Category: Alaska News

After more than a year Haines and Skagway have a sport fishing area management biologist again. 

John Whitinger, is a biologist and Alaskan who says he is most drawn to looking at the entire ecosystem when considering the health of individual fish stocks. 

He was born in Kodiak but described a childhood commercial fishing throughout Southeast Alaska.  The 32-year-old is Aleut and has family on Prince of Wales, in Ketchikan and Sitka. “Everywhere I go, I have family,” he said. 

He described power trolling for salmon from a 100-year-old wooden tug with his grandfather. 

“He’d always try to keep me into the school year because that’s when the kings are running,” Whitinger said. 

He moved to Anchorage and after he graduated he said he mostly thought about sports, football specifically. 

“I was defensive line, linebacker, full back,” he said. “I played one year in Tacoma, Washington at the University of Puget Sound. It was a great place for school but we had the longest losing streak in football history and we lost every single game.” 

He walked on at Adams State in Colorado and said he played one more year, then got a concussion and two shoulder injuries and realized that he probably needed to focus on studying fish before he destroyed his body. 

After graduating with a degree in organismal biology, Whitinger taught high school science for a year, cultivating a passion for education that he said he’d like to continue in the Chilkat Valley. 

Then he became a masters student at Northern Michigan University and worked on a project in Little Bay de Noc, which is known as a world class walleye fishery at the upper end of Lake Michigan. He and his professor documented how the fishery had changed over 30 years due to changing conditions in the lake and agricultural run-off that caused fish that used to be in the northern end of the lake to follow food and nutrients to the south. 

“Now, after 10 years of this being the world’s best walleye fishing hole, it has completely flip-flopped and now Wisconsin pulls all of the larger fish from that fishery,” he said. 

It was a chance to do the kind of work Whitinger said he is most interested in, looking at the entire ecosystem and how a fish population fits into it. 

He moved back to Alaska two years ago and said he’s been applying to work for the state ever since, weathering hiring freezes at the state and federal levels. Then, he said, he got exactly what he was looking for.

“The first time I got offered a position, it was not only in Southeast, where I want to be, but it’s in a part of Southeast that [I’m not] super familiar with. So I’m super excited about that,” he said. 

At the top of his to-do list right now is getting boats and a Ski-doo that haven’t been used in more than a year back up and running. 

While he is new to the community, Whitinger said he brings a lot of experience with different kinds of fisheries with him. 

“I’ve worked in the Great Lakes, all freshwater systems with a lot of artificial habitat, a lot of disruption. I’ve also worked in the Gulf [of Mexico],” he said. “I think that seeing this really wide array of what fisheries can look like and how it works in other places is .. something that makes me unique in this position.” 

Just a few days into the job and Whitinger said he’s hearing from a lot of locals, which is how he’d like to spend his first year. 

“I’ve already met several people who said ‘hey, I want to show you the river.’ I’ve had people invite me out on their boats, which has been awesome. If anybody wants me to go out fishing with them and I can do it, I will,” he said.  

That’s how he’ll figure out what people would most like to see addressed in the Upper Lynn Canal fisheries they are using. Also on his priority list is checking in with the Chilkoot Indian Association and Chilkat Indian Village about what they’ve been working on, their goals and local priorities. 

So far the thing most people ask him about first has been king salmon, he said. 

Haines’ king salmon sport fishery has been shut down for nearly a decade. As currently written, this year’s plan is to open it back up again beginning June 14 to both resident and non-resident anglers. 

“Everyone is on edge about how things are going to go because it has been so long and it’s very tense,” Whitinger said. 

Some fisherman have questioned the decision to reopen the fishery and worry that it will put too much pressure on a recovering population. He said everyone he has talked to seems to be the most concerned that the fishery be healthy and managed sustainably. 

“I’ve been talking with regional managers in the last four days… I’ve been on so many calls about this specific subject,” he said. “We’re working incredibly hard to provide fair and equitable access to king salmon this year to all user groups.” 

Looking ahead to managing this season, Whitinger said he was going to rely a lot on the knowledge and experience of other people in the local Fish and Game office. 

“I’m leaning heavily on theirs because I don’t have the background,” he said. “The types of things that you can’t get from showing up here and reading the reg book.” 

The post Meet the new Upper Lynn Canal sport fish area management biologist appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

When a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research project discovered a mysterious object more than two miles underwater in the Gulf of Alaska, scientists were puzzled.

Three years later, NOAA officials can now reveal what the object is: the dead cells that formed the base of a big sea anemone.

Scientists found the orb in deep water west of Prince of Wales Island during an ongoing research program called Seascape Alaska. The program began in 2021 and remains ongoing; it is being carried out to fulfil a national ocean-mapping strategy issued in 2020.

There is a pressing need for such research, according to NOAA. Even today, 61% of the U.S. waters off Alaska remain unmapped, according to the agency.

Accurate mapping is also needed to delineate ocean territorial claims, according to NOAA. Work done through the Seascape Alaska program was used by the U.S. State Department in its 2023 claim to extended continental shelf territory in the High Arctic and Bering Sea.

The puzzling golden orb, which was stuck to a rock, was retrieved by a remotely operated vehicle launched from the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, the primary vessel being used in the Seascape Alaska program.

At the time, scientists speculated that it might be an egg case or a dead marine sponge.

The process of identifying it turned out to be prolonged, and it involved scientists from NOAA Fisheries and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

“We work on hundreds of different samples and I suspected that our routine processes would clarify the mystery,” Allen Collins, a zoologist and director of NOAA Fisheries’ National Systematics Laboratory, said in a statement released by NOAA. “But this turned into a special case that required focused efforts and expertise of several different individuals. This was a complex mystery that required morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise to solve.”

The size and fate of the sea anemone that left the orb is yet unknown, said Emily Crum, a spokesperson for NOAA Ocean Exploration.

The orb is about 4 inches wide, she said by email. The sea anemone species associated with it can grow to large sizes, with tentacles stretching up to 7 feet, she said.

The golden orb was not the only unusual discovery made on the seafloor off Alaska.

In 2024, scientists working aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking cutter Healy discovered a gas-emitting volcano-like structure rising 500 meters from the seafloor in the Arctic Ocean.

That discovery was also part of the Seascape Alaska program, Crum said.

As the program continues, scientists expect to find more unusual items.

“So often in deep ocean exploration, we find these captivating mysteries, like the ‘golden orb’. With advanced techniques like DNA sequencing, we are able to solve more and more of them,” Capt. William Mowitt, acting director of NOAA Ocean Exploration, said in the NOAA statement. “This is why we keep exploring — to unlock the secrets of the deep and better understand how the ocean and its resources can drive economic growth, strengthen our national security, and sustain our planet.” 

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

The Alaska Senate advanced a bill Wednesday to establish a savings program for employees whose workplaces do not offer a retirement program.

The Alaska Work and Save Program is what Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and the bill’s sponsor, called a solution to a retirement savings problem in Alaska. According to a survey by the AARP, nearly half of private-sector employees in Alaska lack a retirement plan.

“This program will help Alaskan businesses offer a competitive benefit at no cost,” he said. 

Wielechowski told legislators that social security payments do not cover the high cost of living for seniors in Alaska, increasing their reliance on SNAP and Medicaid, and small businesses cannot always afford to sponsor a retirement program for their employees. Wielechowski proposed establishing the Alaska Work and Save Program for tax advantaged and portable retirement accounts.

The bill passed with 15 yes votes. Sens. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, Robert Myers, R-North Pole, George Rauscher, R-Sutton, and Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, voted against it. 

Sen. Robert Myers, R-North Pole, said that he was conflicted about the bill because it was unclear to him how businesses would help administer the program.

Senate Bill 21 would develop a retirement program called the Alaska Work and Save Program for employees who are not offered a retirement plan by their employer. Applicants would be able to contribute some or all of their Permanent Fund Dividend and additional contributions through payroll deduction to the individual retirement account. Eligible employees would be automatically enrolled and would be able to opt out of the program.

“It fixes a problem in a way that doesn’t overreach, that helps the business community, that helps workers and is good for our state,” Wielechowski said. “Passing this bill is an important step forward towards genuinely improving the lives of Alaskans by helping them save for a rewarding retirement.”

If the bill becomes law, Alaska would join 15 other states that have automatic savings programs, according to Pew, a nonprofit that oversees the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Small businesses owners across Alaska wrote in letters of support that a lack of retirement benefits makes it difficult for small businesses to compete with larger companies, and the proposed retirement system would be beneficial for small businesses.

Forbidden Peak Brewery Co-Owner Skye Stekoll supported the bill and wrote that “easy access to a public retirement program would make both starting the process of investing and making continued regular investments far more attainable for our employees, and also make it conceivable for employers to contribute in prorated ways based on hours worked, longevity, etc., regardless of the industry.”

Rachael Miller, chief advocacy officer for the Food Bank of Alaska, wrote to legislators that the bill could increase food security for Alaskan seniors.

“By creating a pathway for workers to save for retirement through automatic payroll deductions, the Alaska Work and Save Program will help workers, particularly in fishing, tourism, and gig-based jobs, prepare for retirement and reduce future reliance on emergency food assistance,” she stated in a letter.

The Department of Revenue would administer the Alaska Work and Save Program. According to a fiscal note, the program will cost $808,000 in 2027 and approximately $524,000-$589,000 annually. 

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A Southeast Alaska garden does its best work when it is designed as a set of connected systems rather than a single plot of vegetables. Our climate — cool, wet, and long on daylight — is generous in some ways and challenging in others.  A healthy garden here tends to be one that works with those conditions instead of fighting them. The Victory Garden plan is built around four interconnected pieces: a water feature that doubles as pest control, a pollinator strategy centered on native flora, active soil stewardship, and a long-term investment in perennial, shelf-stable food.

Pollinators: native flora for yields and pest control 

Southeast Alaska’s wild pollinators — bumblebees, native solitary bees, hoverflies, and several moth and butterfly species — already do most of the pollinating work in our gardens. Inviting more of them produces two payoffs: better yields on crops that depend on pollination (squash, beans, berries, tree fruit) and better pest control, because many pollinator-friendly flowers also attract predatory and parasitic insects that eat aphids, caterpillars, and other garden pests.

Rather than relying only on imported ornamentals, we are building pollinator support around native and near-native flora that already thrives here. Adjacent fireweed, lupine and cow parsnip attract bumblebees and long-tongued bees, as do our seeded annual flowers like nasturtium and calendula.

Garden herbs allowed to flower, like chives, oregano, thyme, and cilantro benefit pollinators and beneficial predators throughout the season.

Pollinators need water as well as food, but in Southeast we must hydrate them without adding to the mosquito population. This year we are using bee cups which are small, shallow ceramic or glass dishes tucked among flowers offering safe drinking surfaces that are too shallow for mosquitoes to complete a breeding cycle, even when refilled every day or two.

Soil health: testing, rotation, and managing club root 

Soil is where most of Southeast Alaska’s gardening challenges begin and end. Our native soils are typically acidic, often low in available nutrients due to high rainfall leaching and sometimes compacted or poorly drained. Formal soil tests are a must and tell us pH and the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and key minerals so we can amend specifically rather than broadly.

One issue we encountered last year is club root, a soil-borne pathogen that attacks the brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, turnips, radishes, kohlrabi) and thrives in exactly the conditions we have plenty of: cool, wet, acidic soils. Club-root spores can persist in soil for up to 20 years, and replanting brassicas into infected ground simply feeds the problem.

Our strategy this season is disciplined rotation. The main bed will be planted primarily with non-brassica crops — roots, alliums, legumes, greens, and solanaceae (nightshades) under protection — with an isolated section given over to brassicas. Over time, additional tactics will support the rotation:

• Raising soil pH toward neutral with lime, which suppresses club root activity.

• Improving drainage with compost, raised beds, and cover crops to keep roots from sitting in saturated soil.

• Sanitation — cleaning tools between beds and avoiding moving soil from infected areas into clean ones.

Long-term food stability 

Annual vegetables feed us for a season; perennials and shelf-stable crops feed us for years. A major focus of the Victory Garden’s plan is building that longer time horizon into the landscape.

We are investing effort in annual crops that store for months without a freezer or canner. Root crops like potatoes, carrots, beets, onions can all be stored in a root cellar and can last until it’s time to start seeds the following spring. Winter squash varieties like kuri, hubbard and long pie pumpkins can mature in a hoop house or in a field in a very warm, sheltered spot. Once cured, they store for months on a pantry shelf without any processing.

Water and the swale

In Southeast Alaska, rain is rarely the problem — managing where it goes is. A well-placed swale (a shallow contour channel that slows and spreads runoff) turns abundant rainfall into an asset. It captures water high in the garden, lets it soak in gradually, and supplies moisture through the occasional summer dry stretches when our usually damp soils can surprise us by drying out. Beyond irrigation, the swale is a habitat feature. A little standing or slow-moving water pulls in the organisms that handle pest control for us. Toads are perhaps the single most effective slug predator we can invite in besides ducks. One boreal or western toad can eat hundreds of slugs in a season, and they need moist, sheltered places to breed and rest.

Systems that support each other 

What ties these strategies together is that each one quietly solves more than one problem. The swale is irrigation and pest control. Native flora is pollination and beneficial insect habitat. Bee cups hydrate pollinators while avoiding mosquito risk. Soil testing and rotation protect crops and guard the soil for the next decade.

A Southeast Alaska garden, designed this way, starts to look less like a patch of vegetables and more like a small, deliberate ecosystem — one that uses our rain, our light, and our native life to keep producing, season after season.

The post A whole-garden approach for the Victory Garden appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Succession planting usually refers to a vegetable gardening technique used to maximize yield and ensure a continuous harvest throughout the season by reseeding or planting crops in sequence.

This rewarding gardening practice can also be applied to herbaceous perennial flower and shade gardens. 

Herbaceous refers to plants that lack a woody stem and die back after flowering. This includes many flowers and ferns, but not shrubs or trees. Perennial means plants that live longer than one season.

In gardening, perennials typically refer to herbaceous plants that emerge in spring, grow, develop a flower, die back in the winter, and commonly re-emerge the following spring to begin the same cycle. 

Great, right? Plant once and get flowers year after year after year? Well, there is a caveat to that.

Annual flowers bloom continuously all-season before completing their life cycle and cannot be reused after one season (commonly the ones we see in hanging baskets, planters, and windowsill boxes). Perennials go through an entire growth and reproduction cycle in one gardening season. As a result, their bloom time is often limited, averaging two to six weeks, depending on the variety and location.

If you plant your flower bed with beautiful tulips, lupines and arctic iris, you will have a bare space by the end of July. 

The solution is simple — don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, mix multiple varieties with staggered flowering times to enjoy a full season of color and gain an entire season of pollinators.

For example, once your beautiful globeflowers fade, allium varieties are coming on, followed by aconitum (also known as monkshood), and eventually rudbeckia will decorate your flower bed until the first frost.

Here is a little cheat sheet I created to help guide your planning. Undoubtedly, I forgot a flower type or two.

Keep in mind we all have unique microclimates in our gardens; therefore, some varieties may vary in bloom times in your garden beds. So, use this as a flexible guide — cut it out, scribble on it, stick it to the fridge, bring it with you to a plant sale, or simply use it now to dream about all the fun flowers yet to come this season.

Lastly, the easiest way to extend our gardening season is with a little effort in October. Plant fall bulbs into the ground for lush colors the following spring. Crocus and scilla often peek through the melting snow just when our eyes need some inspiration after too much white.

Happy gardening!

The post How to keep the garden blooming all season – succession planting with flowers appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

On garden planning

I wish I learned years ago when starting a garden to make your beds a uniform size, so you can use the same row covers, trellis, hoops, or whatever additions to your beds. It is so much easier when they’re all the same size. 

In our climate, it is advantageous to grow on upright trellises. Because we have so many problems with mold and rot after August, anything lying on the ground or crowded is prone to mold. 

Growing them up on a trellis helps with this problem. My favorite trellis is the 6-inch, square fencing panels some people call hog wire. This works for pole beans, cucumbers, peas and nasturtiums . I’ve even seen some varieties of squash growing vertically. Old fishing nets work for trellising, but it moves more than I like. 

Seed starting & early plant care

Many of you have seedlings growing now. Make sure they stay watered, but don’t pamper them too much. Tougher seedlings make stronger plants. Use a gentle blowing fan on them for a few hours each day to strengthen their stems. If you have the option, growing them in cooler temperatures will make transplant shock less. Many seeds need warmth to sprout, but they like growing in cooler temperatures. 

I have recently started planting my onion transplants into small soil blocks or into small plastic cells. Put the transplants or sets into dirt, and get those roots starting to grow. After three weeks or so, you can put them outside and they will already have their roots established and will start growing immediately, giving them a longer growing season to produce a bigger bulb of onion.  The more onion leaves you have, the bigger your onion will grow. 

Transplanting & self-seeding strategies

Several plants will come from each beet seed you plant. With enough room, those beets will grow beautifully left  in a clump close to each other. 

However, if you like a neat orderly garden with rows, you can transplant those little baby plants growing very close to each other into whatever place you want them. 

Don’t try this with carrots, as they do not transplant well. 

If you are a self-identified lazy gardener, you may want to use plants that like to self-seed. Many, especially flowers, include calendula, alyssum, pansies, yarrows, kale and arugula, too. 

Let the seeds fall on the soil in the fall season. Once the baby plant is growing in the spring, you can dig it out and transplant to where you want it to grow. For some this is easier than starting the plants inside. 

Crop specific growing tips

Brussels sprouts

Do your Brussels sprouts only produce leaves and not sprouts? Try starting them earlier, like in early March, before your other brassicas. Brussels sprouts need a longer growing season than other brassicas such as broccoli and cauliflower. 

Fava Beans

I am learning that fava beans are one of the most reliable beans you can grow here. They tolerate our cold climate very well. If you have not tried eating fresh fava beans, I suggest you do. I have found planting them in my 4-foot wide beds intensely 3-4 inches apart in rows 10-12 inches apart works well. However, they need support, or they will fall over once they get 4-5 feet tall. 

After planting, place a panel of the 6-by-6” hardware wire horizontally over the bed on stakes about 2 feet above the surface. Make it solidly stable with stakes/posts. The fava beans will grow through this fencing, which will give the plants the support they need. The beans are ready when the pods start to show the shape of beans inside by looking lumpy. They freeze beautifully. 

Spinach

If you have problems growing spinach here, don’t be discouraged. In 30 years, I have only once been successful growing a good spinach crop any time other than April and May. This plant responds to the light we have here. It seems that we should be able to get a fall crop when our light wanes again, but in my garden, I can’t seem to make that happen. Keep trying in those early-season months because spinach likes coolness.

Zucchini

My greenhouse space is prime real estate, so I grow my zucchinis outside and have almost always had great success with them when I cover the ground with clear plastic. This seems to give roots enough heat to be consistently successful. Now, if we have a lot of rain or windy conditions when the pollinators are out, you may get pointy-looking squash because of poor pollination. A solution to this problem is to help them pollinate by rubbing the pollen from the male flower onto the female flowers every few days. 

Happy gardening! Remember, you can put extra produce you have this summer into the freezer to save money and eat year-round from your garden. 

The post Some of my favorite tips and tricks from 30 years of gardening in the Chilkat Valley appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

In my experience, there are no secrets when it comes to growing food in Alaska. Whether growing at home or growing to make a living, the transparency, support, and cheerleading among agriculturalists in this state is outstanding and truly unique. While we are a new project, the contributors of Henderson Community Farm have decades of experience they are eager to share.

To pay that forward, here are some of our favorite tools and resources that are easy on the wallet and body:

Broadfork:

If you haven’t seen one before, a broadfork is like a double-wide hard-tined fork. It has two handles and requires much less stooping. We use broadforks to break up compacted soil, aerate it, and to harvest root crops like potatoes and carrots. Our forks were handmade in Fairbanks, but Treadlite has been recommended as extremely durable with cheap shipping.

Stirrup hoe:

Another back saver! The stirrup hoe is long-handled with a hinged scraper (looks like a stirrup) on the bottom, used for shallow weeding. They are typically four to six-inches wide and used to scrape the surface of the soil in between rows without bending over. Try this on a sunny day and watch those weeds wilt!

Flame weeder:

Available at the hardware store, the flame weeder attaches to a small propane tank to torch weeds, weed seeds, and even slugs. This can bring out the wild pyro in all of us, so please use responsibly and contact the Haines Volunteer Fire Department for a burn permit and best practices.

Soil blocker:

We start most of our plants indoors and transplant once the outdoor soil temperature warms. Instead of planting in those flimsy plastic cups, we use soil blockers. By filling the press tightly with soil, they create firm cubes, perfect for planting. Soil blocks prevent seedlings from becoming root bound, reduce transplant stress, and take up less space. Soil blockers come in many sizes and have stand-up models.

Biochar:

Those black, porous chunks of unburned firewood in your stove may be the cheapest gift to give your garden or compost. Charcoal has an extraordinary amount of surface area, creating a sort of high-density apartment building for beneficial microorganisms. The “bio” part comes from “charging” the charcoal with a living substance like compost, kombucha or kimchi juice. Once crushed up to rice-sized pieces, charged biochar can be directly added to your garden bed. Kelpie Wilson is the true expert and can convert any skeptic.

Korean Natural Farming:

Korean Natural Farming leans heavily on fermentation and cultivating “indigenous microorganisms” to give your soil exactly what it needs. Dr. Cho’s Global Natural Farming is a great recipe book for homemade soil amendments and is available free online. Many of his ingredients are endemic to tropical climates, but innovators have been successful subbing in wild locals such as nettles, comfrey and seaweed. 

Ditches and swales:

A lot of water moves through the Henderson field. In some zones, we embrace the wet by planting things that can handle soggy feet. In others, we dug ditches to divert water and swales to hold it. A swale is a wide, shallow depression that holds water and also slows its descent when situated on a hill. If located above crops, this can create an auto-irrigating system, keeping downhill soil moister while water in the swale seeps out.

Community:

Do you really want to save your back? Share the load. More than any tool in our shed, community support is our greatest resource. Our small team couldn’t manage these thousands of plants without volunteers. Team up with friends at your home garden and see how much easier (and more fun!) the work can be. Plant a little extra and surprise your garden-less neighbor – that feels pretty good too. Try a Victory Garden or Henderson Community Farm work party. Get a plot at the community garden at the fairgrounds. Sharing the bounty makes everyone wealthy.

The post Our Favorite Tools and Resources at Henderson Community Farm appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday proposed an operating budget for the next fiscal year, with a $1,000 Alaska Permanent Fund dividend plus $150 energy relief payment per eligible Alaskan. 

The committee’s draft budget takes a more conservative approach to uncertainty around the state’s revenue forecast for next year — driven by rising oil prices due to the Iran war – than the proposed budget passed by the Alaska House passed earlier this month, and eliminates the deficit.

State forecasters have projected a $500 million boost in state revenues, and senators have expressed caution around state spending and a willingness to focus funds to tackle aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance, particularly upgrading school facilities. 

“The most fundamental thing we have to remember is that the state doesn’t have the resources to do all the things we need to do and that Alaskans need us to do,” said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, a member of the finance committee on Thursday. He said the greatest challenge for the Legislature is prioritizing. 

“And so I think we did that effectively,” Kiehl said. “I think it makes a few really crucial, really targeted investments.”

The Senate’s draft budget removed the House’s proposed $158 million one-time education funding boost, and instead appropriates up to $100 million for K-12 schools subject to oil revenues averaging $95 per barrel for the rest of this fiscal year ending on June 30.

Alaska has no personal income or state sales tax, and so roughly 60% of state funds for the general purpose budget comes from the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state’s sovereign wealth fund currently valued at $86.3 billion, and roughly 30% comes from state oil revenues. 

The draft Senate operating budget is based on an average of $73 per barrel for the next fiscal year starting in July, whereas the House draft budget is based on an average $75 per barrel projection. 

The draft budget contains some changes to the House version and additions across departments. It would double funding for disaster relief to $48 million, and increase fire suppression funding from $47.5 million to nearly $61 million. It funds an additional $29 million for school districts and $20 million for communities to offset rising fuel and energy costs; $30 million for community assistance programs; $5.3 million toward a renewable energy fund; $3.5 million for the Alaska Marine Highway system’s ferry maintenance and staff salary increases. It also boosts funds for public employees retirement from $75 million to $106 million, and increases funds for teachers’ retirement system from $157 million to $164 million, among others. 

The budget also contains $650,000 for a state audit of the Alaska Department of Corrections to evaluate cost drivers, as the department’s budget has ballooned in recent years.

Kiehl said while he’d like to see more investment in services like in the state’s foster care system, homelessness programs, energy and schools, he said the state can’t bank on unknown revenues.

“We have to be careful not to treat a temporary boost in the price of oil, which will probably last more than a year as though it were permanent, increase. That’s not responsible,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok and a member of the finance committee, said he’d like to see a more conservative budget, but he also wants to avoid a large supplemental budget as seen this year. He said he supports the budget based on an average $73 per barrel estimate. 

“I’m pretty comfortable with that number. I just don’t want to be back in that same position as we have this year, where we are $500 million upside down for supplemental,” he said.

Cronk said he supports targeted funding for renewable energy projects, education and deferred maintenance for schools, rather than expanding state department budgets. “I just think we should focus on making sure we have a fiscally responsible budget all around and not adding money to programs that continue in future budgets.”

The budget also includes a number of supplemental items, or costs incurred this year outside the budget. Those include $5.2 million for Alaska Pioneer Homes, $1.25 million for Village Public Safety Officer operations, $1.5 million for the Department of Law’s criminal division, $543,000 for court settlements and $4 million to defend a lawsuit challenging the state’s health care system for inmates in the corrections system. 

Cronk said while he would like to see a maximum Permanent Fund dividend, it’s not possible within the state’s current financial picture. 

“The whole PFD issue is very controversial, no matter which way we go on it,” he said. “We should be paying a full PFD, but the budget, the numbers, don’t allow that right now.”

The Senate’s draft budget overall cuts nearly $450 million from the operating budget, compared to the House draft version. However, the Senate’s proposal leaves $50 million of headroom for additional expenses next year, but that’s after accounting for a $360 million capital budget for state infrastructure projects. The Senate passed a nearly $250 million capital budget on Tuesday, which is now being debated in the House where likely additional projects will be added. 

The proposed budget, unveiled as amendments to House Bill 263 will continue to be debated in the Senate Finance Committee and further amendments are due by Friday, before going before the full Senate for a vote.