Month: June 2026

Alaska lawmakers, meeting in a special session, advanced a bill intended to spur construction of a long-desired pipeline carrying natural gas from the North Slope to markets.

The legislature’s House Finance Committee approved the bill, House Bill 381, which would largely eliminate state and municipal property taxes on project-related infrastructure, replacing those revenues with money from gas flowing through the system.

The bill now heads to the House floor for consideration. For the bill to become law, it must be approved by the House and then reviewed and approved by the Senate before the special session ends on June 19. If the Senate makes changes to the bill, the House must vote to concur with them.

The Senate has its own version of the bill, Senate Bill 2001, which is currently under review in that body’s finance committee.

The House bill has been a top priority of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who called the special session, and the Glenfarne Group LLC, a private asset manager and developer leading the current plan to commercialize long-stranded North Slope natural gas. They argue that property taxes are the major impediment to the project’s construction.

The Glenfarne project, which is in partnership with the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. proposes an approximately 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where gas would be liquefied. Glenfarne became involved in the project last year, acquiring a 75% share from the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.

In comments just before their vote to move the bill, some House Finance Committee members said they had high hopes the measure will result in a pipeline project.

Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks, said the project will be as important as the trans-Alaska oil pipeline that his father helped build in the 1970s.

“I’m just humbled and honored right now to be able to be working on this legislation that is going to bring that next step, that gas pipeline, because 40, 50 years ago, that was what we were talking about,” Tomaszewski said at the hearing. “I’m looking forward to the groundbreaking ceremony for this project, because it will be transformational for the state, not only with lower gas prices and affordable energy but also tremendous amount of revenue for the state and local communities.”

Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, had similar comments.

“Generally, at the end of the day, I think the vast majority of us and Alaskans really want to see the best chance possible to be provided to move forward with this transformational project,” Stapp said.

The bill went through numerous amendments, many of which were aimed at protecting local governments dependent on property taxes.

The special session began on May 21.

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Hundreds of Mendenhall Valley property owners are being spared from paying up to $6,300 for HESCO barriers after the Juneau Assembly voted on Monday to cancel that plan due to the city taking on a more expansive protection effort against glacial lake outburst flooding this year.

The Assembly early last year approved the establishment of a Local Improvement District (LID), requiring 466 property owners within its boundaries to pay 40% and the city 60% of the projected $8 million cost of the semi-permanent levee along the Mendenhall River. But Assembly members and city administrators said the barriers protected more than just those land owners last August, and it turns out the ongoing maintenance cost of the barriers will far exceed projections.

“It doesn’t dissolve the Local Improvement District. It just says the city is going to pay for 100% of that share,” City Manager Katie Koester said in presenting the revised proposal to the Assembly just before Monday’s vote.

Property owners were being given 10 years to pay the amount due, but the city had not yet collected any money from them.

One payment that is still required is for four property owners who are being charged $50,000 for riverbank armoring installed along their land. Other property owners had installed similar rock armoring at their own expense before the HESCO levee was built.

The LID was controversial when first proposed, especially among the property owners set to have HESCO barriers in their backyards. The owners expressed concerns about the barriers causing damage to property, and reducing the accessibility of their lots and their value.

A lawsuit by two of the Mendenhall Valley property owners against the city, seeking compensation for the barriers, has a scheduled trial date of Oct. 12, according to the Alaska Court System’s online database.

City leaders and many residents in at-risk areas say the first phase of HESCO barriers succeeded in preventing a major disaster when a glacial lake outburst flood last August crested at a record 16.65 feet, with officials stating there was no damage to 90% of homes in the flood zone. However, the city is facing several million in costs beyond the original estimate to repair damage from that flood as well as raise the barriers to protect from potentially higher flood levels.

A second phase of HESCO barriers, extending the existing levee on both sides along one side of the river and installing barriers on the opposite side of the river for the first time, is scheduled for completion by July 15. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is installing and paying for the second phase.

The city is also working with federal and state officials on longer-term solutions that are still being determined, with the expectation of asking the federal government to cover most of the costs. But a long-term solution could take more than a decade to implement, according to USACE.

Concerns about the city’s process in implementing flood protection measures were expressed during Monday’s meeting by Debbie Penrose-Fischer, leader of the citizens’ group Juneau Flood Solution Advocates. She cited inequities in what various residents paid for riverbank armoring — asserting the “bank work exceeded the value charged” for the four property owners paying the city $50,000 under the LID, while some other owners paid $150,000 and some benefited from the improvements without additional cost.

“Please use this LID experience as a template of what to do and what not to do,” she said. “This is a chance to correct this inequity and to build a bridge between us. In the future, decisions of this nature concerning the GLOF need to come before all of the voting public.”

The post Juneau to pay for first HESCO barriers, sparing property owners from $6,300 bill appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

WASHINGTON — Congress must act to shore up Social Security during the next six years to avoid an automatic drop-off in benefits in 2032, according to a report released Tuesday. 

The annual update on the Old Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund shows that it will “become depleted” in the fourth quarter of that year, a few months earlier than projected in last year’s report.

That would lead to recipients receiving 78% of their benefits — the projected yearly income to the trust fund — unless Congress acts before then. By 2100, benefits would be only 62%, according to the report.

That decrease would have a significant impact on the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the program to stay out of poverty, especially retirees. 

Social Security Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano wrote in a statement that in order to “protect the promise of Social Security, it is important for lawmakers and the Social Security Administration to work together to ensure the trust funds continue to provide financial stability now and for future generations.”

Bisignano is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, where he will likely face several questions about the new report and whether the administration has policy suggestions for Congress. 

More than 68 million Americans received Social Security payments in April, according to data from the administration. More than 56 million of the beneficiaries were 65 or older. 

Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, wrote in a statement November’s midterm elections will have an impact on who is in the Senate, where lawmakers have six-year terms, in the lead-up to the deadline. 

“It’s important to recognize that the Senators we elect this year will be in office when Social Security becomes unable to pay out full benefits, so this must be a central campaign issue,” he wrote. 

Peterson added that “there are many well-known solutions available” and that it’s “time for responsible, bipartisan leadership to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, ensuring the stability of these programs for generations of Americans to come.”

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote in a statement that “Washington is sleepwalking into a retirement crisis, allowing our nation’s most important trust funds to go insolvent at the expense of over 70 million beneficiaries who count on these programs.”

MacGuineas added that there is “no shortage of options out there to avoid this.”

“It’s time for our leaders to start telling the truth on Social Security and Medicare, and working on real plans to save these programs,” she wrote. “Time is running out.”

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