Site Logo
A chart shows the number and type of Alaska residents receiving Medicaid coverage based on either 2022 Alaska Medicaid Claims data (yellow) or 2021 U.S. Census data (orange). More than 260,000 residents are currently enrolled, about 30,000 more than 2020, due to a federal provision that kept states from removing people during the COVID-19 pandemic. That provision ended April 1 and Alaska officials are scheduled review eligibility of all residents enrolled during the next 12 months. (Alaska Division of Public Assistance)

News

Medicaid eligibility for all enrollees under review

Coverage for more than 260,000 Alaskans to be checked during next year as COVID-19 protection ends

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announces the formation of a child care task force that is scheduled to issue a report of recommendation in July of 2024 during a press conference Thursday in Anchorage. (Screenshot from official video of press conference)

News

Governor creates child care task force

Group scheduled to issue final report in mid-2024; some lawmakers seeking quicker action

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, offers an apology Thursday on the House floor for “escalating” tensions during a heated session on Wednesday when most members of the minority caucus staged a walkout over what they called a “hostage” situation involving education funding. A few other lawmakers also expressed similar sentiments.

News

Extra education funding restored – with a catch

House majority ties increase to minority’s willingness to balance budget with reserve funds

Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, speaks in favor of an amendment to restore partial funding for a single Department of Law employee during a 45-minute debate on the proposal Tuesday. Such debates resulted in lots of discussion, but few changes in the House’s proposed budget for next year. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Education gets short-term boost, but budget battle drags on

House looks to pass budget this week, but Senate, governor — and OPEC — also affecting spending plans

Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on March 28 in Juneau. Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire) Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)

News

House bill aims to boost Alaska Performance Scholarship use

The scholarship is awarded to support education after high school graduation

Nayeli Hood, 10, foreground, and Ona Eckerson, 9, testify against a bill limiting sex and gender content in schools during a House Education Committee meeting Thursday night. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Testimony gets colorful on ‘parental rights’ bill

Opponents of restricting sex and gender content in schools dominate five-hour hearing

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, inquires about election legislation during a committee hearing Tuesday at the Alaska State Capitol. Carpenter, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is sponsoring bills to decrease business taxes and implement a 2% statewide sales tax that got hearings this week.

News

Tax on, tax off: Cutting corporate taxes while imposing 2% sales tax gets skeptical response

Fiscal plan focus of a committee hearing.

Heidi Teshner, acting commissioner of the Department of Education and Early Development, explains details of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s so-called “parental rights” bill during a House Education Committee hearing Wednesday. Public testimony on the bill is scheduled to be heard by the committee Thursday evening. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Public gets first say on proposal to restrict sex, gender content in schools

House Education Committee to host Thursday hearing on Dunleavy’s bill.

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State representatives Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, left, and Andi Story, D-Juneau, discuss a proposal requiring school districts to maintain a public online checkbook with Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, the bill’s sponsor, during a break in a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday. The two Southeast Alaska representatives expressed concerns about cyber security and small remote districts that do not have official websites.

News

Lawmakers try to fill in some blanks in ‘online checkbook’ for schools bill

Proposed online register raises questions about practicality, cyberattacks, offline districts.

Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, speaks during a meeting of the House State Affairs committee on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Kenai area lawmakers set sights on financial fixes

KENAI — The central Kenai Peninsula’s representatives in the Alaska House of Representatives have their eyes on state…

State representatives Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, left, Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, and Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, study proposed amendments to next year’s state budget during a House Finance Committee meeting Tuesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

All in a day’s budget debate — voting, sex and taxes

Even the smallest pieces of House committee’s markup show signs of huge policy battles to come

State Sen. Bert Stedman, center, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, presides over a committee hearing Thursday. The committee on Monday approved an $8.4 million fast-track supplemental budget to address staff shortages in processing food stamps, public defenders and legal advocates for vulnerable residents. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

News

Bill with funds to address food stamps backlog goes to governor

Legislature gives near-unanimous approval to hiring extra staff to fix months-long backlog

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire Bethany Marcum, executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum, responds to questions from the Senate Education Committee on Friday about her nomination to the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents. Her organization’s conservative policies, including backing a budget by Gov. Mike Dunleavy that proposed a 40% cut to the university system, made her the most controversial of the governor’s four nominees to the board.

News

Lawmakers question university board nominee who supported UA budget cut

Bethany Marcum, head of conservative think tank, hears from scathing doubters and glowing supporters

Legislative fiscal analysts Alexei Painter, right, and Conor Bell explain the state’s financial outlook during the next decade to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Legislators eye oil and sales taxes due to fiscal woes

Bills to collect more from North Slope producers, enact new sales taxes get hearings next week.

A graph shows projected monetary losses and gains for government and private stakeholders in the Willow oil field project, which for the state is expected to reach a break-even point in 2030, a year after production is scheduled to begin. But a complex set of tax structures and unknown variables may cause those predictions to differ considerably. (Alaska Department of Natural Resources)

News

State offers brighter financial forecast for Willow

Instead of losing $1B during first decade, Alaska will break-even by 2030, revised forecast shows

Kuspuks of varying colors displayed at a tribal consultation meeting in Anchorage on Sept. 21 represent Indigenous victims of violence. From left, the colors are red for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, orange for victims of boarding schools, the baby kuspuk for children who will never be born, purple for victims of domestic violence, turquoise for victims of sexual assault, multicolor for LGBTQ victims and black for men who are victims. The kuspuks were arrayed at the Justice Department's annual tribal consultation conference required under the Violence Against Woman Act. In testimony Wednesday to the state House Tribal Affairs Special Committee, members of a working group listed several practical steps they said could improve safety of Indigenous people. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Budget items and policy changes recommended to help protect Indigenous women and girls

Dangers can be addressed through the budget and through other practical actions, activists said.

From left to right, House Majority Leader Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River; Speaker of the House Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla; and Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla; listen to House Clerk Kris Jones during a break in the session of the Alaska House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. (Photo by James Brooks / Alaska Beacon)

News

Alaska House votes more funding to fix food-stamp crisis, prevent budget trouble

Bill includes $6.8 million to immediately address a crisis in the state’s food-stamp program.

A call for a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature to cast a vote that would reject recently-approved salary increases for legislators and top executive branch officials is made by State House Speaker Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, during a press conference Tuesday. Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, rejected the joint session in a letter to Tilton on Wednesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

House efforts to nix legislative pay raises hit Senate roadblock

Call for a joint session rejected by upper chamber, bills to overturn pay hikes may lack support

Reps. Tom McKay, R-Anchorage, and Andi Story, D-Juneau, offering competing amendments to a bill increasing the per-student funding formula for public schools by $1,250 during a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday morning. McKay’s proposal to lower the increase to $150 was defeated. Story’s proposal to implement an increase during the next two years was approved, after her proposed amounts totalling about $1,500 were reduced to $800.

News

Battle lines for education funding boost get clearer

$800 increase over two years OKd by House committee, Senate proposing $1,348 two-year increase

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire Alaska residents, many of them part of an Americans for Prosperity delegation from outside Juneau, wait to testify during a House Education Committee meeting Tuesday night. Most of the people in the room opposed increasing public education spending, while a majority of residents testifying online spoke in favor of an increase.

News

Public, lawmakers go to school over budget

Feisty testimony offered by residents statewide and legislators respond in kind