Alaska draft winter ferry schedule leaves Southeast wanting
Posted by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska | Jul 14, 2021
The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Matanuska steams up Lynn Canal on June 26, 2021 near Juneau’s Eagle River. (Used by permission of Skip Gray)
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s proposed winter schedule released late Tuesday (7-13-2021) projects long gaps between ferries over a seven-month period. Southeast towns like Sitka, Wrangell and Petersburg would receive infrequent ships, whereas Kodiak Island and some Southcentral communities could see improved service.
From October through the end of April, the state-run ferry system will have at most five ships running at any one time. And one of those vessels shuttles between Ketchikan and Metlakatla leaving at most four ships to provide regional service across coastal Alaska.
Posted by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska | Mar 16, 2021
A bill to hike Alaska’s gas tax to $0.16 for the first time since 1970 has advance a key committee but faces opposition. (KTOO photo)
House Bill 104 supported by Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka) and Rep. Grier Hopkins (D-Fairbanks) cleared the House Transportation Committee Tuesday (3-16-2021); it now heads to the finance committee.
“The bill fundamentally doubles what is a very small tax set in 1970,” co-sponsor Rep. Andy Josephson (D-Anchorage) said.
Sitka Democratic Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is a co-sponsor of the bill. (KTOO photo/Skip Gray)
Most of the revenue would go toward highway maintenance. And it enjoys wide support from business and industry groups that say it would help reinvest in Alaska’s road infrastructure.
The sale of Frankford’s water plant and other factors have brought the Town Council to the point where they realize they need to reckon with the status of its maintenance
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Hoffman said that the Permanent Fund Dividend is the Legislature’s top issue this year. He said that voters may have clarified that situation during the election when incumbents who voted for lower dividends last session lost their seats.
“I hope we can come up again with at least a minimum of a $1,000 dividend,” Hoffman said.
He said that the future of the dividend relies on the Legislature creating new forms of revenues. Without that, he said, the Permanent Fund will be put in jeopardy.
The state has been spending more money than it’s taken in for years now. Over those years, some legislators have said that they need to work across party lines to agree on new taxes, but no such agreement has been reached. Instead, they’ve shrunk government services and pulled from dwindling state savings.
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.