Category: Alaska News

Members of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District school board say the district will take the state to court in a dispute around its authority to approve and establish new charter schools.

The district is challenging the Alaska State Board of Education for its approval of a new charter school after the locally elected board unanimously denied the application. The Fairbanks board cited a wide array of problems with the charter proposal, as well as millions in costs to reopen a school it closed last year to address a severe budget deficit.

But the group behind the charter school, Pearl Creek STEAM, appealed to the state, and the governor-appointed State Board of Education approved the new charter school on April 29, saying the application was sufficient. 

While the appeal process for new charter schools is in state statute, officials with the district had concerns about the state’s process and whether the state should be overriding local control to create new charter schools. 

The state approval would overrule the local board’s denial of a new charter school — requiring the district to approve the charter and establish the school in less than four months, to open in August. 

The state approval of a charter school over objections by a local district is highly unusual, said Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators. 

“It is my understanding that it’s the first time the state board has imposed a charter school on a district,” she said by email on Monday. “I’m not aware of any court case that has occurred in the past eight years at least on a denial or overturning of a charter school decision.”

The board announced at a May 4 meeting it plans to appeal the decision in state court. 

New charter school under dispute

Charter schools are tuition-free schools that are publicly funded but independently run based on a “charter” contract that allows for alternative educational offerings from traditional district schools. In Alaska, there are currently 32 charter schools.

The group behind the school, Pearl Creek STEAM — focused on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics — say there has been an interest in the focus for decades, and it has a wide base of family and community support for establishing the school.

The new charter school proposes serving roughly 350 students from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The Fairbanks school board members unanimously voted in October to reject the application for a new charter school at the former Pearl Creek Elementary School, which was one of three schools closed last year due to address a roughly $16 million dollar deficit. 

In a 52-page written decision, board members raised a wide range of concerns including with the applicant — known as an Academic Policy Committee — and its plans for facilities, student instruction, transportation, school meals, the budget and others. “It appears likely not just that the APC’s vision may not be implemented, but that the proposed school could fail entirely,” they wrote. 

Bobby Burgess, president of the Fairbanks school board, said in an interview Thursday that the board’s opinion hasn’t changed.

“We highlighted several legal errors, parts of the application that we believe did not follow state law, as well as technical errors, and that included problems with the math and the budget,” he said.

Opening the new charter school would also cost the district an estimated $2.8 million. 

But in a 15-page written decision the state Board of Education in April found the charter application was in compliance. The decision affirmed Education Commissioner Deena Bishop’s review and approval of the application in January, after the group behind the charter school appealed to the state.

Burgess said the district is appealing the state’s approval in court, arguing the state board did not thoroughly evaluate the application and made a decision in executive session without a public vote. He said instead the board issued the approval, seeming to rubber stamp the application as complete, rather than evaluate on its merits. 

“If there was something written in every section, then, in their opinion, that constitutes an application that is worth that should be approved regardless of whether the contents actually make sense, or regardless of any flaws that might be in the contents,” he said. “So that’s ultimately what guided our decision was that we believe that their decision was made in error.”

Charter proponents say proposal is sound

The group behind Pearl Creek STEAM has rejected the local school board’s evaluation as incomplete and not based on law or “substantial evidence.”

Jennifer Redmond, a parent and treasurer of Pearl Creek STEAM, said in an interview Friday she and the school’s supporters are disappointed with the district’s decision to take the issue to state court. 

“We had worked really hard, and had multiple reviews of the application that was a sound, legal and strong application for a charter school. And we had a lot of families that had already applied to the school, and were looking forward to opening it in the fall,” she said. 

Redmond said the group has developed robust plans for a STEAM-based curriculum, instruction and facilities plan at the former Pearl Creek school site. She said they planned to work with the district and within the district-wide system for services like school nutrition and transportation. Redmond pointed to declining enrollment as a major issue for Fairbanks, and noted roughly 20% of the applicants for the new school would transfer from homeschool or private schools, adding students to the district.

Redmond said since the state’s approval of their appeal, they saw a surge in interest and student applications. She said they’ve received roughly 325 student applicants for 352 places.

“While I understand that we’re also talking about local control, local control is also for parents, teachers and community members to come together and put together a charter school that’s been enshrined in state law to create innovation in the public school system,” she said. 

Redmond said the group is prepared to defend their application in court, but would rather work with the district to move forward in establishing the new school in the fall.

“We’re also always prepared to collaborate at any point, to sit in a room and discuss this and really come to an understanding,” she said. 

Questions of cost to open charter, after school closures

Burgess, with the Fairbanks school board, said the district is concerned about the cost of opening the new school on such a short timeline, and sees the potential financial impacts district-wide. 

“The costs to the district are significant,” he said. “It would require significantly scaling back the investments that we were able to make in this year’s recommended budget, which included things like behavioral support, aides in elementary school, music programs districtwide for elementary school and ELP — Extended Learning Program — teachers for elementary, and then just, of course, the reduction in class sizes.”

Redmond, with the Pearl Creek STEAM school, said the district has the budget to fund the new school, and sees the enrollment of new students as a boost to the district, as well as providing new educational opportunities to Fairbanks students. 

Redmond cited the school district’s $2.6 million budget surplus this year. The district achieved the surplus after it closed three elementary schools to address a $16 million budget shortfall last year. 

But Redmond said the district drafted the budget, knowing the appeal could be approved. 

“They knew there were going to be possible changes coming forth, one of which would be this charter school,” she said. “They had plenty of time to plan for this possibility.”

District to appeal the state’s approval decision in court

Burgess said the district has yet to file the appeal in state court, and expects the process of establishing the school will be put on hold as the court case progresses.  

As of Monday, the appeal had not yet been filed in state court. 

Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said in a statement Friday the department was aware of the legal challenge, but had not yet received formal notice of an appeal. Bishop defended the state’s approval of the application. 

“Alaska law requires that a charter denial be supported by substantial evidence and grounded in statute and regulation. The decision was based on the governing legal requirements and the administrative record before it,” she wrote. 

Bishop said the state will defend the decision through the appeal process in court. 

“The Department is charged with following the laws set forth by the Legislature and will abide accordingly, to any requirement of participation in due process if and when presented with such,” she wrote. 

Burgess said the board recognizes the state’s authority and the legal system of checks and balances in reviewing charter school applications. 

But Burgess said the Fairbanks board has had dozens of emails from supporters and officials in other districts, recognizing the larger issue of the state’s decision as potentially setting a precedent for the governor-appointed state board overruling locally elected school boards. 

“Essentially, what they’re saying is that any group that turns in a charter application and puts in something relevant in every box in that application deserves a charter school, regardless of the flaws in the application or the effects to a district and its overall operations and finances,” he said. “That’s a precedent that is worth fighting.” 

Burgess said the board recognizes the process is difficult for the community, amid several consecutive years of budget cuts and changes across the district. 

“It’s tough. We understand that there’s a number of people who have been working on that charter, who are hoping that their kids can go there and you know, and the closure of the school in the first place, of course, caused a lot of stress and pain for people in this community,” Burgess said. “But we also have the greater the district as a whole is our responsibility, and we have to keep that in mind.”

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The Haines Borough Assembly meeting on May 12 will include the first reading of the FY27 budget. The Chilkat Valley News’ Will Steinfeld and KHNS’ Melinda Munson sat down to talk about the budget process.

Melinda Munson: The budget process has started, and it will make its first appearance at the assembly meeting. Can you walk us through that process?

Will Steinfeld: Where we’re at right now is this is the first official chance for residents to weigh in on the borough’s budget plan for the upcoming year. The whole budget has to go through by June 15. But before that happens, there’s all these public hearings. There’s going to be at least two, maybe a third. And there’s likely going to be a whole bunch of amendments to the budget by assembly members that will change what the plan is going forward. 

I think what the Assembly is really looking for here is the optimal mix of services for residents, given the money that the borough is taking in. And that’s a hard question to answer … What is that optimal mix of services? So, I think when people weigh in and come to assembly meetings and tell assembly members what they want to see from their government, I think that at least has some role to play in what the final budget plan is.

So last year, the school ended up getting more money than was typical. And after a lot of citizen comment, the pool got more money than was originally budgeted. Nonprofits did not get any money. What are the things that we’re watching for in this year’s budget discussions?

One thing I’ve heard in recent weeks is Borough Manager Alekka Fullerton has encouraged assembly members to hey, if you think there are changes you want to propose to this budget, try and make them early. Make them at this first public hearing, instead of waiting right till the end. In that way, residents have time to see what these changes are, hear the debate and then tell assembly members what they think.

And the Haines Economic Development Corporation is on the agenda. What is the HEDC, exactly, and what will they be talking about?

Haines Economic Development Corporation – they recently dissolved. They had been doing economic development work –  a lot of studies and research about the local economy, providing data. They’re back now. They’ve reorganized their board, and they’re supposed to get money from the borough to continue doing work, at least similar to what they’ve been doing.

Last assembly meeting, a kind of broad range of assembly members seemed hesitant about giving them more money. Or outright have said, you know, I don’t think we should give them more money until we figure out what’s going on with all nonprofits. 

The one update for this week is the mayor has come out and said he is going to veto any cuts to HEDC funding. The mayor has that power to veto legislation. His rationale for that is, he says the borough has a special tax that they levy that’s supposed to go toward economic development. And right now, HEDC is the avenue we have to spend it. And the mayor says if we’re going to tax citizens, we owe it to them. We have responsibility to them to spend it in the way that we promise. So that’s his reasoning.

There’s a new tour permit on Tuesday’s agenda for a boat tour. Give us some details about that.

This is one that got a lot of public input, outcry, maybe you could call it, last time it was heard. AMG owner Sean Gaffney is coming to the Assembly to ask for a new permit for a boat tour that would go into Lutak Inlet. Residents around Lutak last time expressed a lot of worry about noise, disturbance to wildlife and themselves, their neighborhood. And the Assembly approved part of Gaffney’s proposal, but for this Lutak Inlet portion said, please resubmit and come back to us. 

So Gaffney is back this week. He has written up a whole number of kind of conditions, or stipulations he would have on these tours that seem like they’re aimed at addressing the concerns that have come up. So talking about limiting the frequency of these boat trips, the distance the boats would be from shore, trying to talk about boat speed and reducing noise. We’ll see if that lands with residents, and which side the Assembly decides to come down on.”

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The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears swept the team titles at the Haines Invitational Track and Field Meet this past weekend in another warmup before Southeast teams travel to Juneau for the 2026 Capital City Invitational on Friday and Saturday, a preview for the May 22-23 Region V championships at Ketchikan.

At Haines, the Crimson Bears won the boys team title with 52.5 points, nipping Haines’ 49.5 and Skagway’s 34. The JDHS girls won with 86 points, Haines tallied 35 and Skagway nine.

Haines sophomore Isaac Jones won the boys 100 meters in 12 seconds flat, edging JDHS junior Krew Ridle who leaned in for 12.2 and senior Sarah Jones the girls 100 in 13.6, just in front of JDHS sophomore Shandiin Frommherz in 14.0. Skagway senior Royce Borst won the boys 200 in 24.7 and S. Jones repeated in the girls with a 29.5 win.

JDHS came to the front of the distance events with sophomore Addie Hartman winning the girls 400 in 1:08.4, junior Kaia Mangaccat the 800 in 2:37.0 and the 1,600 in 5:35.7 and senior Lua Mangaccat the 3,200 in 13.43.4. On the boys side, sophomore Anderson Murry won the 800 in 2:27.7, classmate Emmett Hightower the 1,600 in 5:24.2 and classmate Carson Kautz the 3,200 in 11:36.6.

JDHS senior Meliame Tupou won the shot put with 28’10 and the discus with 83’0. JDHS freshman Vince Nizich won the boys long jump with 17’7.5 and Harman the girls high jump with 4’7, and freshman Eleanor Peterson the girls triple jump with 27’10.5.

Following are Haines Invitational event winners and/or JDHS placers:

100m boys – 1 I. Jones, HNS 12.0; 2 Ridle 12.4; 4 fr William Westmoreland 13.0; 6 so Jarry Maghinay 13.1; 7 so Ethan Ward 13.4; 9 jr Isaiah Carrillo 13.6; 11 so Osian Morris 14.0; 12 so Lucas Wyatt 14.1.

100m girls – 1 S. Jones, HNS 13.6; 2 Frommherz 14.0; 3 so Mya Hayes 14.8; 4 sr Isabella Reyes-Boyer 15.4; 5 So Lydia Goins 15.4; 7 fr Adeline Janson 15.7; 7 fr Bailey Israelson 15.7; 14 fr Lucy Wall 17.0; 17 so Kaylee Frickey 18.5.

200m boys – 1 Borst, SKG 24.7; 5 jr Krew Ridle 25.5; 8 Nizich 26.6; 9 Westmoreland 26.7; 11 Ward 27.2; 12 Carrillo 27.7; 14 Wyatt 28.5; 16 Maghinay 29.1.

200m girls – 1 S. Jones 29.5; 3. Goins 33.5; (prelims Frommherz 29.2; Hayes 31.6; Reyes-Boyer 32.0; fr Clara Van Kirk 33.2; Israelson 33.3); 12 L. Wall 35.4.

400m boys – 1 so Brody Ferrin, HNS 58.2.

400m girls – 1 Hartman 1:08.4; 3 Frommherz 1:11.5; 4 so Kira English 1:21.0; 5. Van Kirk 1:22.6.

800m boys – 1 Murray 2:24.7; 2 Hightower 2:31.0; 3 jr Gage Keller 2:36.4.

800m girls – 1 K. Mangaccat 2:37.0 2 so Nevah Lupro 3:00.6 / sr Della Mearig 3:00.6 4 L. Mangaccat 3:01.8; 5 English 3:03.1; 6 Peterson 3:14.1; 7 fr Emmalynn LaPlante 3:15.7.

1,600m boys – 1 Hightower 5:24.2; 2 Keller 5:30.5; 3 Kautz 5:33.2; 4 so Lucas Nelson-Vallejo 5:38.0.

1,600m girls – 1 K. Mangaccat 5:35.7; 2 Mearig 6:32.5; 3 L. Mangaccat 6:34.4; 4 Lupro 6:35.7; 5 jr Ellie Jo Wall 7:13.7; 6 LaPlante 7:18.5; 7 Peterson 7:19.8; 8 sr Zoe Lessard 7:31.1.

3,200m boys – 1 Kautz 11:36.6; 2 Murray 11:42.5; 4 Nelson-Vallejo 12:29.1; 5 so Finnan Kelly 13.22.6.

3,200m girls – 1 L. Mangaccat 13:43.4; 2 LaPlante 14:49.6; 4 EJ Wall 15:00.0; 5 Lessard 16:08.2.

4×100 Relay boys – 1 Skagway (sr Brenden Moncibaiz, jr Luke Tronrud, sr Camden Lawson, Borst) 50.2; 2 JDHS (Ridle, Nizich, Maghinay, Westmoreland) 53.4; 3 JDHS (Wyatt, so Heleman AitaotoTela, Hightower, Morris) 54.5.

4×100 Relay girls – 1 JDHS (Reyes-Boyer, Goins, Hayes, Frommherz) 1:00.1; 3 JDHS (Van Kirk, Janson, L. Wall, Israelson) 1:05.8.

4×400 Relay boys – 1 HNS (Jones, sr JC Davis, fr Evan Knight, Ferrin) 4:07.6; 3 JDHS (Hightower, Murray, Keler, Kautz) 4:55.9.

4×400 Relay girls – 1 HNS (so Ava Rosenberry, fr Sophia Heddin, jr Talis Swaner, so CC Elliot) 5:15.5; 2 JDHS (Mearig, Lupro, Lessard, K. Mangaccat) 5:42.1; 3 JDHS (EJ Wall, LaPlante, Frickey, Peterson) 6:02.4.

Shot Put boys – 1 AitaotoTelea 34’9.75; 3 sr Ames Patterson 32’0; 9 sr Zach Prather 22’10.

Shot Put girls – 1 Tupou 28’10; 2 sr Isabelle Martin 24’8.5; 9 sr Eva Goertzen 16’10.5; 10 fr Fiona Koelsch 16’7.5.

Discus boys – 1 sr JC Davis HNS 122’6; 3 Patterson 102’10.5; 5 AitaotoTelea 82’5.5; 10 Prather 63’5.5.

Discus girls – 1 Tupou 83’.0; 2 Martin 80’6.5; 7 Goertzen 50’8.75; 10 Koelsch 45’10.5; 12 Frickey 31’3.

High Jump boys – 1 Borst SKG 6’0; 5 Nizich 5’o; 6 fr Maximus Sean Sangster 4’10.

High Jump girls – 1 Hartman 4’7.

Long Jump boys – 1 Nizich 17’7.5; 3 Sangster 15’10.5; 5 Maghinay 14’6.5.

Long Jump girls – 1 Rosenberry HNS 13’2.5; 2 Hartman 13’1.5; 3 Goins 12’9.5.

Triple Jump boys – 1 so Wade Lloyd HNS 38’6; 5 Sangster 30’6.

Triple Jump girls – 1 Peterson 27’10.5.

This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.

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A state judge in Anchorage has again delayed a new election misconduct trial for former state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, after state prosecutors requested the postponement.

Earlier this year, judges Catherine Easter and Thomas Matthews scheduled a new trial for June, but Judge Josie Garton agreed on May 1 to postpone the trial until the state Court of Appeals takes up a review requested by the state. Under the current briefing schedule for that review, a trial isn’t likely until the fall at the earliest. 

In 2020, prosecutors accused LeDoux of five felonies and nine misdemeanors in connection with the 2018 primary election, the 2018 general election and the 2014 general election. They claimed LeDoux encouraged people to register to vote in her district despite not living there.

The charges related to the 2014 election were dismissed as untimely.

The remainder went to trial in November and December 2024, but that ended in a mistrial after jurors could not agree on LeDoux’s guilt or innocence.

After the mistrial, LeDoux and her attorney filed an interlocutory appeal to challenge a legal definition that would be given to a jury. At issue is the definition of when a person establishes a residence necessary to register to vote.

LeDoux argued that a person who has bought a home within a district is eligible to register to vote there. The state argued that the person must actually be living within the home in order to register.

On Nov. 10, Garton ruled in favor of LeDoux’s interpretation of the law, thus striking down jury instructions that the state had sought.

Prosecutors have since appealed Garton’s ruling to the state Court of Appeals, and both sides are now trading written arguments ahead of possible oral arguments on the matter. 

A new status hearing on LeDoux’s case is scheduled for May 26. 

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Physician assistants may soon be able to operate more independently in Alaska, if Gov. Mike Dunleavy approves a bill passed Friday by the Alaska Legislature.

PAs currently operate many clinics in rural Alaska, but their duties have generally been described in state regulation, not law. That caused problems in 2023, when the state medical board proposed significantly restricting them. 

The board withdrew that proposal soon after it was introduced, but state lawmakers subsequently acted to protect physician assistants from further interference by advancing Senate Bill 89, which would put PAs into state law and allow them to act more independently. 

The bill was written using model legislation and it has the support of the Alaska State Medical Association.

In an 18-2 vote on Friday, the Alaska Senate finalized SB 89 and sent it to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for veto or approval. The state House approved it by a 38-2 vote on Thursday.

Physician assistants are not doctors but in Alaska must have a cooperative agreement with a doctor in order to work. 

SB 89 would remove that requirement if a PA works in a facility licensed by the Alaska Department of Health. If a PA works in a non-licensed facility, they will still need to meet the requirement.

State legislatures across the United States have been moving to encourage their work in an attempt to lower health care costs more generally.

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The Alaska Legislature has approved a bill that would update the law that governs how hospitals and clinics within the state share patient records and other health information.

In an 18-0 vote on Friday, the Alaska Senate approved Senate Bill 272, sending it to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for enactment or veto. The state House approved it 34-6 on Thursday.

Under existing state and federal law, the Alaska Department of Health is allowed to pick a third-party organization to operate a “Health Information Exchange” that transmits electronic health records from one hospital or clinic to another.

In Alaska, the organization is HealthEconnect Alaska, a nonprofit.

If signed into law, SB 272 would clarify the roles of the Department of Health and the organization operating the exchange. People whose records are transmitted through the exchange would be allowed to consent or object to different uses of their data. 

Kendra Sticka, executive director of HealthEconnect, testified in March that the new law is needed because when the original information exchange law was written in 2009, state officials weren’t sure how it would work in practice.

“And so the language in the current statute is somewhat confusing because we didn’t know what it was going to be,” she said.

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The Alaska Beacon launched four years ago today, with a mission to connect Alaskans to their state government. 

Since then, we have covered four legislative sessions from the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. We have written 5,670 articles. And our reporting has won 44 awards — including the Society of Professional Journalists’ General Excellence award, an A-Mark Investigative Journalism award and five Alaska Press Club awards this year.

The Alaska Beacon is a four person team: one editor and three reporters. Our stories have and will continue to investigate how state policies affect specific areas, like the economy, environment, health and education.

Yereth Rosen covers health and the environment from Anchorage, but her reporting takes her all over the state. She’s in Juneau this week for the end of the legislative session, but she’s also racked up trips to Nome, Sitka, Homer, Seward and Whittier. Most of that travel has been supported by a fellowship grant through USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism. Yereth has been with the Alaska Beacon since its inception.

James Brooks covers government and politics from Juneau. He’s back in the halls of the state house after taking some leave to bring twin sons into his family this year. In the coming weeks, he will be following how state lawmakers decide to spend a projected increase in state revenue and the fate of various proposals to incentivize the developers of the potential Alaska LNG project. He has been with the Alaska Beacon since its inception.

Corinne Smith joined the Alaska Beacon in 2024, reporting on the education and justice beats. After award-winning coverage of the education funding and policy debates last year, she is monitoring the effects of that policy — and whether lawmakers address education policy again before they gavel out next week.

I rejoined the Alaska Beacon as its editor in late 2025 after several years as the education and justice reporter and a year-long departure to lead the newsroom at KTOO in Juneau. While I still contribute news stories from time to time, my main focus is leading our three-person team in coverage that centers how state politics and policy affect your life.

In the coming year, we plan to continue our coverage with a major focus on the upcoming November elections. You can look forward to our Voter Guide launching in the coming months, and elections coverage in partnership with other Alaska newsrooms, including the state’s public radio network and the Anchorage Daily News.

Thank you for reading the Alaska Beacon over the last four years. In the years to come, we’re looking forward to earning your continued readership, trust and support.

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A bill that would impose a toll on oil and gas vehicles using the Dalton Highway was set aside by state lawmakers on Thursday after the public voiced concern that it would target a single industry and raise costs for Alaskans.

Senator Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks and the sponsor of SB 286, introduced the bill in an effort to offset maintenance costs of the 414-mile long highway that runs from Livengood, north of Fairbanks, the the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay.

“We are trying to find ways to balance this budget where the cost causers are the cost payers,” he said Tuesday.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities invests approximately $16.5 million in maintenance on the Dalton Highway each year, with approximately one-third of that funding coming from the federal government.

The bill would set up a toll on two miles of the highway near Deadhorse for vehicles transporting personnel or goods for oil and gas companies. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the company that operates the 800-mile long Trans-Alaska Pipeline System between Prudhoe Bay and Valdez, would be exempted from the toll. The bill would require oil and gas companies to reimburse operators who pay the toll within 30 days of a request for reimbursement.

Alaska Trucking Association President Jamie Benson said that while she supports infrastructure investment, the bill would single out the trucking industry and could increase costs for all Alaskans.

“While it’s framed as a maintenance solution, it functions as a targeted fee on a single industry and its supply chain, including Alaska-based trucking companies,” she told legislators Thursday afternoon.

While the bill aims to raise funds to maintain the Dalton Highway, funds raised from the toll would go into the general fund and be subject to appropriations by the legislature annually.

Members of the trucking, oil and gas industries voiced their opposition during a committee meeting on Thursday.

Robb Christenson, director of sales and pricing at Sourdough Express, expressed concerns about government overreach.

“If we begin carving out small sections of public infrastructure and charging users based on industry, where does it stop? Today it’s two miles on the Dalton Highway, tomorrow it’s roads that access mining, timber or other resource development,” he said.

Cody Hyce, owner of Specialized Transport and Rigging in Wasilla, told legislators that the economic, legal and operational hurdles created by the bill would outweigh the benefits to the state.

“We should be looking for efficiencies in our transportation budget, not nickel and diming the very workers and resources that ensure the state’s energy independence,” he said.

According to Andy Mills, legislative liaison to the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Alaska does not currently have authorization from the federal government to establish a toll facility on the highway. The Senate State Affairs committee set the bill aside.

Senator Robert Myers, R-North Pole, told legislators that he understands the issue that they’re trying to fix, but he does not see a toll as the right solution.

Myers, who is a truck driver and travels the Dalton Highway, said that the bill poses legal issues since the highway is being rebuilt using federal funds, an equal protection issue by exempting the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and operational issues for trucking companies.

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