Legislation is moving along to provide property tax incentives for energy-efficient new construction, refurbishments, remodels, and renovations. The bill also authorizes municipalities to offer property owners air quality tax credits for improvements, “including new construction, refurbishments, remodels, and renovations that aid in improving the air quality in the municipality.” The bill leaves the task of defining what qualifies explicitly for …
Leg with Louie: Tell the House to Trust Alaskans
This is a blog, and it is an action alert. Your help is needed ASAP, so please click the action link. The House Resources Committee will take up amendments to HB 138 on Monday. This legislation, sponsored by Representative Chuck Kopp, will make it impossible for Alaskans to protect waters of high ecological value as Tier III waters under the …
Leg with Louie: Who Pays and Why?
As we mature into modern statehood, or our middle adolescence, or late pre-adolescence as a state, we do well to consider the things we have perhaps outgrown and update them or trade them in for something new. This includes old timey tax structures. Our state’s motor fuel and marine fuel tax has not changed since the 1970s. Senate Bill 115 …
Leg With Louie: Obituary for House Resolution 12
The short, happy life of HR 12 ended this week. HR 12 was born last spring and died this winter, and we won’t spend long mourning it, but we will mark its passing with a few brief words: HR 12 was a house resolution that sought to establish a House Special Committee on Climate Change. At the time of its …
Leg with louie: The Condition our Condition is in
Our Governor does not look comfortable standing tall to the scrutiny of our 60 State Legislators. No, he looks short of breath and even nervous. I have met the man and shook his hand, and by gosh, he looks dashing when he smiles. If I were working in his office, I would find a way to employ a smile coach …
Leg With Louie: It’s Business Time in Alaska
The Governor recently submitted to the legislature a small squadron of bills as a part of a self-proclaimed “Open for Business” platform. Not only is this catchphrase redolent of the wonderful Flight of the Concords song “Business Time” it also bears the burnish of historical use. It is what Vitus Bering reported back to Peter the Great in 1725. It is …
Opinion: Stand up for equality and support House Bill 82
Celebrating Pride is just as important today as it was in 1969. Fifty years ago, bricks thrown at Stonewall Inn in Manhattan sparked a riot that ignited a global liberation movement. We have trans women of color at Stonewall like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to thank for responding to police violence with direct action, and making it possible …
Leg with Louie: what’s next?
There is little to no chance the legislature will accede to Governor Dunleavy’s request for a special session at a middle school in Wasilla (though the idea is fun). This administration is no friend to the Legislative majorities right now and appears to have an instinct for bullying. I bet if they go, they go to gavel in and gavel …
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