Kreiss-Tomkins: Republican majorities will dip into Permanent Fund before reinstating income tax
Posted by Robert Woolsey, KCAW | Jan 27, 2021
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka) addresses the House in 2014. This year, the 20-20 split in the House means legislators have been unable to formally organize a majority organization, assign committees, and commence business. (KTOO digital services/Skip Gray)
The Alaska Senate pulled together a 13-member Republican majority on the first day of the new session (January 19, 2021).
Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman will once again co-chair the Senate Finance Committee. As of press time today (January 26), Sitka’s representative in the Alaska House, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, is still in organizational limbo.
Posted by Robert Woolsey, KCAW | Jan 15, 2021
According to interim Superintendent John Holst, around a dozen of Sitka’s senior teachers are eligible for early retirement, sevreral of whom work a the high school. (KCAW file photo)
The Sitka School District is considering an early retirement incentive for teachers, as a way of helping make ends meet next year.
At its last meeting earlier this month (1-6-21), the Sitka School Board authorized the interim superintendent to open negotiations with the local teachers union.
Early retirement is a tool that has been used before by the Sitka School District, as well as by other communities in the state. Alaska’s educators belong to a pension program called “TRS” or the Teachers’ Retirement System which mirrors the state’s program for municipal and government employees called “PERS” the Public Employees Retirement System.