his second term in office supporting an extreme socialist liberal agenda which would lock up massive chunks of Alaska to the “Green
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