While I’d prefer by far we had more focus on the private sector, this year, both the House and Senate majorities (who set the agenda) seem to be focused much more on the state and local public sector – and with fervor.
Now we love our public servants – our teachers, our firefighters, and even the curt employee at the DMV counter – but we also love our small business owners, our blue collar workers, our nurses, our pilots, and our bank tellers. We have about 64,000 local and state public employees in Alaska: roughly 40,000 borough/city employees and 24,000 state employees. They make up 8.4% of our population. Many of these public servants support precious families (along with their family members who work in the private sector). All are amazing Alaskans in their own way. We need them. We love them.
My point is the main focus of the House and Senate majorities is on this 8.4% to the neglect of the private sector. “How are they?” you may ask. They have made it clear in their media communications that their priorities include reinstating defined benefits for public employees, increasing funding for districts, implementing taxes for government spending, constitutionally changing the structure of the Permanent Fund so there’s funding for government spending – the list goes on.
Where is the focus on the rest of Alaska, on Alaskans who are not public employees? Where is the focus on the private sector? Watch this clip from the Senate Republican Caucus press conference where I discuss the lopsided agenda in the legislature. I point out four ways we could balance that agenda to help unleash the private sector related to critical minerals, healthcare, the agriculture industry, and the Sunset Commission.
Don’t Let These Pass You By
While oil taxes, restructuring of the Permanent Fund, and public employee defined benefit bills are focal points for the majorities and continue to chug along steadily through the committee process and suck up oxygen, there are a few others I’d like to point out that you might like to follow.
SB 24 E-Cigs Tax, Age 21 would tax e-cigarettes like other tobacco products and raise the age for purchasing e-cigs and all tobacco products from age 19 to 21.. While President Trump in his last term signed the federal law to change the age for tobacco to 21, and I can’t stand smoking, I don’t like the fact that our young men and women are considered adults and recruited for the military at age 18 yet we’re considering them minors in this regard. Let me know what you think.
SB 90 Minor Mental Health: Age of Consent This bill changes the age of consent for mental health treatment from age 18 to age 16. They can’t smoke until they’re 21 but let’s cut Mom and Dad out of the picture at age 16 on the very aspect of life for which they need family, they need parents: care and counseling for their mental health. We already have provisions for a youth who is in an abusive situation to get the care they need. Let’s remember as we consider this legislation that in our present culture, there are some pretty extreme views out there. We should not be blind to the fact that counseling could delve into areas that may not align with a particular family’s values. Let’s keep parents involved.
SB 4 Health Care Prices and Incentive Programs Better known as the Healthcare Right to Shop Act, this bill will be up for its third hearing in Senate Labor and Commerce. It’s my bill and a good one so please email your support! SB 4 incentivizes patient-consumers to compare prices with user-friendly tools and rewards them with cash back if they choose providers who charge less than the average rate. We all will be motivated to shop for healthcare when we know we’ll get a check in the mail if we pick a provider who charges less than the average price for a certain procedure! Unleashing free market principles will nudge down the far too high healthcare costs in our state. Let’s do this Alaska!
SB 128 Department of Agriculture Senate Resources will hear the bill for a second time this next week as of this writing. The goal is the growth of the private sector agriculture industry by ensuring the things a farmer and rancher can’t do individually will be done by an efficient and effective department. This isn’t about growing government; it’s about removing the DNR layer of bureaucracy that has inhibited the coordination of solutions that would be an appropriate role for the new DoAG to lead. If Scandinavia, which is at the same latitude as Alaska, is exporting more than $10 billion in ag products each year, it’s clear, there’s a real opportunity for more food production in Alaska.
