Community airs concerns about education, energy at town halls

Across a series of three town hall meetings Friday and Saturday, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman spent around six hours fielding questions from more than 100 total residents in Moose Pass, Nikiski and Soldotna.

People coming out to talk about the things they care about is central to the political process, Bjorkman said on Saturday after the last town hall wrapped.

“It’s great to know what people in the public care enough about to show up at a meeting and talk to me as their elected representative,” he said. “We heard a lot about education. We heard a lot about roads. We heard a lot about things that are important to people. People want to know that their government is doing what they expect it to.”

It was standing room only in Moose Pass on Friday, where around 80 people filled chairs and spilled out into the entryway of the Moose Pass Sportsman’s Club — most concerned about the proposed closure of their community school. Only a few days after the meeting, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education chose not to close Moose Pass School, citing directly the outpouring of stories and support they received from residents.

Recognizing the calls by KPBSD and other districts for an increase in school funding, Bjorkman said that the challenge facing the Legislature is a projected shortfall in revenue at the state level.

“The question the Legislature has to answer is how do we fill that hole,” he said. “What do we do to move forward?”

The answer could be raising taxes, shrinking the dividend or spending less money, Bjorkman said.

The next few years, before increased oil and gas production brings more revenue to the state, will represent “a tight spot,” Bjorkman said. He said in addition to budget cuts at the state level, he could see a smaller dividend paid out in the short term. He said that he wouldn’t support raising taxes on working people or industries in the state.

Many in Moose Pass said they would be willing to pay taxes that went to supporting schools — some suggested an income tax that would take the first $50 or $100 made by a worker in Alaska, reaching people who don’t live in the state or who only visit for work. They also called for taxation of oil companies.

“They’re posting record profits, year after year, and you don’t want to tax them even a little bit more,” one attendee said. “We’re not asking for bigger dividends, we’re asking for school budgets that pass.”

Bjorkman said he’s looking for cuts in state government, to focus on “our constitutional mandates … schools, roads and public safety.”

“It’s not OK to keep reducing education opportunities for kids in this state when it’s our constitutional duty to provide our kids and our students with a good education,” he said.

To provide opportunity, the school district needs to have administrative staff, Bjorkman said. “Someone has to keep track of the personnel and everything that we do to run 43 schools in our district.”

Still, Bjorkman said, the state doesn’t have the money to pay for the $1,800 per student increase that education advocates say would account for the decline in the purchasing power of state education funding by inflation since 2011, Bjorkman said.

“I think we can get close to a $1,000 increase,” he said.

The elephant in the room on any funding increase passed by the Legislature is the looming veto pen of the governor, who blocked an increase in per-student-funding last year because it lacked his education priorities. Bjorkman said “I can’t pretend to know or understand the governor’s way of thinking,” but said that he has concerns with some of the priorities brought forward by the governor’s office this year.

An open enrollment provision supported by Gov. Mike Dunleavy would require districts to pay for transportation to get students to schools outside of their area, and may even displace students from their local schools if they’re filled by students from other areas, he said.

Much talk in Moose Pass also centered on concerns about proposed expansion of the Seward Highway in Moose Pass, and the deteriorating condition of the Sterling Highway in and around Cooper Landing. Bjorkman didn’t have answers available about how either project might move forward, but he told attendees he would defend their interests.

Around 20 people each showed up to town halls in Nikiski and Soldotna, where education funding and state finances were again central topics of discussion. People also expressed their concerns about education reform, the prescribing authority of naturopathic doctors, as well as Alaska’s judicial and voting systems.

A big topic of discussion was the Alaska LNG Project. Bjorkman cited newfound momentum around the project at the federal level. If buyers in Asia can be secured, the state will be in a good place to see the project developed.

Glenfarne Group, a New York company in talks to lead development of the project, met recently with Bjorkman, he said.

“They feel very good about that project’s future, and about that project being able to put Alaska natural gas in burner tips here in Southcentral Alaska and the rest of the Alaska rail belt.”

An agreement between Glenfarne and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation is eagerly anticipated, Bjorkman said, hopefully within the next few weeks. If that agreement isn’t announced by the end of March, though, “I’ll have some doubts.”

“Talk is fine,” he said. “An agreement has money attached to it.”

Both in Nikiski and Soldotna, Bjorkman responded to criticism he’s received for working with the Senate majority. He said working with the people in that group, both Republicans and Democrats, means being part of making real decisions with significant impacts.

“I’m in the Senate majority because that allows me to get stuff done,” he said. “That allows me to be a better advocate for all of you and your ideas. I’m proud to be there, honestly, because I can say no to a lot of really bad ideas that would be bad for our community. I wouldn’t have that ability if I was outside.”

During the town halls Bjorkman said he supports a return to defined benefits and reforms to the state’s marijuana taxes. He said that he doesn’t support farming fish in Alaska or a proposed red flag gun law, and he told Moose Pass residents he would ask the Alaska Railroad to not use whistles at night.

For more information, find “Senator Jesse Bjorkman” on Facebook.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.