Key Coalition Legislative Report Week 11 David Parish & Associates, LLC

DHSS budget:

The Senate Finance Committee remains day-to-day on taking up amendments to subcommittee reports. When they do take action (likely Monday), we will be watching to be sure that Senator Peter Micciche’s subcommittee action to add $1.4 million back into the DHSS budget for day habilitation will be supported at the full Committee. This change would allow a soft cap increase from 8 to 12 hours on average, as the House previously approved the Governor’s recommendation to reduce funding down to 8 hours, this issue will likely be resolved in House/Senate budget conference committee in coming weeks -- and we will need to step up advocacy as that process begins in 7-10 days.

SB 80 Telephone services for disabled subscribers:

SB 80 by Sen. Costello would require telecommunications providers to offer services for disabled subscribers under the same section of the law that relates to services for hearing and speech-impaired subscribers. It is scheduled for hearing in the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. A companion bill, HB 202, was introduced in the House this week by Rep’s Sullivan-Leonard and Millett. HB 202 was referred to the House Labor & Commerce and Finance Committees.

SB 10 Relating to waivers and foster care for severely disabled individuals:

Sen. Dunleavy will be working over the interim on improving SB 10, his bill related to transition of severely disabled individuals from foster care to adult foster care homes.

Political Overview:

With just two weeks left in a legislative session clearly headed for what looks like several weeks of extra innings, a newly released public opinion poll shows major public perception challenges for all three of the major players. That poll conducted for the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce by well-respected Dittman Research indicated a major drop over the last two years in overall feeling about the direction of the state, with Alaskans now feeling the state is “headed in the wrong direction” by a 2-1 margin. Poll results like that at the state and national level never bode well for incumbent Presidents and Governors, and is certainly a challenging dynamic for Alaska’s Independent/Unity Party Governor who is up for re-election in 18 months. It also may explain Governor Walker’s significant change in approach this session, as he has taken a much more behind-the-scenes strategy than in his first two years, and comes at a time when he has been moving toward closer alignment with the Republican-controlled State Senate on a well thought-out long term solution to the state’s chronic budget shortfalls.

That long term budget solution introduced by the Governor and refined as it was passed by the Republican-led State Senate generates enough revenue for the foreseeable future from earnings on the state’s investment assets to fund the current budget for decades, without need for any major tax increases and maintains a $1000 per person Permanent Fund Dividend. Unfortunately for Senate leaders and the Governor, that same public opinion survey shows a large percentage of Alaskans don’t understand the proposal. At the same time, the third major player in the process, the Democratic-led State House coalition, is increasing their public rhetoric and legislative push to tie a state income tax to the Permanent Fund restricting (so-called “POMV”). From a public perception standpoint, polling shows Alaskans are opposed to that state income tax by a growing margin (60/40).

Given all of this, the House and Senate appear to be trains headed on opposite tracks in regard to a budget package to close out the session. Rather than headed toward a crash, these trains are headed away from each other at an accelerating speed. One that makes in increasingly inevitable that the Legislature will continue well past the April 16 end of the regular session, possibly for special sessions like the last two years that could last into May, June and July.

While the Legislature moves in opposite tracks on funding the budget, committees continue dedicating significant time to several bills, including many that will likely be interim projects and held over until the 2018 legislative session. At the forefront of this dynamic is a complicated proposed restructuring of the state’s education funding system. SB 96 has been heard several times in Education Committee and would consolidate educational services for rural districts, consolidate health insurance for teachers, and encourage facility-sharing by rural districts. Other legislation headed for interim projects includes rewrites of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance system, fish allocation legislation, and controversial measures to increase regulatory burdens and costs for transportation, community development and resource projects.