Category: Alaska News

The Alaska Legislature approved new legislation to ensure greater oversight for Alaska youth in psychiatric facilities, including increased protections for foster youth.

One bill would shorten the deadline for foster youth to receive court hearings after being institutionalized and another would increase reporting requirements for youth in psychiatric institutions, among other provisions.

Lawmakers approved a bill that would shorten the deadline for court hearings for foster youth from 30 days to seven days of being admitted, following high-profile news reports, lawsuits and federal investigations around foster youth languishing for weeks, or even years, in psychiatric facilities. The bill requires youth to have a court appointed attorney, and to have subsequent case reviews by the court every 30 days. 

The Alaska House passed House Bill 36 unanimously last year, and the Senate approved the proposal on Saturday by a vote of 19 to 1, with Sen. Rob Yundt, R-Wasilla absent. The bill now moves to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration. 

Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, sponsored the legislation in the Senate and called the legislation part of an effort to address a dark chapter in Alaska history.

“For too long, these placements have occurred with insufficient oversight, limited recourse for the children involved and inadequate advocacy on their behalf,” he said Saturday. “House Bill 36 helps ensure meaningful due process protections for those in foster care.”

The issue was at the center of a lawsuit, Kwinhagak v. State, which reached the Alaska Supreme Court. It focused on the case of a 14-year-old Alaska Native foster youth from Sitka who was hospitalized in North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage and went 46 days before a court held a hearing on her hospitalization. In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled the time was “far too long to satisfy due process.”

Dunbar quoted the ruling, in part, on the Senate floor. “In its opinion, the court stated, ‘There is no doubt the children in OCS custody are at substantial risk of being hospitalized for longer than they need, or when they do not need to be hospitalized at all,’” he said. “Clarifying the legal protections for a vulnerable population of children in state custody is of the utmost importance.”

The bill also creates a new state license for treatment foster homes, to provide treatment services through Medicaid for youth with medical, behavioral or developmental conditions. Proponents of the bill said it would help create more home-based care, and align with national standards.  

Another bill unanimously passed by the Senate on Saturday, House Bill 52, would enact requirements that aim to increase oversight and transparency, and reduce risk of abuse or neglect for all Alaska children in psychiatric facilities. The House approved the bill in April.

Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, pointed to a 2022 U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found that Alaska children are institutionalized at high rates, in part due to a lack of community-based services. “These findings demonstrate an urgent need for transparency and parent guardian involvement at the psychiatric hospitals that serve Alaskan youth with behavioral health care needs,” Claman said on Saturday. 

The legislation — now also on Gov. Dunleavy’s desk — would require all Alaska minors in psychiatric facilities have access to confidential communication with parents or legal guardians for two hours per week. The facility must facilitate that communication. 

The bill would require the Alaska Department of Health to conduct unannounced inspections of psychiatric facilities in the state twice a year, including interviews with at least half of the minor patients, and make an annual report to the Legislature. 

All facilities would be required to report their use of seclusion or restraints on minors — including physical, mechanical or chemical restraints — to the state each year, and to minors’ parents or legal guardians within 72 hours. “Chemical restraint” would be defined in the law as a medication used to control the behavior or restrict the freedom of a patient, not a medication used to treat an underlying psychiatric illness.

Rep. Maxine Dibert, D-Fairbanks and the bill’s sponsor, highlighted Alaska’s unique history, and particular legacy of trauma for Alaska Native children forced into institutional settings.

“The institutionalization of children with behavioral health challenges can last weeks, months, or even years,” Dibert said in a statement introducing the bill. “Such long-term placement is devastating for all families and is especially traumatic for Alaska Native families who experienced the harm of family separation when the government forcibly removed their loved ones and sent them to boarding schools.”

Lawmakers in the House amended the bill to include a requirement for the state to conduct wellness checks on youth when conducting facility inspections. If inspectors found incidents of abuse or neglect, they would be required to report them to parents or guardians, state authorities and law enforcement. Members of the Senate Finance Committee removed the provision citing confidentiality concerns and pointed to mandated reporting requirements for instances of abuse already in place. Some members of the all-Republican minority opposed the changes, and voted against the bill. 

The House voted to approve the changes made by the Senate by a vote of 26 to 14, and passed the bill on Sunday. 

If approved by the governor, the bill would be enacted in July 2027. 

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

State lawmakers are acting to fix technical errors affecting the boundaries of several Alaska wildlife refuges and other public areas.

The errors were caused by the fact that the areas’ actual edges don’t match descriptions in state law and will be fixed if Senate Bill 230 is enacted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

The state Senate approved SB 230 by an 18-0 vote on Saturday, with two legislators excused absent. Because the House approved the bill on a 40-0 vote Friday, the Senate’s vote sends the bill to the governor for veto or enactment.

SB 230 was originally written by Sen. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, to address “a critical piece of land that was inadvertently omitted from the original legislation” for the Jonesville Public Use Area in his district in 2018. 

At the request of Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, the bill was expanded to cover similar technical changes for laws designating the state refuges at Cape Newenham, Izembek, Palmer Hay Flats, and the critical habitat areas at Port Moller, Egegik, Pilot Point, Fox River Flats, and Kachemak Bay.

“The added changes do not add or extend any land that has been recently acquired, nor does it make any policy changes. It simply corrects boundaries that were previously done in error, as well as the Jonesville bill, which originated this,” Rauscher said.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

The Interior Department is taking public comment on a proposal that would allow up to 160 vehicles per day on a restricted section of the Denali Park Road during the peak summer tourist season.

Public comments on the idea are being accepted through July 17, according to a public notice filed Thursday that announced the change.

The current limit, set in 1986, allows 10,512 vehicles from the Saturday before Memorial Day to the second Thursday after Labor Day. That’s roughly 100 vehicles per day. 

Tour buses do not count against the current seasonal limit, but they would count against the new daily limit, reducing the practical effect of the change.

The new limit was proposed in a vehicle management plan finalized in 2012. Under that plan, the 160 vehicle-per-day limit represents the “maximum level” of vehicle use that could be supported while maintaining the park’s quality.  

Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “review all of the Department’s recreational access rules and take steps to rescind any that unnecessarily restrict recreation in national parks.”

In a news release announcing the proposed Denali Park Road rules, Burgum said, “Denali is one of America’s crown jewels, and Americans should have every reasonable opportunity to experience it. This proposed rule removes outdated restrictions, improves transparency, and ensures access decisions are driven by sound management rather than unnecessary bureaucracy.”

All park visitors can access the first 15 miles of the Denali Park Road, but the stretch beyond the Savage River checkpoint is restricted during the tourist season. Permits apply to that stretch, which continues to Kantishna, a community at the end of the road, 92 miles from its start.

Since 2022, the road has been blocked at Mile 43 by a slow-moving landslide at a location known as Pretty Rocks. A bridge bypassing that landslide is expected to be complete this summer.

Until that bridge reopens, tour buses will travel no farther than Mile 43. Eielson Visitor Center is closed, as is Wonder Lake Campground. 

Trips to Mile 42 will begin May 20; until then, traffic is limited to the Teklanika Rest Area at Mile 30. 

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Alaska lawmakers are planning to vote on a $13.9 billion compromise state operating budget that includes a $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend and a $200 energy rebate.

In a 4-2 vote Sunday morning, a panel of House and Senate negotiators finalized a deal that combines two different versions of the budget — one passed by the Senate and the other by the House — preparing legislators for a final vote before the last regular day of the legislative session on Wednesday.

Once passed by the Legislature, the budget will go to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who may sign it or use his line-item veto powers to eliminate or reduce specific items. The governor has never let a budget go into law without some vetoes. 

With legislators focused on a potential tax break for the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline, the state budget has taken second billing in the state Capitol this month.

Legislators convened in January with the expectation that they would be facing a massive deficit in fiscal year 2027, which starts July 1. 

The Iran war, and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices soaring, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue for the state.

That eliminated the projected deficit, but lawmakers don’t expect to have much left over for the Permanent Fund dividend.

While a payment formula from the 1980s remains in state law, legislators since 2016 have adopted a “surplus dividend” approach, paying the dividend with what’s left over after services are covered.

While Dunleavy proposed a $3,800 Permanent Fund dividend in December, that would have required deep spending from the state’s savings accounts. 

Members of the House approved a draft budget with a $1,500 Permanent Fund dividend in April, and in a competing draft, the Senate reduced that to $1,000 and a $150 one-time bonus intended to offset higher energy prices.

The final compromise version of the budget closely resembles the Senate plan, but the one-time bonus was slightly increased, to $200, in an amendment proposed over the weekend.

The final version of the budget also contains $144 million in one-time bonus payments for public schools across the state, including $29 million intended to offset the high cost of heating fuel. 

The one-time bonus is less than the House proposed but higher than the Senate’s figure. 

The budget also proposes to fund a heating assistance program for Alaskans, increase Medicaid reimbursements for medical providers, send additional money to cities and boroughs, and increase funding for wildfire response.

Altogether, the budget balances if Alaska North Slope oil prices average at least $75 per barrel in FY27. The average price since March is above $100 per barrel.

The operating budget advancing to a final vote is the last of four budget bills that lawmakers approve in an ordinary year. 

The state’s supplemental budget — making changes to fiscal year 2026 — was adopted in March and signed by the governor in April. The $2.5 billion capital budget, which funds construction and renovation projects statewide, is awaiting a final vote in the Senate.

Alaska’s comprehensive mental health budget is moving in parallel to the operating budget and is expected to pass when the operating budget does.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Less than two years after Alaskans approved a ballot measure creating a mandatory sick leave law, the Alaska House of Representatives has voted to partially repeal it.

By a 22-18 vote on Saturday, the House approved an amendment that would cancel the law’s application for seasonal workers and for workers employed by a business with nine or fewer employees. The cancellation would take effect immediately, if the bill is signed into law.

Seasonal workers are defined as those who work at a specific job for less than six months per year.

All of the House’s Republican members voted for the amendment, including Reps. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, and Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, who are members of the House’s predominantly Democratic majority caucus. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, also voted for the amendment.

All of the House’s Democratic members and its remaining independents opposed the amendment.

The amendment was to House Bill 193, which would create a mandatory paid leave program for new parents, starting in 2030. That bill advanced from the House on a 36-4 vote and was scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on Monday afternoon.

The four opposition votes all came from Republican lawmakers in the House’s minority caucus. 

It was not immediately clear whether the bill had the necessary support to pass the Senate before the end of the legislative session on Wednesday night. 

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, was largely identical to House Bill 161, a rollback measure that failed to advance in the Capitol this year despite significant lobbying efforts from business groups.

The state’s fishing industry, tourism industry, construction industry, the state chamber of commerce and several local chambers of commerce all have advocated HB 161. 

Speaking ahead of the vote, several Republican lawmakers said they were heeding that call and voting yes on the amendment to HB 193.

“It’s actually been my number one priority since I got back here this year,” said Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, speaking about the rollback.

Much of the desire for the rollback, Stapp explained, is because during its first year, seasonal employees saved their sick leave until the end of their term, then used it right before their departure, leaving employers short-staffed.

“That is creating a workforce crisis at the end of the season that is going to progressively get worse and worse and worse for our fishing industry, for our tourist industry, for our construction industry,” he said. 

Speaking on the floor ahead of the vote, Coulombe said she had hoped to cancel sick leave for all workers at businesses with fewer than 50 employees, but she received a legal memo indicating that doing so would be illegal because Alaska’s constitution prohibits the Legislature from repealing a ballot measure within its first two years, and such a large exemption would have covered roughly half of the state’s workers. 

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, said the sick leave law is “gutting the small businesses in my community.” 

“We need to be listening to our business community right now, that so many of them (came to us) and said, ‘We need help,’” she said.

Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, was among the lawmakers who urged the House to reject the amendment.

“I think it’s very problematic to substantially gut a ballot initiative less than two years after it was passed by voters,” he said.

Exempting seasonal workers means exempting multinational tourism and fishing businesses that operate in Alaska, he noted.

“Do we really need to exempt all the employees of massive multinational businesses like Holland America Princess?” he asked.

During the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, fish processing plants and cruise ships were hotspots of infection and disease. Outside the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism occasionally brings waves of influenza and norovirus to coastal communities.

“When we have a tourism dependent economy, it is not in our interest to push sick people to come to work when they’re serving food, when they’re doing hospitality,” Fields said.

In 2024, Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, was one of the key organizers behind the sick leave ballot measure. Like her Democratic colleagues, she opposed the sick leave rollback but ultimately voted for the underlying bill even though it contained the rollback.

“The bill is a great bill, and you can just see the strong bipartisan support,” she said. “This whole building is an area of trying to figure out compromises and figuring out the ways where we can do good things that are supportive for families and can really address these issues about migration that our state has been facing. It’s not over for the bill or for paid sick (leave), so we’ll just see what happens on the Senate side.”

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

The Alaska Legislature approved legislation to add a faculty member to the University of Alaska Board of Regents, the body that oversees policy and management of the state’s public university system.

The Alaska Senate passed House Bill 10 by a vote of 18 to 2 on Friday, which now goes to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.

If approved by the governor, the legislation would add a full-time, tenured faculty member to the eleven-member board for a two-year term, after a selection process and appointment by the governor and confirmation by the Legislature.

Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, whose district includes the University of Alaska Fairbanks, sponsored the bill and said the seat would provide important representation for university faculty on the board. 

“Over the past 10 years, the University of Alaska has navigated some of the most difficult financial and social challenges. Throughout those challenges, the Board of Regents has been in the driver’s seat, making difficult decisions to preserve the integrity of the University. During those difficult discussions, University faculty have strongly desired a greater role in the decision-making process,” she said in a statement applauding the bill’s passage. 

“The addition of a faculty regent complements the existing student regent, who is given the same power, duties and respect that all other board members receive. I am pleased to see this bill pass the Legislature to provide parity in University system decisions,” she said.

But an amendment to the bill earlier this month puts an expiration date on the changes. They would last for only for six years, until 2033. The revised version has a sunset provision, and would allow the Legislature to review and either approve an extension of the faculty regent seat or allow the policy to expire and the Board of Regents to return to eleven members. 

The House passed the revised bill by a vote of 23 to 17. 

Nominees for the faculty regent position would be selected through elections in the faculty senates of the three universities — University of Alaska Anchorage, Fairbanks and Southeast — and a list of six nominees would be advanced to the governor to appoint a finalist who would then be subject to confirmation by the Legislature. 

Members of the Board of Regents serve eight year terms, and are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature, except for student representatives who are nominated from their campus and serve two year terms. 

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

There’s still no concrete offer, but the outlines of a possible deal for Global Ports Holding to lease the Port Chilkoot cruise ship dock have started to take shape. 

Borough officials announced late last month that Global Ports, the self-described largest cruise ship terminal management company in the world, was interested in adding Haines to its global portfolio. 

The news of the company’s interest didn’t come with any formal offer, just an understanding that it wanted to take over management of the dock, along with its revenues, in exchange for some kind of compensation.

Global Ports Holding’s regional head of business development Colin Murphy presented to a full crowd during a Thursday meeting in the assembly chambers, but didn’t bring any concrete offer. But Murphy did give some new indication of what residents might expect.

The Global Ports Offer

How does the community stand to benefit from a deal? 

Murphy said it likely won’t be in the form of lump sum payments into borough coffers. Rather, Global Ports is offering two indirect benefits. 

The first is a large increase in annual passenger counts in Haines, and by extension, increased passenger spending at local businesses. Murphy referred to that local spending as the “main upside” in the deal, and talked about a rough goal of 300,000 annual passengers. That would be a roughly 4-fold increase over the 67,000 Haines saw last year. 

Business owners in the room Thursday spoke in favor of that prospect:

“We used to have 25 to 30 employees,” Pioneer Bar and Bamboo Room owner Christy Tengs-Fowler said to Murphy. “We have a building that could serve hundreds of people a day but it’s just sitting there. It’s not sustainable, and businesses are going to close… I feel lucky you came here and I hope we listen and learn and try to work with you. To me it’s like a godsend.”

Others said they would expand their operations if cruise ship numbers increased significantly, like Mike Ward, who said he would open a new restaurant. 

The borough’s tourism department could try to increase cruise ship numbers without Global Ports, like it did in the late 1990s. Haines’ all-time biggest cruise season was in 2000 with 187,397 passengers.

But Murphy said Global Ports would bring with them a number of advantages for attracting more traffic. For one, he said, the company would have better access to cruise lines — touting its ability to negotiate with cruise line executives — which could help market Haines as a destination. That’s something Hylton and borough manager Alekka Fullerton have spoken to as well, with Fullerton saying this week the borough “doesn’t have a lot of bargaining power and (Hylton) is just one person to negotiate with cruise lines.” 

Murphy also said cruise lines would be more likely to come if Haines improved in two areas, attractions and dock facilities — areas Global Ports said it would target investment. On attractions, Murphy said Global Ports would “identify other things we could create” outside of the currently-popular tours around Chilkoot Lake, “preferably in partnership with locals, that would attract people to that spot,” giving the example of a zipline.

A possible dock upgrade

The improved dock facilities would be the main area Global Ports would be putting down money. If a deal is struck, the company plans to fund construction of a floating section of the Port Chilkoot Dock, which would allow more ships to tie on to the dock rather than ferrying passengers to shore in lifeboats. 

That’s a project the borough has long been considering doing on its own, and if Global Ports puts up the $20 million or more needed, by Murphy’s estimate, it could save taxpayers some cash. 

But the equation is more complicated than the borough simply gaining back however much money the company puts down. 

The borough already has money available for the project that couldn’t necessarily be spent elsewhere. A design proposal recommended by harbormaster Henry Pollan last summer had the project with a $18.5 million price tag. 

Toward that figure, the borough is expected to receive $3 million in state money this year specifically for the project. Past years of still-unspent state funding for the project currently total around $755,000, said borough finance director Jila Stuart. The borough also projects to have $1.8 million in banked Port Chilkoot Dock revenue at the end of this year, which can only be spent on Port Chilkoot Dock Improvements. 

Finally, if the current annual dock revenue stays steady, it could pay for annual debt service on around $10 million in bonds for the project, Stuart said. 

The bigger question

With a deal, Global Ports stands to take on that dock project, plus regular dock maintenance costs, plus some amount of annual rent to the borough — though the rent would likely be small, Murphy said. In return, the company gets one main thing: it would collect the tax on the cruise passengers currently being collected by the borough. “Anything you charge cruise lines for, we would charge and collect,” Murphy said. By boosting passenger numbers potentially four- or five-fold, it could dramatically increase that profit for itself. 

So in one sense, by leasing the dock, the company is leasing the borough’s taxation power. And in exchange, residents would have to give up some control over cruise ship management, and manage the higher volume of tourism. 

That gets at a main potential sticking point for the deal for some in the Chilkat Valley: how much tourism is too much? 

There are people like Ward and Tengs-Fowler who have spoken to the upsides. Some at the meeting said any increase would be too much, resulting in pollution and crowding. 

Tour operator Ken Gross said an increase would have to be done the right way. Gross pointed to Skagway as a warning case: there, cruise line-owned White Pass Railroad is the target of a lot of tourist spending, the Skagway Borough faces legal challenges from cruise lines on how much sales tax it can charge, and “you can’t even drive down the road with all the congestion,” Gross said.

Gross also referenced Hoonah’s Icy Strait Point: “Slowly but surely the cruise lines have bought up the whole thing now and the sellers have changed,” he said. “Haines has to watch out for that. It’s sad, it was wonderful when they first started.” 

Still, Gross said, he was supportive of exploring the Global Ports opportunity. 

Others cited past opposition to high cruise ship volume, and a 2025 survey in which only 16% of residents responding said they wanted a “much higher” volume of cruise visitors. 

But cruise ships could be an attractive alternative to other also-controversial industries, like logging and mining, that have been pitched as economic growth areas. 

“If you have an economy, and you want to pin yourself to an industry, and you want a reliable partner that’s going to be around, that’s not going to leave in ten years, you could do a lot worse than the cruise industry,” said Murphy.

Next Steps

There’s likely some amount of time pressure: Murphy said after the meeting that Global Ports is talking to other communities in the region about similar deals, and advised the borough to move quickly. His company, he said, hopes to start operating the dock next summer. 

So it seems Haines has competition for a Global Ports deal, adding pressure to what assembly member Cheryl Stickler called a “potentially once in a lifetime opportunity,” on Thursday.  

On the other hand, it could be that Global Ports has competition, as well, for a Haines deal. 

When Global Ports approached Ketchikan with a deal six years ago, it was in response to a Ketchikan city council request for proposal, which a Ketchikan company, Survey Point Holdings, also responded to.

Fullerton said Friday she didn’t know if other companies could offer similar deals to Global Ports’, either now or down the line, but said she was open to putting out a request for quote soliciting proposals from companies. 

“The first step is to see if the community is interested in general in this kind of public-private partnership,” Fullerton said. “But I definitely want to see what’s out there.”

The post Global Ports visits Haines, no official offer made on cruise ship dock appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.