This map from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the former Nazi Creek on Little Kiska Island. (U.S. Geological Survey photo)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
A small creek on Alaska’s Little Kiska Island has been renamed, more than 80 years after it was named after Germany’s Nazi Party by World War II soldiers fighting in the Aleutians.
Nazi Creek was the last landmark in the United States to bear the Nazi name. Its new name is “Kaxchim Chiĝanaa,” meaning either “gizzard creek” or “creek or river belonging to gizzard island” in Unangam Tunuu, the language of the Indigenous Unangax̂ people.
On Thursday, the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted 17-0 to approve the new name, without discussion.
The board’s decision allows the federal government to officially change the creek’s name in federal databases that are the official repository of geographic names. That repository is used by federal agencies and commercial companies that provide maps to the general public.
The board also approved the renaming of nearby “Nip Hill,” named by soldiers using a derogatory term for Japanese people. That hill was renamed “Kaxchim Qayaa,” or “gizzard hill,” again using the traditional name for Little Kiska Island, which is not far from Kiska Island, site of a World War II battle.
Michael Livingston, an employee of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, has been working for almost two years to have the names changed. Moses Dirks, an expert on Unangam Tunuu, recommended the new names.
“I think that’s pretty awesome. I think elders … and others are happy about it. It really should have never been there in the first place,” Livingston said of Thursday’s vote.
“Like one of my teachers … used to say, if you know something that can make our community better, our villages better, be brave and stand up and say something about it, do something about it,” Livingston said.
The new names were previously recommended by the Alaska Historical Commission, which considered them in April. The changes were endorsed by local Native tribes and Native corporations, the Museum of the Aleutians, the manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Congregation Beth Sholom of Anchorage, and the Alaska Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, among others.
Kiska Island is located 242 miles west of Adak, at the far end of the Aleutian Islands. The area has been mostly uninhabited since World War II, when invading Japanese forces took 42 people on Attu Island prisoner. More than half died in Japanese internment camps.
The United States forcibly relocated almost 900 Unangax̂ residents of the Aleutian Islands, housing them in unsuitable internment camps in Southeast Alaska and elsewhere. Many became sick and died from the conditions imposed by the government.
Aleutian Islands residents subsequently received reparations from the federal government under legislation that also paid reparations to Japanese Americans also interned during the war.
Livingston’s work isn’t yet complete. He’s also seeking to rename Quisling Cove, a small body of water named after the Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling. That name change remains pending.
For the second consecutive year, student reading scores in Alaska have risen, a trend state officials attribute to the success of the Alaska Reads Act.
According to new data from the Department of Education and Early Development, the percentage of students reading at or above average increased from 41% at the beginning of the 2023–2024 school year to 57% by year’s end.
In the 2024–2025 school year, that percentage rose again, starting at 44% and climbing to 60% by the end of the year, an increase which outpaces the national average for growth.
“This is promising evidence for our Alaskan students and their teachers as all the hard work and focus they have put in is coming to fruition,” said Education Commissioner Deena Bishop. “This achievement shows that the Alaska Reads Act was the right policy direction for our state, and more importantly, for our youngest learners. Congratulations!”
The Alaska Reads Act was signed into law in 2022 by Governor Mike Dunleavy with the goal of ensuring all students can read at grade level by the end of third grade. The legislation focuses on evidence-based instruction, early intervention, and high teaching standards.
“These results show why it’s critical to tie clear goals and strong commitments to education policy,” said Governor Dunleavy. “The Alaska Reads Act proves that coupling funding with real reform works. We made the right decision, and students across Alaska are seeing the benefits.”
However, despite those gains, the governor has made deep cuts to education funding in the newly signed state budget.
Dunleavy vetoed more than $122 million from Alaska’s annual budget, including over $50 million from the state’s per-student education funding formula and tens of millions meant for major school maintenance projects. It marks the first time in state history that a governor has failed to fully fund the education formula.
While the rise in student reading scores is being celebrated, many educators and lawmakers warn that continued progress may be at risk without sustained investment.
The governor will hold a special legislative session on August 2, with one of the topics being education reform.
Harlequin Beach on Amchitka Island is seen in this undated photo. The island, now part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, was the site of atomic weapons tests in 1965, 1969 and 1971. (Photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
People who might have been exposed to radiation from atomic weapons tests conducted in the Aleutians half a century ago have extra time to apply for compensation from a federal program, under the sweeping tax and budget bill passed by Congress and signed into law last week.
The bill, which was signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, includes a provision reviving the Radiation Compensation Exposure Act, which was enacted in 1990.
The act’s compensation system distributed one-time payments to people who were exposed to radiation from the weapons tests and who later were diagnosed with certain types of cancer. The program has distributed about $2.7 billion to date, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
While most of the tests covered by the act were conducted in Nevada, the program also covers health damages from underground weapons tests conducted on Alaska’s Amchitka Island in 1965, 1969 and 1971.
The program covers former uranium mine workers, as well, many of whom were Navajo Nation members.
The compensation program had been on track to expire, with a previous deadline of June 10, 2024, for any new claims.
The budget bill extends the deadline for new claims to Dec. 31, 2027, and it sets a Dec. 31, 2028, sunset date for the trust fund that administers the claims.
The bill also raises compensation amounts. For “downwinders,” people who were not on site at the time of the tests but may have been exposed to radiation carried by the wind, the compensation is hiked from $50,000 to $100,000. For on-site workers, the compensation is raised from $75,000 to $100,000.
Of the Alaska weapons tests, the third — called Cannikin — was the most controversial.
It was the biggest underground nuclear test ever conducted by the United States. The tested bomb was 5 megatons, about 250 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. There was widespread opposition to the project, including from environmentalists who later founded the organization Greenpeace.
Legal opposition to the test went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ultimately allowed the project to proceed.
The test created what was the equivalent of a magnitude 7 earthquake, killing up to 2,000 sea otters and thousands of fish.
Stock photo by Jose A. Bernat Bacete, Courtesy of Alaska Beacon
By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
After a Fox News interview raised the possibility of Alaska building a “Bear Alcatraz” Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, the office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on Tuesday that the state has no such plans.
The Dunleavy administration statement was prompted by an inaccurate story by Newsweek that summarized the interview, asserting that the state had suggested the idea.
“The story is false,” said Jeff Turner, Dunleavy’s director of communications by email. He said that he had demanded a correction from the Newsweek reporter.
The Newsweek story referred to a July 1 interview on Fox News by host Laura Ingraham of Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for pPolicy and homeland security adviser. Miller is known as the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and a vocal proponent of ramping up ICE arrests, detention and mass deportations.
In the interview, Ingraham and Miller praised Florida for building a new ICE detention facility in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” for its isolation and being surrounded by wildlife in the Big Cypress Natural Preserve in Ochopee, Florida. It was constructed in just eight days, and can hold up to 3,000 detainees before deportation, and opened last week.
Miller said he had pitched all Republican governors to build similar ICE detention facilities. “We want every governor of a red state, and if you’re watching tonight, pick up the phone call, DHS, work with us to build facilities in your state,” Miller said.
Ingraham said Fox reached out to states, including Alaska, for comment. “Alaska told us that ‘we don’t have alligators, but we have lots of bears.’ However, they aren’t aware of any plans for an Alaska version,” she said.
“Of, I said, ‘Bear Alcatraz,’” Ingraham added, chuckling.
When asked to comment on Alaska’s response to Fox News, Turner repeated there were no state plans to build such a facility.
“I am not aware of any response from the state to Mr. Miller for a facility like the one in Florida,” Turner said. “The governor’s office was asked by Fox News if there were any such plans and the answer was no.”
Last week, President Donald Trump signed his signature domestic policy bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which allocates a historic increase of $165 billion to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which administers ICE, through 2029. ICE’s budget is currently $10 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security said $165 billion includes $45 billion for new ICE detention facilities, $46 billion for border wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, $14 billion for deportation operations, and billions for hiring 6,000 new Customs and Border Patrol agents, and 10,000 new ICE agents.
The first-ever Bitcoin Alaska Conference was held July 5–6 at Centennial Hall in Juneau.
The conference brought together policymakers, energy experts, and Bitcoin enthusiasts to examine the role of cryptocurrency in shaping Alaska’s economy and energy future.
One of those experts was Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation.
Alex Gladstein offers an argument for technology as a critical tool for individual empowerment and freedom in an increasingly complex global landscape.
“So the organization that I worked for, the Human Rights Foundation, was founded with a very specific mission, which was to address authoritarianism.” Said Gladstein , “5.7 billion people live under an authoritarian regime in nearly 100 countries around the world, where they don’t have free speech, rule of law, separation of powers, or property rights. So while our country is not perfect, it is something that you know, billions of people aspire to, and we focus on helping human rights activists, journalists, labor leaders and environmentalists, who live under authoritarian regimes. And that often brings us to look at what the tools are that they’re using.”
Gladstein, working with the Human Rights Foundation since 2007, has witnessed firsthand the power of technology in some of the world’s most restrictive environments. His journey began with underground internet efforts in Cuba, where he and his team would smuggle contraband media and help citizens access information forbidden by authoritarian regimes.
The conversation centers on two primary technological innovations: Bitcoin and open-source AI tools. Bitcoin he says, emerges as a powerful instrument of financial sovereignty.
“even the most hardened skeptic admits that it’s got some sort of speculative investment quality to it, given that it’s been the best performing financial asset in the world since it was created, I think there’s a risk in ending the story there. I mean, that’s really what a lot of people see. They see an investment, and that’s about it.” Said Gladstein “I think what they don’t see is the freedom money part of it, which is that it doesn’t require paperwork to use. You don’t need an account. You can be any gender, any faith, any religion, any nationality, and you can use it and connect to it and trade and commerce and transact with other people. The second part of it is the censorship resistance. You know, it’s unstoppable.”
In Alaska, particularly in the North Slope, where abundant “stranded” natural gas from oil production could power cryptocurrency data centers, Stax Capital Partners, a Wasilla-based startup, recently proposed building a 50 MW Bitcoin mining facility south of Prudhoe Bay, about the same amount of electricity used as Alaska’s largest coal plant, according to the Alaska Beacon.
A New York Times investigation found that U.S. Bitcoin mining operations can require power comparable to small cities, and during crises like Texas’ 2021 Winter Storm Uri, some operations were actually paid to shut down to protect vulnerable power grids, Critics warn that large-scale installations, like those proposed in Alaska, risk similar grid strain and could push fossil fuel consumption higher.
On the technology front, according to Gladstein, it’s a double-edged sword. “there’s the centralizing force of the state, and they are using AI tools to better understand their population, map their population, surveil their population. But at the same time, these open AI tools that are available to anybody, are allowing individuals to have, essentially, a fortune 500 company in their pocket.”
Gladstein acknowledges the risks of digital intrusion and recommends people spend more time offline to reduce their digital surface area as these same technologies can pose a threat to individual privacy.
Yet, he remains fundamentally optimistic about technology’s potential to expand human freedom. “It’s going to be super empowering for individuals and small businesses that don’t have a lot of resources. I’m excited about that.”
The offices of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in Juneau are seen on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
The offices of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in Juneau are seen on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Approved by voters in November, it states that someone working at a business with 15 or more employees will earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 56 per year, unless the employer voluntarily increases that limit.
Someone working at a business with fewer than 15 employees earns sick leave at the same rate, but the maximum per year is 40 hours.
The law also raised the state’s minimum wage to $13 per hour. The minimum wage rises to $14 per hour next year and $15 per hour in 2027. It will rise with the rate of inflation for each year after that.
The law also forbids bosses from forcing their employees to attend meetings about religious or political issues, including whether or not to join a labor union, political group or church.
There are exemptions for religious organizations.
Under the law, sick leave can be used for an employee’s illness or to take care of a family member who needs care. It can also be used in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.
While workers can access the benefits now, it will be a few weeks before the state formalizes some of the details of how employers must implement the law. On June 25, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development proposed new regulations. Those won’t take effect until August at the earliest, but they would add some new rules to the sick leave law.
Under those regulations, all of the state’s employers “shall notify each employee in writing” about its sick leave policy.
Those policies may include the amount of advance notice required when using sick leave for a prescheduled medical appointment or “other forseeable absence.”
An employer can’t require more than 10 days’ notice in that case.
If someone is unexpectedly sick, the proposed regulations would require the sick employee to “notify the employer before the start of the employee’s shift or as soon as is possible.”
If someone uses sick leave for more than three consecutive days, their boss may require them to show proof of their need for sick leave, if that requirement is included in the written policy.
Someone who needs to take sick leave because of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment or stalking, cannot be required to verify that explanation.
Under the law, someone can carry over unused sick leave from one year to the next, but they can’t exceed the maximum, unless their employer voluntarily allows them to do so.
Employers are forbidden from retaliating against employees who use their sick leave, and nothing prevents an employer from “front-loading” sick leave by giving them the hours in advance instead of accruing them over time.
The Department of Labor’s new regulations are subject to public comment through July 31. Anyone with questions may email dol.lss.regulations@alaska.gov.
Photographs of injured humpback whale #2583. Left: Whale #2583 on June 16th, prior to being injured. Right: June 27th with a deep gash behind the dorsal fin. Photos taken under the authority of Scientific Research Permit #27027 issued by NOAA Fisheries. (Janet Neilson photos/National Park Service)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Officials with the National Park Service are asking for the public’s help as they try to figure out how a humpback whale was injured by a boat in June.
Pictures published by the park on July 1 show a humpback whale with a large gash behind its dorsal fin. The whale was photographed uninjured on June 16, and the injury took place sometime between then and June 27, when a photo of the injury was taken by a biologist near Willoughby Island.
“They swim around all over the place. We don’t know exactly where it would have been. We do know that it had been spotted in a similar area to where it was seen only seven days before that. So we’re quite sure it’s been feeding in this area and then it had that fresh injury on the 27th, so we are expecting that someone quite close was in this area and interacted with that whale and ran into it,” said Matthew Cahill, public information officer for Glacier Bay National Park.
Two cruise ships and 25 private vessels are allowed per day into Glacier Bay.
Last year, several whales were struck by boats and ships in nearby waters, and at least two whales died as a result.
“We do know that whales are getting hit by boats in the area. I can’t tell you how many, though,” Cahill said, explaining that not all injuries are seen or reported, and data is anecdotal.
From his perspective, “we have a couple of identified photos of individual (whales) with fresh prop marks this year.”
Whale injuries are notable because humpbacks, gray whales and other species are protected by federal law. All vessels in the park are prohibited from coming within one quarter of a nautical mile of a humpback, and if they come inside that radius by accident, they must immediately reduce speed to 10 knots.
Cahill said that the Glacier Bay area is one of the more protected parts of Southeast Alaska for humpback whales, and staff at the park want to protect the marine environment while still providing a good visitor experience.
Anyone with information about the stricken whale has been asked to contact the park at 907-697-2230.
The House of Representatives side of the U.S. Capitol is seen on the morning of Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The House of Representatives side of the U.S. Capitol is seen on the morning of Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts
In my research on the history of food stamps, I’ve found that the program was meant to be widely available to most low-income people. The SNAP changes break that tradition in two ways.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 3 million people are likely to be dropped from the program and lose their benefits. This decline will occur in part because more people will face time limits if they don’t meet work requirements. Even those who meet the requirements may lose benefits because of difficulty submitting the necessary documents.
Inspired by the plight of unemployed coal miners whom John F. Kennedy met in Appalachia when he campaigned for the presidency in 1960, the early food stamps program was not limited to single parents with children, older people and people with disabilities, like many other safety net programs were at the time. It was supposed to help low-income people afford more and better food, regardless of their circumstances.
From the start, the states administered the program and covered some of its administrative costs and the federal government paid for the benefits in full. This arrangement encouraged states to enroll everyone who needed help without fearing the budgetary consequences.
Who could qualify and how much help they could get were set by uniform national standards, so that even the residents of the poorest states would be able to afford a budget-conscious but nutritionally adequate diet.
The federal government’s responsibility for the cost of benefits also allowed spending to automatically grow during economic downturns, when more people need assistance. These federal dollars helped families, retailers and local economies weather tough times.
The changes to the SNAP program included in the legislative package that Congress approved by narrow margins and Trump signed into law, however, will make it harder for the program to serve its original goals.
Restricting benefits
Since the early 1970s, most so-called able-bodied adults who were not caring for a child or an adult with disabilities had to meet a work requirement to get food stamps. Welfare reform legislation in 1996 made that requirement stricter for such adults between the ages of 18 and 50 by imposing a three-month time limit if they didn’t log 20 hours or more of employment or another approved activity, such as verified volunteering.
Budget legislation passed in 2023 expanded this rule to adults up to age 54. The 2025 law will further expand the time limit to adults up to age 64 and parents of children age 14 or over.
States can currently get permission from the federal government to waive work requirements in areas with insufficient jobs or unemployment above the national average. This flexibility to waive work requirements will now be significantly limited and available only where at least 1 in 10 workers are unemployed.
Concerned senators secured an exemption from the work requirements for most Native Americans and Native Alaskans, who are more likely to live in areas with limited job opportunities.
The new changes to SNAP policies will also deny benefits to many immigrants with authorization to be in the U.S., such as people granted political asylum or official refugee status. Immigrants without authorization to reside in the U.S. will continue to be ineligible for SNAP benefits.
Tracking ‘error rates’
Critics of food stamps have long argued that states lack incentives to carefully administer the program because the federal government is on the hook for the cost of benefits.
In the 1970s, as the number of Americans on the food stamp rolls soared, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, developed a system for assessing if states were accurately determining whether applicants were eligible for benefits and how much they could get.
A state’s “payment error rate” estimates the share of benefits paid out that were more or less than an applicant was actually eligible for. The error rate was not then and is not today a measure of fraud. Typically, it just indicates the share of families who get a higher – or lower – amount of benefits than they are eligible for because of mistakes or confusion on the part of the applicant or the case worker who handles the application.
States responded by increasing their red tape. For example, they asked applicants to submit more documentation and made them go through more bureaucratic hoops, like having more frequent in-person interviews, to get – and continue receiving – SNAP benefits.
These demands hit low-wage workers hardest because their applications were more prone to mistakes. Low-income workers often don’t have consistent work hours and their pay can vary from week to week and month to month. The number of families getting benefits fell steeply.
The USDA tried to reverse this decline by offering states options to simplify the process for applying for and continuing to get SNAP benefits over the course of the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Enrollment grew steadily.
Despite this requirement, the national average error rate jumped from 7.4% before the pandemic, to a record high of 11.7% in 2023. Rates rose as states struggled with a surge of people applying for benefits, a shortage of staff in state welfare agencies and procedural changes.
The big legislative package will increase states’ expenses in two ways.
It will reduce the federal government’s responsibility for half of the cost of administering the program to 25% beginning in the 2027 fiscal year.
And some states will have to pay a share of benefit costs for the first time in the program’s history, depending on their payment error rates. Beginning in the 2028 fiscal year, states with an error rate between 6-8% would be responsible for 5% of the cost of benefits. Those with an error rate between 8-10% would have to pay 10%, and states with an error rate over 10% would have to pay 15%. The federal government would continue to pay all benefits in states with error rates below 6%.
Republicans argue the changes will give states more “skin in the game” and ensure better administration of the program.
While the national payment error rate fell from 11.68% in the 2023 fiscal year to 10.93% a year later, 42 states still had rates in excess of 6% in 2024. Twenty states plus the District of Columbia had rates of 10% or higher.
At nearly 25%, Alaska has the highest payment error rate in the country. But Alaska won’t be in trouble right away. To ease passage in the Senate, where the vote of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, was in doubt, a provision was added to the bill allowing several states with the highest error rates to avoid cost sharing for up to two years after it begins.
About 600,000 individuals and families will lose an average of $100 a month in benefits because of a change in the way utility costs are treated. The law also prevents future administrations from increasing benefits beyond the cost of living, as the Biden Administration did.
States cannot cut benefits below the national standards set in federal law.
But the shift of costs to financially strapped states will force them to make tough choices. They will either have to cut back spending on other programs, increase taxes, discourage people from getting SNAP benefits or drop the program altogether.
The changes will, in the end, make it even harder for Americans who can’t afford the bare necessities to get enough nutritious food to feed their families.
AP- Authorities say they have found the body of a woman visiting Alaska’s capital city who did not return to her cruise ship from a hike she said she was taking.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety said the body of 62-year-old Marites Buenafe of Kentucky was found by an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter crew late Thursday below the ridge line of Gold Ridge. Troopers and Juneau Mountain Rescue were able to recover the body with help from Temsco Helicopters and the National Guard.
Her next of kin have been notified, and her body will be sent to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy.
The Juneau Police Department received a report Tuesday afternoon that the woman, who told relatives that morning that she was getting off the Norwegian Bliss to hike, had not returned to the vessel by its departure time.
Governor Mike Dunleavy speaks during a press conference on Thursday, April 17 in Juneau. (Photo by Greg Knight/NOTN)
Governor Mike Dunleavy speaks during a press conference on Thursday, April 17 in Juneau. (Photo by Greg Knight/NOTN)
By: Corinne Smith and James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is calling state legislators back to Juneau for a surprise special session.
On Wednesday, the governor issued a proclamation stating that the session, which begins Aug. 2, will cover education reform and his executive order creating a new Department of Agriculture.
The proclamation also forces an early vote on whether to override or sustain several of the governor’s vetoes, including an unprecedented cut to the base student allocation, core of the state’s per-pupil funding formula for public schools.
Under the Alaska Constitution, legislators must vote on an override in the first five days of the next session, in this case a special session.
That’s significant, because 45 votes are needed to override a budget veto, and while there were 46 votes in favor of a prior veto override this spring, at least one legislator who voted in favor of that override is expected to be unavailable in August.
In a prepared statement, Dunleavy outlined his stated reasons for calling a special session.
“Enacting a few necessary reforms to our public education system can elevate those children struggling in Alaska’s school system,” Dunleavy said. “As elected officials we must do all we can to put the next generation on the path to a successful and prosperous future, and that starts with a solid public education.”
The governor’s office declined to answer an emailed question asking whether the special session’s goals included an early vote. Some legislators said that seemed apparent.
House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said members of the House’s Republican minority were preparing to meet with the governor Wednesday afternoon.
Asked whether she thinks the governor called the session to force a veto override early, she said, “undoubtedly, the governor is aware that those issues would be taken up in the first five days in the Legislature. So, I do believe that is a part of the plan.”
She said she doesn’t know whether calling the vote early will decrease the chances of an override. Though some lawmakers may be absent, “people are home, talking to their constituents … how that translates into their votes is a hard thing to tell.”
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Rules Committee, did not mince words: “Oh yeah, this is all about the veto override,” he said. “Because he knows there’s people that are not in the state. You know, that’s actually the day that the National Conference of State Legislatures starts to meet also. So I know there’s some people who are scheduled to go to that. So, yeah, this is all about trying to game the system so we don’t have enough votes to override his veto.”
Legislators uniformly said that the governor’s special session proclamation came as a surprise. Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, was hiking in Denali when reached by phone. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, was at his town’s boat harbor.
“It’s a stunning announcement,” Edgmon said. “It’s extraordinary to get the Legislature back to Juneau, and it takes a tremendous amount of organization, cooperation, dialogue, you know, conversations, particularly when you’re throwing a topic like education policy in the mix, which normally could take up an entire two years of a legislative session.”
Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said the Legislature will reconvene but the votes for an override are uncertain. “I suspect that’ll be the first thing we deal with, if not the only thing we deal with, and we’ll see how the votes go.”
Under the Alaska Constitution, governors have the power to call special sessions, with the subjects limited to those chosen by the governor and the reconsideration of vetoed bills. While the Legislature is required to convene, it’s not required to actually discuss the chosen subjects.
Stevens said there’s no guarantee that the Legislature will take up Dunleavy’s agenda items. “It should be no secret to anyone that we’re going to, when we do meet — it’s my intention — on Aug. 2 to bring up first the issue of the override. And then we could, after we’ve done that, pass or fail, then we probably … can easily adjourn and deal with these issues the governor brought up at a later date.”
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, is currently deployed in Poland as part of U.S. National Guard service, and Stevens says it’s unlikely he would be able to make the special session. “He’s doing a service to the country, and it’d be very hard for him to get back. I don’t know if the military would even allow him to leave at this point, he’s in a training session, and so we’ll certainly look into that. But I would say it’s probably unlikely that he can be back.”
Dunbar did not respond to requests for comment by Wednesday afternoon.
“But he’s not the only one,” Stevens added. “There are others that are traveling, which makes it even more difficult to get to 45 votes.”
That threshold matters because overriding a governor’s budget veto requires 45 of 60 legislators, meeting in joint session.
This spring, 46 lawmakers voted to override the governor’s veto of a bill increasing the base student allocation in state policy. But authorizing spending the money was a separate vote, as part of passing the budget. If Dunbar is absent, all 45 remaining supporters of the veto override would have to stand firm in order to restore public school funding cut by the governor.
“I don’t know where people are going to be, but it’s really going to come down to probably one vote on a number of these overrides. So, not having that one vote, it’s going to be tough,” Wielechowski said.
In addition to the budget vetoes, the governor had vetoed three policy bills, including Senate Bill 183, increasing the powers of the legislative auditor.
Legislators said that bill, which passed with bipartisan support, was needed because the executive branch has stopped providing reports needed to verify the work of oil tax auditors on state taxes owed. Dunleavy said legislators’ criticism of the administration’s handling of the issue insinuated that it was acting unethically or illegally and undermined public trust in government. He demanded in a letter to lawmakers last week that they stop.
Afterward, at a meeting of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, lawmakers voted to authorize subpoenas against members of the administration over the issue.
Calling a special session makes an override of the SB 183 veto more difficult, Wielechowski said.
“If you’re an oil company, today’s a great day. They’re probably popping champagne bottles in Houston, Texas, today, and also all across the oil basins, because they know that it’s going to be harder to audit their taxes and probably likely to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.
Josephson said there will likely be several veto override votes taken up by the Legislature. “There will be attempts on multiple overrides. Multiple, multiple overrides,” he said, and hopes it includes an override vote to restore a policy bill addressing funding for teacher housing and Mount Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, and budget increases for infant learning programs. “So that’s going to be sort of interesting as well, because those veto override attempts must occur.”
After addressing the overrides, lawmakers could adjourn the special session without taking up either of the topics on the formal agenda.
Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said he hopes that doesn’t happen and lawmakers consider creating a Department of Agriculture separate from the Department of Natural Resources.
Agriculture is currently overseen by a division within DNR, and McCabe said that recent wildfires in the Denali Borough show the need for DNR to be free to concentrate its attention on more important things without taking time away from agriculture.
Dunleavy addressed the issue in his statement announcing the session: “Splitting the Division of Agriculture away from DNR into a department will elevate food security and support our hard-working farmers while growing the agricultural sector.”
In May, lawmakers voted 32-28 to deny an executive order by Dunleavy to create a new Department of Agriculture, citing the proposal’s costs as well as creation through an executive order rather than as legislation, with public input.
Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said by phone Wednesday that the Legislature passed legislation related to many of the governor’s policy priorities for education in May, including taking steps toward easing access for new charter school applications and expanding funding for career and technical education, as well as creating a task force to examine open enrollment and other measures.
She said she was unclear what further education reforms the governor wants: “I haven’t heard from the governor nor any of his staff, about anything else that he would like to see happen within our public education system.”
In a video Dunleavy released when he vetoed the school policy bill, he said it “fell short” on the policies he sought, including on charter schools, reading improvement incentives and open enrollment.
Other legislators were skeptical that the special session would accomplish its stated goals.
“I don’t think it’s going to work, is it?” said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, on talk radio Wednesday morning.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, said he hadn’t spoken to the governor or any of his staff about the special session but said that sustaining the vetoes could be a primary objective.
“Honestly, I don’t know exactly what the intent is, or what the hope is for accomplishing (something), whether it’s PR or some kind of vote with people missing, or anything like that,” he said.
“Personally,” Shower said, “I’m not the biggest fan of special sessions, only because in my eight-plus years here, I’ve never seen them actually accomplish anything.”
