Category: Alaska News

A 53-year-old former Haines resident, Brian Kurtzman, was convicted late last month on 11 counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault of a minor.

Kurtzman sexually abused a child he met while he was a raptor handler at Haines’ American Bald Eagle Foundation Raptor Center in 2013 and 2014. His conviction carries a minimum 32.5 and maximum 495 years in prison, according to the Alaska Department of Law. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September in Juneau Superior Court.

The now-adult survivor was interviewed but asked to remain anonymous for this story. She reported the abuse to Juneau police in 2022. During her testimony at the trial, she described years of grooming and abuse by Kurtzman, beginning when she was 12-years-old and continuing on for nearly a decade.

The two first met when the survivor was enrolled in the Bald Eagle Foundation’s junior raptor handler program, and Kurtzman was working at the foundation.

Kurtzman was fired from his position at the Bald Eagle Foundation in 2014, days after private communication between him and the survivor were made public on social media and the survivor’s father filed a police report, then foundation-director Cheryl McRoberts said in court testimony this year.

But Kurtzman and the survivor remained in contact, even after protective orders in 2014 and 2015 prohibited him from contacting the survivor, and Kurtzman moved to Juneau.

According to the survivor’s testimony during the two-week trial, community members saw indications of the abuse during the period of time covered by the convictions. She described “a lot of suspicion” following the social media post, including sports coaches not allowing her to travel to Juneau.

She also said while staying with family in Juneau in 2013, she met up with Kurtzman and Chilkat Bakery owner Miki Atkins, telling family she was only seeing Atkins. She said the three of them were briefly in Atkins’ hotel room together, before Atkins left and she was assaulted by Kurtzman in his hotel room.

The survivor also described frequently meeting with Kurtzman at a trailer on Fourth Avenue that he was renting from Atkins while living in Haines.

In testimony at the trial, Atkins denied ever traveling to Juneau with Kurtzman, and said she “didn’t remember” but “did not think” she ever rented her Fourth Avenue trailer to him. She also testified that she did not have significant knowledge of the extent of Kurtzman’s contact with the survivor, saying she had “heard people in town talking and [telling] me about that, but I didn’t see anything.”

When the Chilkat Valley News contacted Atkins this week she would not comment on Kurtzman or the conviction.

In testimony, McRoberts said she had confronted Kurtzman prior to the social media post, telling him it “wasn’t part of his job to be that close with a junior raptor handler,” but didn’t know the extent of their contact outside of Kurtzman’s work.

McRoberts this week also declined to comment, saying only in a written message that “justice had been served” and “495 years is what (Kurtzman) deserves.”

New Bald Eagle Foundation director Aaron Cleveland, who started the job after previous director Kathy Benner stepped down earlier this spring, said this week the foundation no longer has any youth programming. Cleveland said the foundation now has a policy of doing criminal background checks of new employees, which Benner said was not the case during her tenure. The background checks, along with a new human resources consultant, are part of an effort to “get the foundation to procedures that follow current standards,” Cleveland said.

While he said the changes were not spurred by the Kurtzman trial, he described the new policies as “following standards that are in place to prevent these kinds of things from happening.”

Both Cleveland and Benner said they were told little about Kurtzman’s employment and firing. Benner said she was told informally only midway through her time at the foundation. Cleveland said he was told about the criminal case against Kurtzman by an employee, but said he hadn’t heard about it as director prior to that, or in previous work as a consultant for the foundation.

“No one ever mentioned it when I was being hired,” Cleveland said. “I was pretty shocked when I heard.”

The foundation’s current board president Sue Chasen said she had only learned the details of Kurtzman’s firing this spring. Like Cleveland, she pointed to policy changes in recent months as a positive improvement for the organization.
suddenly has gifts from unknown sources.”

If adults have suspicions, they should immediately report to law enforcement and the state’s Office of Children’s Services, Olson said.

When considering reporting, adults should “listen to their gut instinct, even if they don’t have the facts – even if they just have a suspicion,” she said. Multiple reports from adults can be particularly important because perpetrators frequently make children feel like they’ll be “in trouble,” or that “blame them for what’s occurring,” to prevent the abuse from being reported, Olson said.

One obstacle to reporting is that grooming behavior, like Kurtzman’s, affects community members, not just victims, Olson said.

“It’s important to note that as long as a person is grooming a child, they’re also grooming other adults around the child that might be reporting to try to dissuade them from doing so, and to create a level of distrust of the child,” she said.

“A report is not an accusation, it’s a request for a professional service to be done, for professionals to follow up and figure out what the truth is,” said another advocate, Natalie Watson, violence prevention manager at Juneau-based advocacy organization AWARE.

According to court testimony from former Haines Police Chief Josh Dryden, police reported Kurtzman to the Office of Children’s Services in 2014 after they found the survivor at Kurtzman’s house. But no charges came of the report, and current chief Jimmy Yoakum said he could not make time this week to talk about police records related to the case or current Haines Police Department reporting procedures.

Investigating and prosecuting child sexual abuse cases can be difficult, Olson said, particularly if a child is afraid to speak to investigators. Olson emphasized prevention measures, like early education in schools and by trusted adults about body autonomy and boundaries.

Juneau-based advocacy organizations AWARE and the Juneau Child Advocacy Center, along with STAR Alaska, all offer free, confidential hotlines to assist survivors in seeking resources and reporting. While reports can be made confidentially, advocates are mandatory reporters, meaning they are legally required to report to law enforcement information about abuse of children under 18 years old if given the name of the child.

Advocates may explain options to survivors, offer support in contacting law enforcement, and offer emotional support and counseling resources.

“A lot of it is focusing on making sure a child can really incorporate that it was not their fault (the abuse) occurred, and they cannot hold themselves responsible for the criminal actions of an adult,” Olson said.

Juneau also has a Child Advocacy Center, which in addition to providing resources and information, partners with law enforcement and the Office of Children’s Services to interview children in instances of suspected abuse.

STAR Alaska 24-hour free confidential crisis line: (800) 478-8999

AWARE 24-hour care line: (800) 478-1090

Juneau Child Advocacy Center: 907-463-6100

The post Man convicted in Haines child sexual abuse case appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Haines Borough has been awarded a million dollars in federal money for childcare, but some say spending restrictions may prevent it from addressing the most pressing childcare needs.

The funding has been specifically granted for an “early childhood education building,” according to an April 28 letter to the borough from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The funding was provided through the federal earmark process, where requests are made to members of the congressional delegation — in this case Senator Lisa Murkowski — who then may decide to advocate for the requests in federal budgeting.

The award follows months of discussion about how to address a childcare shortage in the Chilkat Valley.

The original earmark request was made in February 2025, mayor Tom Morphet said, soon after he got the idea from regional childcare expert Blue Shibler. Because the deadline to request funds was only a week after his conversation with Shibler, Morphet said, the request did not go before the borough assembly.

Elected officials, local providers, and experts like Shibler have all described challenging economics of childcare, with revenue unable to keep up with rising costs of staffing and permitting requirements.

In theory, the new million dollars should be a boon: it dwarfs the amount of money the borough currently has to support childcare businesses, with the assembly spending hours this winter discussing a $17,000 injection of cash to local providers.

Mayor Tom Morphet said the million dollar award could fill a need for more space. That’s half of a two-part equation — “more cash and more room,” he said — for increasing total childcare slots.

Morphet’s ideas for the money included refurbishing the current SEARHC clinic as a Haines Borough School District-run childcare facility, or partnering with the Chilkoot Indian Association to refurbish a CIA-owned building on Main Street as a general community childcare center.

There’s disagreement about whether those ideas are possible, and if so, whether they would be effective. On the intergovernmental partnership, Morphet said CIA officials had discussed the idea with borough officials and had “expressed interest,” but didn’t have the money for the project. Those discussions, he said, served as the main impetus for the funding request.

Sheri Loomis, who had been a part of a working group on childcare in the Chilkat Valley, said the partnership idea had been discussed by the working group and the mayor. But it was her understanding that there was confusion over whether the grant, as it had been received, could fund such a partnership. oMorphet this week maintained that the grant could be used for those purposes, and said he believed the grant language “was pretty broadly worded.”

But in a statement Tuesday, CIA tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette wrote that “the grantor does not allow the funds to be ‘passed through’ to another organization.’”

“The mayor may have found a way around that provision,” Brouillette added.

Brouillette also said that CIA has partnered with the borough on a grant to fund childcare planning meetings in June, but “has no formal agreement beyond that.”

Borough staff seem to have less clarity than either Brouillette or Morphet.

At an April assembly meeting, assembly member Eben Sargent asked borough staff about what kinds of limitations were on the funds — whether they were limited only to constructing a new facility or whether they could be used more broadly.

“I’m hopeful that we don’t have to build anything new, and we can use it for at least maintenance on a building. I’d love to use it for childcare services, like funding salaries, because that’s the need,” Sargent said.

Assembly member Alekka Fullerton responded that the limitations on the funds wouldn’t be clear until the borough received a grant agreement.

In an interview this week Fullerton said the borough still needs to officially apply for the funds even though they’ve been awarded, and that the grant agreement wouldn’t come until that application was approved. Fullerton said she did not know the deadline for the application.

As for whether new facilities would be an effective solution to the childcare shortage, Chilkat Valley Preschool executive director Tammy Iund said she had “real frustration when the discovery was made that the million dollars was for a building and not for the logistics of helping create childcare opportunities.”

The current shortage, as it’s been described, has a specific chokepoint. Chilkat Valley Preschool in fact has been suffering from low enrollment, not overenrollment, at the 3-7 year-old age range it currently serves. The preschool has had no more than 9 students enrolled this year, even though it has capacity for up to 18, Iund said.

Rather, many, including both Morphet and Iund, say the shortage lies in care for babies and toddlers, which requires different licensing and facilities than the preschool currently has.

The preschool is currently “pivoting,” Iund said, to providing that care, including acquiring the new licensing and required equipment. Supplementing the costs of those changes, as well as general startup costs for new providers, would be a more effective use of funds, she said.

All the different parties on the issue, including borough officials, CIA officials, and providers like Lund, are set to come together during the June meetings jointly hosted by the two governments.

While there may be disagreement now, there’s hope that those meetings will offer some path forward. Morphet said he sees those meetings as a time to decide how to use the million dollar grant.

“That’s going to be a topic of the meetings in June, seeing if we can get everyone on the same page for how to spend that money,” he said

Iund said something similar. “I do appreciate all the support from the borough,” she said. “Everyone’s working hard on this problem, we just have to figure out some way to come together and get consensus.”

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Haines High School hosted its annual activities awards assembly this week. It celebrated the more than 70 students who participated in activities throughout the year. Graduating senior Maddox Rogers’ Drama, Debate, and Forensics points were big news during the event. Rogers took seventh place on a locally maintained list of all-time top earners with the 698 points he earned. DDF Coach Hannah Bochart, who said the list dates back to the 1990s, said nobody locally has cracked the top ten earners since 2007. In earning 698 points, Rogers actually took Bochart’s spot at seventh on the list. Bochart had 665 points. Fun Chilkat Valley DDF fact, Hannah Bochart’s brother Micah Bochart holds fourth place on that list. The first place all time top earner in Haines remains Iris Holmes, with 1,230 points.

Nolan Woodard is celebrating his 10-year Haines-aversery this week. His mom, Tammy Iund, is also celebrating her arrival in Haines. One year for her. Iund said she disembarked from the ferry a year ago and planned to visit for 10 days. Her plans to move on to Fairbanks were tossed not too long after. She said she is staying.

Dearest parents of school-aged children, please encourage your kids to pay a visit to the lost and found at school. The right hand side of the entry way is a giant display of long lost clothing. You might find the sparkly high tops that have been missing. They are tucked in between the four different styles of Xtra Tuffs, 21 water jugs, multiple lunch boxes, upwards of 75 jackets and sweaters, ducky boots, flip flops, earrings and snow pants. Take a look.

Regi Johanos was in town for a whirlwind visit with Aly Zeiger and visited Mark and Michelle Zeiger at their place across Mud Bay. Johanos is no stranger to Haines. The former resident did not have the time or weather for the traditional Riley and Ripinsky hikes that she and Aly would have preferred. They made up for it with town walks and a Kelgaya Point visit. Johanos enjoyed A Night on the Steinway at the Chilkat Center and the annual plant sales in the Haines that make springtime so special. She also discovered an unknown skill at the card game, Sushi Go.

The community garden at Mosquito Lake has finally taken its weekly garden work party outside. Volunteers have been planting since mid-March and this past Sunday, they finally got their hands in the dirt at the 8000 square foot garden. The work crew changes weekly, as different volunteers show up and new projects are created and distributed by garden coordinator Sarah Ammons. This week featured planting onion sets and using the broad fork for soil prep, which uncovered some very healthy earthworms. Vermiculturist Erika Merklin said the worms are feasting on decomposing brassicas stems from last year’s gardening season. Merklin said if you really want to be impressed by some worms, visit the compost pile at the community garden. She is confident that they will knock your socks off.

Kathleen Menke can plan one heck of a ‘clipboard of fun’. Her granddaughter Skyler Menke’s recent visit was an action-packed two weeks that hit all the high points of watching spring unfold in the Chilkat Valley. Skyler was thrilled to see humpbacks, orcas, baby whales, sea lions, and seals. She learned about the Chilkoot eulachon run, got to dip a few herself, and went to Charlie Moody’s laser class and First Friday at the Haines Sheldon Museum. The two enjoyed bird watching and can now spot sparrows, warblers, jays and raptors, feeding her ornithology interests. Skyler also had the opportunity to make Mother’s Day breakfast for her grandmother before wrapping up her visit.

The Clayton family recently visited Cave Creek, Arizona. Piper Carlson celebrated her 12th birthday during the visit and also took horseback riding lessons. Her favorite horse was named Honey. Honey was a little stubborn but spunky, just like her rider. Callahan Clayton skinny-dipped in a neighborhood pool. They went bee hunting nightly. Bee hunting is done with a black light, while looking for scorpions; no bees were harmed. In an exciting turn of events Cal Clayton jumped in a duck pond, while chasing a duck. Ramie Clayton pulled him out by his golden locks. But not before his grandma, Pattie Carlson jumped in after him. The family visited with Kyle Clayton’s brother Troy Wingert, known to frequent Haines every summer. The family also spent time with grandparents Rich and Patti Carlson and found time for a two day trip to Prescott, Arizona.

The Dermott O’Toole Memorial Library in Tenakee Springs got a helping hand from Beau Bradley and The Book Store. The Tenakee Springs library’s book order made it as far as Haines. But its order of children’s nonfiction books was purchased using the Book Hook Fund grant and did not cover the shipping. The books arrived with Bradley’s book order. He had to do a little bit more leg work to get the books to Ruth Underhill, the librarian in Tenakee Springs. Bradley called the ferry terminal and they arranged for a person to escort the precious cargo to the proper ferry in Juneau. The new reading material arrived safely.

Mike Ward announced the winners of the Quick Shop’s grand opening prizes. Shoppers added their name and contact information to their receipts in hopes of winning the $250 digital gift card associated with the rewards program. The winners were Fred Lopez, SJ Durand, Sarah Bishop and Nate Baker.

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The Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts wishes to thank everyone who helped make “A Night on the Steinway” such a rousing success.  Thank you to the performers for sharing their talent.  Thank you to the cooks and lobby crew for creating a beautiful and delicious reception.  Thank you to Molly Dwyer and Michael Marks for the lights and sound. Thank you to Krystal Lloyd for the decorations, to Keith Giles for tuning the pianos, and to Deina Davis at the Aspen Hotel for a room for Keith. Thank you, Annette Smith, for everything you do.  And a special thank you to Sam McPhetres for videotaping the performance, which is already on YouTube.  I’ve watched the video, and it’s great!  If you are not one of the lucky people who saw the show, check it out.  If you are one of those lucky people, I want you to know, Haines, that you are a wonderful audience.

Lorrie Dudzik, Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts President

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Thank you to all who attended and participated in the Haines Health Fair on April 25. This event was made possible by a grant from the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation, an Affiliate of The Alaska Community Foundation. Hospice of Haines would particularly like to thank Alaska Health Fair and those who traveled to Haines to help us host the affordable blood screenings and health education including Wendy Carpenter, Denise Schmidt, Kate Slotnick, and Wendy Pangburn.  We would also like to thank our local organizations and businesses that participated.  Thank you to the volunteers who helped with the blood draw.  We appreciate your expertise.  Thank you to the many volunteers who assisted with setup, registration, health education, vision screening, blood pressure checks, health exits, snacks and cleanup.  We are grateful for your time and dedication to your community.  And, a special thanks to Susan Weerasinghe  for co-chairing this event.  

Much thanks,

Shannon McPhetres, Hospice of Haines director and volunteer coordinator

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Is the value of the trans-Alaska pipeline system $2.8 billion, or $10.3 billion? Or is it $20 billion?

This week, a state review board will hold a formal hearing to determine which figure is the right one — with major financial implications for state government and the three municipalities along the pipeline system’s route.

At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, equal to 2% of the pipeline system’s value, that its oil company owners could owe each year to the state, the North Slope and Fairbanks boroughs and the city of Valdez.

The pipeline’s value had been set at $8 billion by a five-year settlement reached in 2016, which the parties extended through the end of 2025. But before that, the municipalities and the system’s owners spent a decade feuding over annual assessments in the courts — with appeals to the Alaska Supreme Court and one trial that lasted more than two months.

The pipeline system property taxes, in past years, have represented more than half of Valdez’s regular recurring revenue, according to city budget documents, as well as a significant contribution to the state’s yearly unrestricted revenues.

A decision setting the system’s value at the municipalities’ preferred value of at least $20.083 billion would result in pipeline owners paying at least $400 million a year in property taxes — compared to the $56 million that would be owed if the value is set at $2.8 billion, the value favored by the owners.

This week’s hearing, before the governor-appointed State Assessment Review Board, is unlikely to be the last word on the matter. While the board can consider arguments from all sides, its decisions are ultimately appealable to the courts.

The pipeline system’s owners include affiliates of ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Hilcorp, the North Slope’s major oil-producing companies.

With the expiration of the settlement at the end of 2025, the state Department of Revenue’s assessment for 2026 — based on the estimated cost to replace the system, minus depreciation — actually boosted the pipeline system’s value from the settled figure, to $10.3 billion.

Discussions had been underway about a new settlement, Fairbanks finance officials wrote in a letter to borough policymakers in January. But no such deal has been announced.

A spokesperson for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the pipeline system for the owners, declined to comment on those companies’ behalf, citing the pending review by the state board. A spokesperson for the Department of Revenue also declined to comment.

Robin Brena, a longtime Alaska attorney who for decades has represented the municipalities in their fights over the pipeline system’s value, said he hopes that the parties can mediate their differences and strike a new agreement.

He stressed that historically, the pipeline system’s owners have argued for aggressively low valuations of the property that the courts have rejected. In 2006, the owners argued for an $850 million valuation, before the Alaska Supreme Court ultimately affirmed a lower court judge’s ruling that the value was actually $9.98 billion.

Brena’s clients, the municipalities, wrote in their recent appeal to the board that the state revenue department made a legal mistake in its $10.3 billion valuation by ignoring updated estimates from the municipalities that say replacing the pipeline system today would cost some $40 billion.

Instead, the municipalities say, the state relied on a court decision that set the 2009 replacement cost of the system at $19.1 billion, then made inflation adjustments to produced a 2026 replacement cost of $28.6 billion.

The courts and the state assessment board have preferred new cost estimates to inflation adjustments, the municipalities said, because they better capture updates in the pipeline system’s designs and allow mistakes to be corrected.

A second major error by the revenue department, the municipalities said, was that it used an inappropriate new technique to calculate depreciation: comparing the current flow of oil through the pipeline system, some 460,000 barrels a day, to its peak flow of 2 million barrels, which came in the late 1980s.

That depreciation technique, the municipalities argued, ignores legal precedent that says the calculation should account for the quantity of oil not just actively flowing from, but also available for future production at, Alaska’s big oil fields — a figure known as proven reserves.

A calculation based only on current production neglects the value contained in two huge new oil fields, Willow and Pikka, that are still under construction, according to Brena. Those fields are set to help boost the daily flow through the pipeline system to some 650,000 barrels at a new peak in 2034, according to state projections.

“The department’s calculation completely ignores proven reserves that are not in production,” Brena said.

The oil companies, meanwhile, say in their appeal that the pipeline system is a “depreciating asset” with a value that declines each year. The state, they say, is now proposing to assess a higher value for the pipeline than the $9.25 billion the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed for the 2009 tax year.

“It is fundamentally unreasonable to conclude that a pipeline that is now 17 years older — with 17 fewer years of proven reserves to transport and 17 years of additional depreciation — has an assessed value significantly greater than the value assessed in tax year 2009,” the oil companies wrote.

The companies also say that the state’s assessment fails to account for “operational and economic realities” of the pipeline system — including that the flow of oil is eventually projected to resume its longstanding decline after a “short-term spike.”

The revenue department, the companies said, also ignored the companies’ own “comprehensive” report on the pipeline system’s replacement cost that they shared for the 2026 tax year.

“The owners furnished the department with a significant volume of information relevant to the proper assessment of the subject property,” the companies said. “The department’s assessment ignores all of it in favor of reliance on a 17-year-old appraisal report that is outdated, unsupportable, and fundamentally flawed.”

The board’s hearing on the pipeline system’s value is set to begin Wednesday and finish by the end of the week. Decisions are expected within seven days afterward, according to the board’s support staff.

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.

Lawmakers in the Alaska House passed a bill that aims to stabilize budgets for Alaska school districts by redefining how they calculate their student counts. The student count makes up the base of the state’s education funding formula. 

Lawmakers passed House Bill 261 by a 31 to 9 vote, with bipartisan support, on Tuesday. Under the new calculation of the student count, the bill would provide an additional $143 million in state funding to school districts next year. 

But with competing education funding and policy proposals in the Legislature — and just seven days left in the legislative session — the bill heads to the Alaska Senate for consideration and its future is uncertain.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, would allow school districts to make their student counts and budget estimates earlier in the year. Currently, schools make an estimated student count in October, and revise it in the spring. Under the proposed legislation, districts would use the previous three-year average of their student count — or the previous year’s count, if it is more than 5% higher. 

Story described the change as a way for school districts to get off a budgeting “rollercoaster” and allow districts to have firmer budget estimates, including more certainty in offering contracts to teachers and staff in the spring.  

“This is such a policy change that would so help Alaska stabilize education and get more relief and more certainty, and less stress for our families,” she said Tuesday, after the vote. 

Alaska school districts are grappling with major budget deficits and rising costs, which have them planning cuts and teacher and staff layoffs across the state — at least 11 schools are slated for closure — amid years of ongoing debates among legislators and Gov. Mike Dunleavy on how much the state should fund education. 

School districts currently estimate their student counts in October and draft budget estimates in the spring, and sometimes up to the first day of school in the fall. But with declining enrollment and other changes among student populations, those budget estimates can change, leaving districts uncertain about what staff or programs will be offered in the fall — as well as how much state funding they will receive. Under the new legislation, districts would instead have a solid student count number to budget off of in the year ahead. 

Additionally, the bill would change how districts count students who receive intensive special education services. Districts could use the previous year’s count, or the current year’s count in October or in February. 

“And what’s great about smoothing is it can help them plan for their educational programs when they are in a climate of declining enrollment,” Story said. “Other states are doing this, and they don’t have the volatility that we do. Because our process, our funding process timeline, is messed up, it really is.”

Alaska has seen a steady decline in enrollment in public schools in recent years, with more students and families opting to enroll in homeschool programs and private schools, or leaving the state altogether. When student numbers decline sharply, the state has a “hold harmless” provision which protects districts from funding dropping dramatically, and phases funding down over three years. Proponents of the legislation say the more predictable student counts and budgeting will help districts with long term stability, their ability to retain teachers and attract new students.

The adjusted student count would have varying effects on school districts statewide — a state fiscal analysis projects the Anchorage School District would receive $31 million more next year. Sitka would see $2 million more, and Yukon-Koyukuk would see $3.8 million in additional funding. But several districts would see less funding under the new calculation, like the state-run boarding school Mt. Edgecumbe High School. 

Members of the Alaska House debated and passed an amendment to the bill which would also change the calculation for local municipalities’ contribution to school districts in the state’s complex funding formula, known as the local contribution. 

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, sponsored the amendment that would cap municipalities’ contribution at a fixed increase of 2% annually, which would relieve boroughs seeing rapidly rising property assessments — those assessments inform how much they contribute to their local schools. Ruffridge said large boroughs like the Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna and Anchorage, which are seeing rising property values, are shouldering education funding that should be placed on the state. The adjustment is estimated to cost the state $30 million next year.

“What you’re seeing in a lot of districts with high increases to property assessment values is their required local contribution is going up and up,” Ruffridge said in an interview on Wednesday. “As a result, they’re being required to pay a significantly higher portion, so to the state it looks like the state funding to schools is going down. That’s what it looks like. And on the municipal side they’re being asked to pay more and more and more.”

The amendment passed by a 24 to 16 vote, with Story among those opposing. After the vote she called it a “significant change” and said she had concerns about capping funding for education. 

The prospects of the bill are uncertain. Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, who chairs the Senate Education committee said Tuesday the policy changes will need to be vetted by the Senate with just days left in the session.

“Bringing everybody along while we are also trying to deal with property tax bills and sales tax proposals and a Rural Health Transformation Fund and all these different healthcare compacts, along with the omnibus crime bill, and of course, the budgets, it might just be too much for us to take that large of a bite,” Tobin said. “But I do believe that components of House Bill 261 will end up in the final package.”

“I’m not trying to be a future teller by saying what is and is not going to continue to be considered by this body,” she added, and said that it’s likely the policy changes will be taken up by the Task Force on Education Funding. “This could be a part of that overall package you see introduced in the 35th Legislature.”

The draft bill redefining districts’ student counts would cost an estimated $113 million, plus additional provisions, for a total of roughly $143 million. 

Meanwhile, the Senate is in the process of considering another “mini-bus” education bill, also originally authored by Story, which would fund an additional $82 million for schools, including targeted funding for transportation, energy relief, reading instruction and career and technical education programs. 

A draft budget passed by the Senate includes up to $100 million in one-time funding for schools, if oil prices remain high. The House drafted a budget with nearly $158 million in one-time education funding — the two proposals are currently being negotiated and compiled by a conference committee of three senators and three representatives over the next few days.

The bill is subject to a reconsideration vote on Wednesday at the request of House Minority Leader Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, which delays the bill’s transmittal to the Senate.

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The federal government has rejected a request to list three populations of Gulf of Alaska king salmon as endangered, according to a public notice scheduled for publication on Thursday.

The listing was requested in 2024 by a Washington state conservation group amid long-term declines in king salmon numbers in Alaska. 

If the listing had been approved, it could have resulted in new limits on development in Alaska as well as major restrictions on commercial, sport and personal-use fishing in the state.

State officials opposed the listing, and in a written statement Wednesday morning, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said the decision means Alaska is managing its fish stocks well.

“This decision by NMFS Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler indicates strong support for Alaska’s management of natural resources,” he said. “Alaska became a state, in large part, to hold authority over our own natural resources such as fisheries. Since then, the sound science and fisheries management by our department has been recognized globally.”

The Wild Fish Conservancy, a conservation group based in Washington state, had requested the listing in January 2024, citing climate change and competition from hatchery-raised fish. 

A preliminary finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service in May 2024 concluded that the petition “presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.”

At the time, the agency sought additional information, but it made no final decision before the Biden administration ended and the Trump administration began.

In May 2025, the conservancy filed suit against the federal government, stating that officials had illegally delayed their decision on the listing.

Both sides settled the suit in March this year, agreeing that the federal government would decide the issue by May 13. 

Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy, said by email, “The scale and geographic extent of the crisis facing Chinook across the Gulf of Alaska make this conclusion deserving of careful scrutiny. We are reviewing both the agency’s scientific conclusions and the legal framework underlying this decision before determining next steps.”

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