By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
More than a week after gaveling in, the state House of Representatives still isn’t organized, but Sitka’s Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins says he and other Democrats are working to form a bipartisan coalition, just as they did in organizing the last two legislatures, in 2016 and 2018.
“There’s a lot of conversations about who would join, when and how, to get to a majority,” he said Wednesday.
The Republican majority in the Senate has organized that chamber, with Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, elected Senate President. Sen. Bert Stedman, representing Sitka, Ketchikan and other Southeast communities, will once again be Senate Finance co-chair.
Kreiss-Tomkins, who represents Sitka, Petersburg, Prince of Wales and other communities, is one of 15 Democrats in the 40-member House. Democrats also were the minority party in the House the past four years, but Kreiss-Tomkins was in the bipartisan majority formed with independents and a handful of Republicans.
The 2020 election resulted in 21 Republicans, 15 Democrats and 4 independents elected to the 40-member House.
The main question this year is how many Republicans might join a coalition of mostly Democrats, and who, and what the leadership structure will look like.
“It’s all about the Republicans,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “It would be nice to resolve the impasse, but at the same time I’m not impatient to the point of wanting to force a really, really bad outcome. Whoever controls the House of Representatives is probably the biggest variable for what policy comes out of the Legislature in the next few years. That’s especially true with how the Senate is organized.”
Although “lots of internal conversations” are still taking place on various issues, the Legislature can’t take any formal action without a leadership structure in place. That includes committee assignments, introducing legislation and assigning bills to committees.
“You can still do a lot of groundwork,” he said. “Preparing drafts of legislation, a lot of behind the scenes groundwork, but no formal action or advancement of legislation.”
Kreiss-Tomkins says the House and Senate have a lot on their plate this winter and spring, including balancing the budget, and issues related to the Permanent Fund and Permanent Fund Dividend.
“They’re all interconnected, the three issues, but it really comes down to how do we pass a budget, how big or small the Permanent Fund Dividend is, and to what extent do you spend down the Permanent Fund to subsidize an unbalanced budget, or not,” he said. “My perspective is: a smaller, more sustainable dividend that is at a level we can sustain for the next half century – but it’s not going to be anywhere close to the amounts the governor has talked about, which are basically mathematically unsustainable. I’m firmly resolved we shouldn’t spend one dollar more than what is sustainable.”
He said this position is “diverging from the governor,” whose position is double the amount that’s sustainable.
Gov. Dunleavy has spoken in favor of a two payouts totaling $5,000 per resident, and drawing from Permanent Fund earnings to pay for most state operations. Kreiss-Tomkins estimated that would mean drawing out $6 billion to $7 billion.
Despite the lack of a ruling majority at this time, House members from both sides of the aisle are already discussing these issues.
“We’re not standing dead in the water,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
He said that while conversations are continuing, it would be premature at this time to say who might join a bipartisan coalition. Two years ago, six Republicans joined to form the majority coalition, but by the end of the session two had left.
Whatever the leadership looks like, Kreiss-Tomkins said, the questions for the next several months remain the same. “There will be some kind of position on how the state manages the Permanent Fund, whether it’s sustainably or unsustainably,” he said. “And there may be an attempt to rewrite the Permanent Fund Dividend formula.”
Kreiss-Tomkins said he didn’t know what the outcome would be on the question of the formula.
“My perspective is rewrite it so it’s smaller and a financially sustainable feasible formula – is what makes the most sense,” he said.
Kreiss-Tomkins has twice introduced a constitutional amendment to “constitutionally protect” the fund from being overspent.
“Much more so right now, it’s a front and center question,” he said. “A lot of people are very interested in considering something along those lines. That perspective is starting to come of age.”
