First and foremost, we need to return to a defined benefit pension. As a member of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, I heard extensive testimony-- from teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and more-- that our lack of a real pension in Alaska makes it incredibly difficult to recruit and retain employees. In addition, we must build more housing in Alaska, at all income levels, as our expensive, aging, and often unattainable housing stock is preventing us from attracting and keeping working families, including educators. These problems are acute in my district, but even more challenging in Rural Alaska.
I am encouraged by the progress we made in the past session, passing a transmission bill as well as community solar, and by the $206 million grant for a grid upgrade that Alaska has received from the Biden Administration. That improvement to our transmission system will allow utilities to bring a variety of new, industrial-scale renewable energy projects online up and down the rail belt. That, in turn, will lower costs and assist our rural areas through the Power Cost Equalization Program.
There is no silver bullet, but both ignoring inflationary pressures on our departments and relying solely on cuts to the PFD are unsustainable strategies. The latter is particularly regressive, and takes the most from those who can afford it the least.
I support reforms to our oil tax system, such as closing the S-Corp Loophole, as well as a broad-based revenue measures to provide for long-term fiscal stability. Between an income tax and a sales tax, I prefer an income tax, because it both captures more revenue from out of state and is not as harmful for our high-cost rural areas.
First of all, we must push back against the demagogues who claim that voter fraud is rampant or that there isn't already a high degree of integrity in our elections system. We have a secure system, with protections like the ERIC database and harsh penalties for those who attempt voter fraud. There is no modern case in Alaska of voter fraud swinging an election, though there have been significant violations of campaign finance laws, for example by the Bronson campaign in 2021 and the RCV repeal campaign this cycle.
There has, however, been disenfranchisement of rural voters, which we must address. A restoration of campaign donation limits, a ballot-curing process, and a clean-up of the data used in local elections would all be beneficial.
I support continuing our current system. The voters created the system in 2020, and we have only seen it in operation for one cycle, in 2022. When I go door-knocking, folks do not seem to be confused by it, and many people-- particularly independents and nonpartisans-- support the system strongly. I think we should wait at least another cycle before trying to undo the will of the voters, and if it continues to have a moderating effect on our politics, we should keep it long-term.
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