Legislature in third week; Senate forges ahead, not waiting for House

The 2021 legislative session is in its third week. The state House, split 20-20, has yet to organize, but the Republican-led state Senate isn’t waiting for the House and is moving ahead in its work on the state budget and with new legislation.

Senate Finance Committee cochair Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said he intends to have its version of the operating budget done by early to mid-March. Budget subcommittees will be appointed late week, Stedman said Feb. 1. Stedman is in charge of the operating budget while cochair Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, will be in charge of the capital budget.

Traditionally the state House has taken the lead on the operating budget but due to the delay in organizing that body the Senate is starting its work first. There is also a continued COVID-19 danger and a need for the Legislature to complete essential work and get people out of the capitol building as soon as possible, Stedman said.

Many legislators say the 2021 session will focus mostly on budget work, leaving policy issues in bills until next year.

Meanwhile, an initiative by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to build reading skills among children is receiving praise from state legislators and the education community. Dunleavy is proposing a “Governor’s Office of Reading Instruction” to target federal relief funds to improving reading scores.

Although it would seem to duplicate what the state education department does, Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, long active in school legislation, said the special office will bring needed focus to the problem.

Stevens said the idea of using the prestige of the governor’s office to capture federal economic recovery funds for schools is new. “It’s a novel idea,” he said.

Stevens is part of the Republican leadership in the state Senate this year and chairs the Rules Committee, an influential position. He chaired the Senate Education committee in years past.

Legislators and school advocacy groups had not been briefed on the idea before the governor mentioned it in his Jan. 28 State of the State speech. “The devil is always in the details on things like this, but if it really helps boost early reading and it’s just not another state office, we support it,” said Norm Wooten, with the Alaska Association of School boards, told the Senate Education Committee during a Feb. 1 briefing on school issues.

Sen. Shelley Hughes said that new versions of early reading bills introduced last year by herself, Sen. Tom Begich, D-Anch. and the governor are updated and will be reintroduced this year.

In his State of the State address Dunleavy also said he is directing the State Department of Education and Early Development to help school districts establish summer camps to boost reading, math and coding skills. Stevens said he likes the idea of the summer camps because where these are done the camps have demonstrated not just the retention of academic skills during summer off-season but also building new skills.

Most school districts have some funds for these activities but a larger program such as the governor envisions is likely to take extra state support, Stevens said.

Also on education, the governor said he will develop an apprenticeship program for high school students to earn credit while working for businesses to build skills. He will also propose an increase in state funding for home-schooled students, noting that homeschooling has jumped from 11 percent to 22 percent of Alaska students during the pandemic.

Some of Dunleavy’s other ideas in his speech brought praise, such as on promoting agriculture, mariculture (ocean farming) and food self-security. “No one will disagree with this,” Hughes said. Young people wanting to start farming face obstacles in financing and obtaining land, and these are areas where the state can help, she said.

The state Dept. of Natural Resources already has a jump-start on this. The Division of Agriculture, which is within DNR, is coordinating a new two-year federal grant program to support local food self-sufficiency, with grants of $10,000 to individuals and $15,000 to organizations like nonprofits. The money can be “on the street” this summer and can be used to develop or expand gardening, greenhouses, food storage and fencing for livestock. Secondly, DNR’s Division of Mining, Land and Water Management is at an advanced stage in developing 180,000 areas of state lands west of Nenana that have good agricultural potential.

A bridge across the Nenana River at Nenana was completed last summer to connect with 17 miles of road built several years ago by Doyon, Ltd. of Fairbanks to support an oil and gas exploration program. DNR will eventually make lands available for agriculture and small growing operations.

Meanwhile, negotiations continue in the House on an organization plan including the selection of leaders and committee assignments. The 40-member body is split between 20 Republicans and an opposing faction of 17 Democrats and three independents who are so far aligning themselves with Democrats.

Until there’s movement on one side or another, to give Republicans or the Democrat an independent faction, the state House can’t function. Bills can’t be assigned to committees because committees don’t yet legally exist.

Also, even if bills pass the Senate they must also pass the House, so until there is a legal structure for the House to work on Senate-passed bills the entire Legislature is in limbo. At some point there will be movement, with a coalition in some form on one side or another to create enough votes over 20 to pass legislation.