What looms ahead for our legislative session Our team shares hot takes from a cold place around policy, process, shenanigans, and how Alaskans can build a sustainable future, TOGETHER.
Leg With Louie: Summer Homework 2021
This letter will be shorter than usual. I am busy getting intimate with the boat engine and hydraulic system, with typical pre-season nerves and an ear for rumors of the impending Salmon run. The news here comes in snippets and is often less real and immediate than the rust frozen bolt that stands between me and a functioning boat (there …
Leg with Louie: Where are the missing AEA projects?
Action on the state budget is happening quietly, if at all, with the thorny issue of the Permanent Fund Dividend once again asserting its ability to cause rational minds to diverge sharply. It is a fascinating debate. Likely much less fascinating if you are one of the state workers already getting emails that you will be laid off if the …
Leg with Louie: Partisan fighting at the risk of our rights – May 28
It is hard to focus on the lonely hours of Special Session in the AK State Legislature when out in America, the rules are actively being bent toward extreme minority rule in perpetuity based on a lie. At the same time, those who could do something about it are bound by a web of institutional processes from reacting. The new …
Leg with Louie: Bring Back the Legislative Softball League – May 14
Let’s drop the pretense that the state legislature will ever get business done in 90 days. The idea was questionable to begin with. Concocted by business-owner legislators who wanted the legislature to run with more efficiency so they could dispatch with budgets and get back home to their burger joints, hotels, fishing operations etc. An admirable goal in the abstract, …
Leg With Louie: “to hell with politics, just do what’s right for Alaska” – May 7
There are two resolutions under consideration in the legislature as the House and Senate wend their way toward what will be a messy and confused terminus of the regular session. The likely special session will focus on the Permanent Fund Dividend and federal American Rescue Plan funds. The resolutions are SJR 13 and HJR 19. Both are designed to clarify …
Leg With Louie: Another DNR Power Grab – April 30
Did you know that under HB 82, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would be able to authorize lateral drilling and fracking for oil and gas development beneath all of the areas that the state legislature has specifically set aside for special protection? This includes State Game Sanctuaries, State Game Refuges, State Parks, and State Critical Habitat Areas. Lateral drilling …
Leg With Louie: Next Week Reviewed, with Editorial Comments – April 16
For certain dorks, like myself, 4:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon can be fraught with expectation. That is when the upcoming week’s schedule comes out. Under legislative rules, all committee hearing notices must be at the legislative Clerk’s office by 4 p.m. at the latest to be noticed for the next week. If you miss this cut-off time, you are, as …
Leg With Louie: The Starting Gate
The 2021 Legislative Session starts today, with COVID precautions in place. It will be a different year (whatever that means anymore). For one thing, the introduction of visitors from around the state in the gallery to the ovation of House or Senate members – one of the great, humanizing formalities of legislative floor sessions, will be missing this year. Also, …