Budget Cuts, cont’d from cover
on Thursday, February 14: newly undeclared and past Speaker Bryce Edgmon, after a record 31 days of inaction, the Alaska Legislature can begin tackling issues including the Governor’s proposed budget and a proposal to restore Permanent Fund Dividends withheld by former governor Bill Walker. The House Majority is now a combination of Democrats and Republicans. Tuesday, Committees were organized, with House Finance led by Reps. Neal Foster and Tammie Wilson, and Resources by Reps. John Lincoln and Geran Tarr. Since only the Senate has been meeting for the past month, this also means that hearings on the Governor’s Cabinet can start moving forward. So far acting Commissioners have been working quickly on the Governor’s directives without final con- firmation they have the job. The expectation is that the House bipartisan coalition majority will both try to soften the budget cuts and not restore past divi- dends. Dunleavy does have line-item veto authority, so it’s like- ly the budget will dominate the entire 2019 Legislative session. In its first month in session, the Senate has introduced several measures that might impact Alaska miners, one addressing a process for designation of Tier 3 waterbodies, and another af- fecting conveyance of land from the Federal government to the state of Alaska.
AMA’s State Oversight committee constantly monitors issues in and beyond Juneau that may affect Alaska miners—stay tuned here and in the weekly executive director emails for updates throughout the session.
AMA member Roger Jenkins testifies last week at one of the public hearings regarding opening ANWR to resource development, amid a clearly contentious audience. Thanks for all the busy, hardworking AMA members who make time consistently and loyally to testify at public hearings like this in defense of Alaska mining and resource development.
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www.alaskaminers.org I The Alaska Miner I February 2019
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