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Action necessary:
►Print
and distribute this message to colleagues and friends.
►
Send an e-mail to your representative and
senator supporting a Base Student Allocation of $5,953
Calendar:
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Mar 27 - House State Affairs / HJR 9 / Constitutional amendment
on benefits -- 8:00 AM
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Mar 27 - House HESS / HB 181 (continued) Fines in School Zones
-- 3:00 PM
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Mar 28 - House Ways & Means / HB 204 and HB 206 / PERS/TRS --
7:00 AM
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Mar
28 -
Senate
Education / SB 1 / Increase amount of Base Student Allocation --
8:00 AM
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Mar
28
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House
Finance / HB 72 / School District Cost Factors -- 1:30 PM
RECORD BROKEN – LCS DELAYED – BUSY WEEK AHEAD
I
would like to report that one had something to do with the
other but the LCS was delayed due to the sheer volume of
committee hearings held yesterday. On Wednesday, Juneau did
set the all time Snowfall record when an additional 2.9
inches fell bringing the winter total to 195.3 inches for
2006-07. It has been above freezing (35 to 40) and rainy
since the record was broken.
Next
week there will be a number of hearings to pay attention to
(see calendar). The pace will really start to pick up now
that we are well past the halfway point of session. House
Finance has finished work on the budget (HB 95) and it will
likely be on the House floor next week.
SENATE
FINANCE – SB 123 and SB 125
Senate Finance continued to hear the clean up legislation
(SB 123) and also brought into the mix SB 125 (cost share
bill) which puts a 65-35% cost share between the State and
other employers (municipalities, school districts, etc.)This
legislation needs work as the cost share puts far too great
a burden on local government. Senate Finance will continue
to hear SB 123 under “bills previously heard/scheduled”
during the next week. The bill is currently 54 pages, but as
we’ll all remember SB 141 started at 91 pages and grew to
125 page mess before it was passed in the special session of
2005. If you would like more information on SB 123 please
go to
http://www.legis.state.ak.us Here you can
enter “SB 123” in the bill root box and you can get
information such as the entire bill and the Governor’s
transmittal letter.
HOUSE
HESS – HB 72 AND HB 181
House HESS met yesterday and heard from several teachers,
school board member and NEA-Alaska on the need for the area
cost differentials addressed in HB 72 (seven sponsors –
Prime is Mike Chenault – Nikiski).
HB
72 would add over $72 million to K-12 education. HB 72 is
supported by NEA-Alaska as a means to achieve adequate
funding. What must be recognized is that not one dollar of
the $72 million would go to the largest district in the
State (Anchorage). Obviously, a significant amount of money
must also be put in the Base Student Allocation ($5,953 is a
good number) or allocated through a direct student count
grant as was conducted last year. This bill moved from
House HESS and now goes to House Finance.
Please send an e-mail or make a call to your legislator
supporting HB 72.
HB 181 (Increased Fines in School Zones) was introduced but
no testimony was taken. NEA-Alaska (through NBI 05-61)
supports this type of legislation.
The
next LCS will be published on Tuesday, March 27th. 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, and we’ll add them to the growing list
of K-12 education advocates!
SNOW, SNOW, SNOW
Today marked the 64th day of the 2007 legislative session.
Juneau is closing within a couple of inches of record
snowfall. Now that we have passed the half-way point of
session things will start to pick up steam (see stories on
SB 123, SB 125 and HB 179). The House is finishing up their
budget process (HB 95 and 96) and the Senate continues the
subcommittee process (see calendar). Stay tuned for more
information on all the legislation in the hopper.
Also, Governor Palin’s gas line proposal (The Alaska Gasline
Inducement Act or AGIA) is going to be taking up a lot of
time in the next few weeks.
SENATE FINANCE — SB 123
Senate Finance began hearing the PERS/TRS clean up
legislation (SB 123) today at 9:00 am. The bill is
currently 54 pages and the full committee (7 members) heard
from Kathy Lea of the Division of Retirement and Benefits on
the preliminary components of the bill. There are meetings
scheduled all week to hear this bill and SB 125 (cost share
of PERS/TRS – 8 pages). There is a significant amount of
work to be done to these bills and we will effort to provide
links in the Thursday (March 22) LCS to review the sectional
analysis of SB 123.
The next
LCS will be published on Thursday, March 22. 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, and we’ll add them to the growing list of K-12
education advocates!
Bill Bjork, NEA-Alaska
President
Lydia Garcia, Interim Executive Director
John Alcantra, Government Relations
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