State Senator Holds Town Hall

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By Heidi Zemach, for the Seward City News

State Senator Gary Stevens, District R- Kodiak, hosted a town hall meeting at the Resurrection Art Coffee House Saturdaymorning, Oct 19, in what was his first such event in Seward in about two years, according to his aide. Retired History professor Stevens, who is now the state senate president, gave a basic civics lesson in Alaska politics to those who filled the coffee shop, and addressed their questions and concerns at length.

Currently 10 Republican and 10 Democrats have been elected to the State Senate, making it a truly bipartisan legislature for a change, said Stevens. He is a Republican whose district includes Kodiak, Seward and Homer. The even party split means that lawmakers from both parties head the important committees, and senators must work on mostly middle-of-the road issues, where the majority of Alaskan’s are, Stevens said. Sean Parnell’s appointment as Governor after Sarah Palin quit this summer has greatly improved communication between the governor and the legislature, and so he’s really pleasedwith the change in administration, Stevens said.

Alaska’s budget is in a precarious position however due to the state’s overwhelming dependence on oil revenues,  Stevens said. Ninety-two percent of the state’s budget comes from oil revenues, rather than a state income tax, making Alaska almost completely dependent on that one resource. Unfortunately, the amount of oil produced by the Alaska pipeline is steadily decreasing. Whereas the oil pipeline had produced 2 million barrels of oil a day, that number has decreased to 700,000 barrels currently, and it continues to decrease every year. New efforts to increase oil revenues under exploration; drilling in ANWR, on the Outer Continental Shelf, Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, or building a natural gas pipeline, are promising, but each idea raises political, economic, environmental challenges, and their outcomes are yet to be determined, Stevens said.

The majority of school funding comes from federal and state coffers—but each borough also puts additional funding into their school districts, Stevens said. Alaskan students get more education money per child than almost anywhere else in the nation, Stevens said. Due to rural schools, the higher cost of travel and heat, and of running small schools, the expense is understandable however, he said. One sign of progress he sees, is that the legislature is working to make the school district funding formula fairer for rural school districts, Stevens said. The system has traditionally favored the larger RailBelt school districts at the smaller ones’ expense, Stevens said.

Upon hearing that 100-percent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough sales tax already goes for schools, Barbara Andersen, a local Bed and Breakfast owner, asked where additional education funding would come from then. Not really addressing the question, Stevens explained that it is up to school districts to determine the ways in which district money is allocated and spent—not the legislature. He would however like to see people living in Seward have greater access to the state’s community college system, Stevens said.

On the environment, Stevens said expressed mixed feelings about enacting a carbon tax on industries that pollute, saying that the cost would probably be passed on to consumers. Alaska’s lawmakers are however increasingly “developing a sensitivity” to the affects of Climate Change in Alaska, such as its impacts on whales, walrus, and on the people living subsistence lifestyles in the far northern areas, Stevens said.

The state also has begun funding alternative energy pilot projects across the state that will help rural Alaska to reduce their dependence on diesel fuel. Projects using hydro, wind, and even ocean thermal energy are making for exciting times in Alaska, he said. Kodiak’s hydro-electric project and its three new windmills on Pillar Mountain are proving very successful, for example. In the first month in operation, the windmills saved Kodiak Electric Association 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel, Stevens said. When Dale Butts questioned the senator on his views about net metering, Stevens said he didn’t understand why the City of Seward would resist allowing net-metering for its own electric utility. Allowing those with windmills or solar panels to sell excess power back to the grid is proving simple and effective elsewhere, and would serve to encourage greater use of alternative energy sources, he said.

Dale Butts also asked for Steven’s views on the $50 head tax for cruise ship passengers, which has resulted in a recent lawsuit by the cruise ship industry. Stevens responded that cruise ships have been good citizens for the most part, and that coastal communities like Seward rely on them economically. But mistakes were definitely made when some Alaska municipalities spent their share on projects not related to the benefit of passengers, he said. Perhaps letting the courts decide the matter would not be a bad thing, Stevens said. Alaska now is considered inhospitable to the cruise ship industry, and the state as fallen into the lowest third revenue yields for cruises, said Thomas Tougas, President of Four Seasons Marine Services/Alaska Coach Tours. The industry is moving cruises out of Alaska, Tougas said. With a 20-percent revenue loss, many tourism-related businesses won’t survive, he added. Tougas asked Stevens to negotiate with the cruise ship industry to come up with a solution that would work for all parties, rather than wait for the lawsuit to play itself out. Stevens agreed that the suggestion was probably a good one, and appeared willing to pursue the matter.

Steve Shafer, General Manager of Afognak Construction, and formerly on the flood control board, outlined his concerns with the future of gravel removal from area streams and alluvial fan areas where people have been building homes. He is concerned that a court case in Southeast brought by the State Department of Natural Resources against a Redi-Mix operator in Skagway, could have statewide implications that could hinder local sand and gravel removal efforts, or increase its cost. Shafer said he’d like to see the state back off on this issue—since homes are at stake. “This valley is drowning in gravel–not water, Shafer said. Expressing a lack of knowledge about the issue, Stevens promised to talk with the DNR Commissioner and Governor Sean Parnell about the matter, after saying it seems “pointless to be butting heads on this.”

Andersen, who visits the coffee shop to access its high-speed Internet, thus saving on some home expenses this winter, was pleased for the opportunity to have met the state senator in person. This is so much better than doing research on the computer, she said. (Comments or suggestions heidizemach@yahoo.com)

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