Greetings and Salutations Friends, Neighbors, and Alaskans!

Thank you for reading the inaugural edition of “Robb’s Report”. It has been a vexing several months in Juneau as we have worked to try and address the financial pandemic faced by our state. Here is a quick recap of what happened during the 2021 regular session of the legislature. After several months of negotiations, the Senate Majority at the eleventh hour announced its organization for the new session. This year the majority is made up of 13 Republicans and 1 Democrat, formed without a binding rule. As many of you know I campaigned hard against the restrictive and draconian binding caucus which in the past hindered the ability for honest and thoughtful debate on how to address Alaska’s budget crisis and the PFD.

Speaking of organization, I was honored to be chosen as the Senate Transportation Committee Chair and Senate Community & Regional Affairs Vice-Chair for this session.

While the Senate was able to organize at the start of the session the House, unfortunately, took longer than any time in recent history starting more than a month behind the Senate and in the end, did not reflect the will of the voters. Despite the Republicans having an elected majority, two decided to join a Democrat-dominated binding caucus.

Due to the inability of the House to organize the budget process started well behind schedule requiring a mad dash to complete our work before the end of the regular session. The budget eventually passed by the House did not meet the fiscal needs of the state and unfortunately included no PFD for the people. The Senate attempting to make up for lost time rushed through its own end of the budget process producing a large omnibus budget that left much to be desired. The Senate spent hours debating amendments to the budget and was only able to pass our own version of the budget (which included a $2,300 PFD determined from the new formula proposed in the Governor plan) on day 121 with only a minute left in the regular session to take the vote to form a budget conference committee. The Conference Committee on HB 69 and HB 71 now have control of the budget and we are watching closely to see how negations progress for the sake of our state’s fiscal health and the people's PFD. 

The Senate is currently in one of two special sessions called by the Governor the first of which began immediately following the regular session and is covering the budget, this year's PFD, and the full constitutional PFD fix (SJR 6).  The second will begin August 2nd and will cover a constitutional spending cap, a constitutional provision to require a vote of the people for a tax to take effect, acts related to increasing state revenues, and acts related to distributing any federal relief.

As always, we ask that you all stay in touch and stay diligent as we traverse these trying times in our state and around the world. My team and I will continue to work hard advocating for the people of District B and Alaska and will do our best to keep you in the loop as we move forward in the 32nd legislature.

Always advocating on your behalf,

Robb