Prior Updates - Week of:   

 Action necessary:
► Print and distribute this message to colleagues and friends.
► Send an e-mail to Senator Wilken and to your Senator (see story below)
► Send a letter  of thanks to to Rep. Roses and Rep. Neuman (see DEED story)
 Calendar:
►  Feb 16 House Ways & Means: HB 13-Pension Obligation Bonds - 3:30 pm
►  Feb 20 Senate Finance: PERS/TRS Funding status and review - Dept. of Administration  - 8:30 am
►  Feb 20 House Finance: HB 1-Increase SBA - Education Funding - 1:30 pm 
 

WE HAVE REACHED THE QUARTER-TURN:

Today marked the 31st day of the 2007 legislative session.  Education funding continues to be front and center (see House HESS story). NEA-Alaska has now met with all but a handful of lawmakers. Due to scheduling conflicts we still have about a half-dozen left to go.  We continue to discuss all four priority 1 issues of NEA-Alaska, as passed by the Delegates at the 51^st annual NEA-Alaska Delegate Assembly (Feb 1-3, 2007).  This process is time consuming but very valuable.  We get the opportunity to discuss our legislative priorities of adequate funding and retirement matters and also to bring to the immediate forefront other important priority 1 issues like not wasting $1.2 million on an April 3, 2007 advisory vote.  NEA-Alaska is also able to testify on issues important to our members.

HOUSE HESS COMMITTEE:

The House HESS committee (chaired by Peggy Wilson – Wrangell) has met twice this week to hear House Bill 97.  HB 97 is Governor Palin’s first attempt at K-12 education funding.  In House HESS this afternoon the committee decided on a 5-1 vote to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Bob Roses (Anchorage) to add $77 million dollars to the TRS funding in the legislation.  By adding the money to TRS and taking that burden off of the districts approximately $77 million dollars would be available to districts.  This has the effect of increasing the Base Student Allocation (BSA) by almost $400 per student.  Close to the NEA-Alaska advocated number of $573 additional per student.

There are more stops for this legislation, so please send an e-mail to the House Finance committee members letting them know you support the HESS version of House Bill 97.  House Finance is scheduled to hear House Bill 1 (BSA) on Tuesday.  Please contact you’re the House Finance committee members to let them know that a BSA of $5,953 is needed in FY 08.

SENATE  FINANCE COMMITTEE:

The Senate Finance committee met this morning (Co-Chaired by Sen. Stedman – Sitka ).  The senators heard a presentation by the Director of Retirement and Benefits (Melanie Millhorn) on the new Defined Contribution (DC) plan created by SB 141 in 2005.  Ms. Millhorn was asked about the loss of forfeitures to the system, but gave a philosophical answer on how portability was such a great thing and that Alaska ’s teachers and other public employees (such as cops and firefighters) will appreciate and use portability.  She does not seem to realize that retaining public employees should be the goal, not making it easier for them to be trained in Alaska and then take their skills and head back to the lower 48 for a defined benefit (DB) plan.

Sen. Elton ( Juneau ) asked for the costs of the separate tiers of the Defined Benefit plan be presented to the committee.  Ms. Millhorn stated those figures would take time and cost money.  Please e-mail Governor Palin and ask her why this data is not available to Senators, and why this data was not available before the passage of SB 141.  Everyone knows the past service costs are caused by tier 1 benefits.  Alaska should have had this data two years ago, before passing SB 141 and should certainly get this data now.  Send Sen. Elton an e-mail letting him know you appreciate his efforts to get real information.

The next LCS will be published on Tuesday, February 20^th.  Enjoy Presidents Day..  If you know anyone who wishes to receive the LCS/Legislative Update, please send us an e-mail with their home e-mail address if possible.  We are always happy to add to our list.  Keep up the advocacy for K-12 education!

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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

FIFTH WEEK IN JUNEAU:

Today marked the 29^th day of the 2007 legislative session.  It proved to be a busy day and evening (see House HESS and DEED Finance subcommittee stories) NEA-Alaska continues to meet with all (except for one) of Alaska’s 60 lawmakers.  This process is time consuming but very valuable.  We get the opportunity to discuss our legislative priorities of adequate funding and retirement matters and also to bring to the immediate forefront important issues like not wasting $1.2 million on an April 3, 2007 advisory vote.   

Schedules continue to get tighter but we have met with 49 lawmakers to date.  The average meeting is about 30 minutes, with some going on for well over an hour.  NEA-Alaska is also able to testify on issues important to our members.

HOUSE HESS COMMITTEE:

The House HESS committee (chaired by Peggy Wilson – Wrangell) met this afternoon to hear House Bill 97.  HB 97 is Governor Palin’s first attempt at K-12 education funding.  While we are fortunate to have a true PTA Mom as Governor.  She needs to hear from educators and parents that schools need additional resources.  Her bill would cut education funding by over $19 million (due to less children in K-12), and cause schools to eat inflation (3.2%) from last year.  The Governor and the legislature can do better and while NEA-Alaska applauded the Governor for an attempt at early funding, we were emphatic that K-12 education in Alaska needs more resources.  NEA-Alaska looks forward to working with the Palin administration and the legislature to prove our point.

DEED FINANCE SUBCOMMITTEE:

The DEED Finance subcommittee (Chaired by Rep. Meyer – Anchorage) met this evening and heard from Commissioner Sampson on the mentoring program, early childhood development and Merit Pay.  Those LCS readers that are on the ball will remember that the Alaska Performance Incentive Program passed as part of the K-12 education increase in May.  NEA-Alaska has never considered the $5.8 million as an increase to K-12 education and we still do not.

Please send an e-mail of Thanks to Rep. Bob Roses (Anchorage) and Rep. Mark Neuman (Big Lake).  They both consistently questioned the efficacy of the program to put scant resources into a merit pay program.  Although Commissioner Sampson has put a great deal of work into this plan, It’s still a bad plan.  Lipstick and a frilly dress on a pig does not change the fact that it’s still a pig.  The good news, it’s a 3-year pilot and that lawmakers continue to question why.

SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION:

The SSCE heard Senate Bill 1 (sponsored by Sen. Gary Wilken – Fairbanks) last Friday at 8:00 am.  Senate Bill 1 as proposed by Sen. Wilken will increase K-12 education funding by $430 per student (approximately $86 million).  NEA-Alaska and our members have proposed a Base Student Allocation (BSA) of $5,953.  This is an increase of $573 per student (Approximately $115 million increase to K-12 education).  NEA-Alaska applauds Sen. Wilken for beginning the discussion at a reasonable level.  Please send a message to Senator Wilken thanking him for his efforts and to your senator asking them to amend Senate Bill 1 to a BSA of $5,953.  A BSA of $5,953 will allow schools to strive toward adequate funding and to make up for some of the losses from 1983-2002. 

  Bill Bjork, NEA-Alaska President
  Lydia Garcia, Interim Executive Director
 John Alcantra, Government Relations