By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
In her annual address to the Alaska Legislature, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski urged state lawmakers to avoid spending too much time on the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend and to focus on problems causing people to move out of the state.
For a decade, the number of people moving out of the state has exceeded the number of people moving into the state. Only the addition of new births has caused the state’s population to plateau, rather than continue to fall.
“They’re counting on us to have a vision and to push that vision, whether for resources, housing, child care, workforce development, transportation or another big idea that can shape the state for future generations, a generation that stays instead of leaving,” said Murkowski, a Republican.
Afterward, Murkowski worried that she might have overstepped her bounds by intruding as a U.S. senator onto issues controlled by state lawmakers, but she said she feels a variety of problems — child care, transportation, housing, workforce shortages and economic development — need state attention and can’t be solved through federal aid alone.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
The lack of child care options, for example, is having a detrimental effect on federal efforts to bring more military infrastructure to the state, Murkowski said.
“We hear from the Coast Guard as well: Without child care options, the Coast Guard is not going to look to Alaska for new vessels,” Murkowski said.
“I would urge you: Do what you can here by putting this issue firmly on the agenda for the 33rd Legislature,” she said.
Since 2016, the amount of the Permanent Fund dividend has been the Legislature’s largest annual struggle.
The state’s single largest expense, the dividend overshadows all other discussions. With many legislators saying that tax increases are off the table and with no large available savings, budget discussions have become an annual tug-of-war between the dividend and other priorities, like funding for K-12 schools or construction.
“I’ll just say it: If this Legislature spends the whole 33rd legislative agenda focusing on how much Alaskans are going to be getting for a Permanent Fund dividend — we miss everything,” Murkowski said.
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