The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Amy Demboski. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Good morning on this Wednesday. We have finally made it to hump day. It is February 26th. Can you believe that, Daryl? I'm telling you, March is basically here. It's basically here. Basically here. It is.
Oh my gosh, I can't even, I don't even know where the time has gone. I told you, I already ordered all my green, all my flower baskets for this summer. Now, I don't remember you saying you actually ordered your baskets. I did. I remember you said you were getting ready. You know what I realized just literally seconds ago? Fat Tuesday is on Tuesday. This coming Tuesday, I do believe, is Fat Tuesday. Oh, my God. Man, almighty. It's like, oh, wow.
I've never actually been to Mardi Gras, nor have I actually celebrated Mardi Gras. I've never really been down to that part of the country. I've never been to Louisiana. That's going to change. You know, my son is... is getting stationed down there and uh actually he's leaving today he's leaving this morning as a matter of fact they are they're heading down to i think barksdale is where they're going and so off they go
Well, that's fortuitous for him. I mean, he's going to be there for Mardi Gras. Well, he'll be able to get there for Mardi Gras. Well, no, they're going to take some time. So I don't think they're going to get down there in time by Tuesday. I don't think so. Oh, is he driving? Yeah, they're going to do some sightseeing on the way down. So I think they're going to stop and see his wife's brother. He's at another Air Force base on the way.
So they're going to make their way down there. So very sad to see him leave. You know, what are you going to do? Now, I'm one of those parents that both of my kids now live out of state. One in Utah, one in Louisiana. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Well, not really. Because I got my husband, my mother-in-law, and Bob. So we still have a full house. Yeah. For those that don't know, when we built this house in Palmer, we built it with an apartment downstairs.
My mother-in-law and her significant other moved in. So it's kind of like a family compound. Let's put it that way. There's always somebody here. Oh, she used the right-wing word, compound. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Hey, I don't shy away from it. I am what I am. So, yeah, so it's still busy around our house. It's just, you know, the kids are gone. But it gives me an excuse now to fly to Louisiana and maybe next year.
I don't know. I don't know. I'm committed next to you next March. I'm committed to going to Hawaii with my dad and my stepmom. So that's going to happen at some point. But, you know, so maybe Mardi Gras is two years in my future. You know, you could always do the triangle. The triangle? Yeah, that would be Louisiana to Hawaii to Alaska. That's the new triangle.
I could do it. You know, I'd have to ask Bernadette if she could fill in for a month. No, no, good deal. Well, it is February 26th, which means as February closes out, you know, We still have a few community meetings that are happening. We'll start with the meetings in the Mat-Su. Tonight at 5 p.m., the Waterbody Setback Advisory Board has a meeting in the lower-level conference room that's located at 350 East Dahlia Avenue in Palmer.
The Trapper Creek Road Service Area Board of Supervisors has their meeting tonight at 530. They're going to meet at the Trapper Creek Community Center. And tonight, the Sutton Community Council also has their meeting, 7 p.m. at the Sutton Public Library. If you need more information on any of these meetings in the MATSU, just go to matsugov.us, and you'll be able to find it there.
I didn't see any public notices for meetings today in the city of Wasilla or the city of Palmer. However, I did see a public notice on the city of Palmer's website that I wanted to make sure everybody was aware of. You've probably noticed it. But they do have a public notice, City of Palmer 2025 utility rate increase. Effective January 1st, the City of Palmer's wastewater and water services rates were increased.
The Palmer City Council adopted the rate increases in November as part of the city's budget. So there is a 6% water service rate increase, a 6% wastewater service increase. A 4% solid waste service increase. So the new rates for non-metered water service for the 4-inch It's $57.35 a month, and for the 6-inch, it's $83.70 a month. So if you have questions, you can contact Palmer City Hall at 745-3271.
That's just public notice. I know it's been, you know, a little bit, but I hadn't noticed it, so. I figured I should just mention it. PalmerAK.org. Yeah, exactly. In this day and age, everything's going up. You know, 6% increase is not insignificant. I got to just say. I got to tell you, not everything is going up, Amy. My intelligence. rate is going down just so you know.
Even watching MSNBC. I know that. I'm going to do better, though. Joy Reid's not there, so. I know, I know. Man, some of these cackling hyenas, just listening to them these days, I just, like. I got to be honest with you, a lot of this mainstream media, they just have lost their complete credibility.
And, you know, if you're not, I like your Bigfoot. I like your Bigfoot sweatshirt today, Daryl, by the way. Thank you. That was me shamelessly getting to look at it by walking across your screen. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you should see. You should actually see what it goes on behind. behind the microphone, should we say. Daryl is like having, he's like having...
He's, I don't know even how to say it. I'm trying to think of like the most hyper dog there is. Maybe like a mini Dobie. He's like having a mini Dobie. That's a good example. You know, on Mountain Dew that just... that just ate, like, a box of Pop Rocks. I don't even know. You know, you're a little active on that side of the screen this early in the morning. You got me beat, for sure. Takes me a little while to wind up. That's okay. We'll get you going.
No doubt. All right, well, let's go to the municipality of Anchorage. Today there's a Sister Cities Commission meeting. It's in person at City Hall at 6 p.m. tonight. It'll be on the eighth floor in the mayor's conference room. If you would like more information,
information you could go to muni.org they do have a virtual link so if you want to attend virtually just go to muni.org click on the mayor's tab and then click on the events tab and that'll bring you to the board and commission announcements as far as the anchorage assembly goes
There's a Quality Municipal Services Ethics and Elections Committee meeting. Don't you love how they just renamed that? So it's Ethics and Elections. That's their committee meeting. I'm wondering about the quality part. I know, right? That's going to be at noon today.
City Hall and Conference Room 155. If you want more information on that meeting, just go to muni.org, click on the Assembly tab, and it will bring you right into their public announcements. I'm going to go ahead and skip the Kenai Peninsula borough. today because I'm having issues with their webpage loading. I see their page, but their calendar is not loading for me. So I'm just going to skip them today. But if you'd like to check their calendar, it's kpb.us.
The City of Kenai, though, does have a meeting today. They have a Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting tonight at 7 p.m. That will be at the Council Chambers at City Hall, which is located at 210 Fidalgo Avenue in Kenai. If you'd like their agenda, all you have to do is go to Kenai.city and then just look at their calendar, click through the links, and it'll bring you to their agenda.
As far as the city of Soldotna goes, they do have a city council meeting today in the city of Soldotna. That's going to be at 6 p.m. tonight. Again, if you'd like more information, including their agenda, just go to soldotna.org. And last but certainly not least, our friends down in Homer have a Port and Harbor Advisory Commission regular meeting today at 530. You can attend in person at the CALS Council Chambers located at Homer City Hall.
491 East Pioneer Avenue in Homer. You can attend via Zoom or phone if you need that information or if you want to see their agenda. All you have to do is go to cityofhomer-ak.gov. Look to the right. Click on the meeting that's interesting to you and then just follow the links through and it'll bring you to all that information.
How's your temp this morning in Anchorage, Daryl? Which do you want it from? My home, the signs on the way to work, or my car? Give me the average. The average is 29 degrees. 29? Yeah. I'm having a heat wave here in Palmer. It's 33. Oh, wow. Yeah. My highest is 30. My lowest was 27. So I went with 29.
Yeah, I was going to say Big Lake right now is checking in at 24. Kenai, 29. Fairbanks, 2 degrees. You know, it looks really nice in Fairbanks. I was just looking at them on one of my cameras, and it looks really nice in Fairbanks. It's pretty up there right now. I like Fairbanks. Fairbanks is a fun place to visit. Nice place to watch on TV. It's a nice place to visit.
I think for me it's a little cold in the winter, and their utility rates, man, they are excessive. And, you know, the militant air quality issues that they deal with and dealing with the EPA and the... Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. I don't know, man. It's a little much for me. A little too much for me. Fairbanks, beautiful place. Love the people.
I mean, imagine if we could actually get an Alaska gas line that had an offshoot to Fairbanks. Imagine how you could significantly impact the cost of living in Fairbanks. And the growth. That would cause the growth of that city because, as you said, It really is a nice place, but the cost of utilities and stuff. And I just actually had a stupid but brilliant thought at the same time. I'm fascinated by this prospect. Okay, let's hear it. So why doesn't...
the Fairbanks area maybe do some kind of special investment and experiment into putting wind generators on the top of the ridges just outside of Fairbanks? Because, you know, the whole problem with Fairbanks is that inversion bowl up there, right? Everything gets trapped in that bowl. The bad air gets trapped. and that's what the EPA has a problem with. If we were to put wind generators on those so that through the summertime it would generate electricity and then
power them backwards so that in the wintertime, it would blow air down into the bowl. And it doesn't have to be a wind breeze, but half a mile an hour, which would be enough to scoot. The bad air out. Look at that, Daryl. You may have missed your calling as, you know, I don't know. Daryl Nye, the science guy? A breeze guy. A breezeologist. Hey, you know. Yeah, there you go. Just call me the breeze for those of you.
You know, rock and roll. There's a lot of things I could think of calling you. I don't think that would be one of them. All right, we're going to go ahead and take our first break in the morning. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show, 522-0650. Amy Demboski, 6 to 8, mornings on News Radio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650.
Welcome back, current time, 622. Well, a little bit later in the show, we are expecting Dave Donley to call in and let us know how last night's Anchorage School Board meeting went. I already previewed that. Yeah, I was going to say, so we'll see what happened at the meeting. I mean, I got to tell you,
He is a man of resolute constitution. For him to say... You like that, did you, Darrell? I thought it was desk. For him to show up... I know, right? For him to show up every... other week at the anchor school board constantly beating his head against the wall trying to inject common sense with a group that doesn't have a whole lot of it i mean
Good on him. Somebody's got to do it. I think what would get so disappointing to me or depressing to me would be constantly hearing, and this has passed six to one. And this has passed six to one. exactly it's it's it's crazy to me but you know here here we are you know he He shows up. He tries to inject common sense in there. So, you know, we'll see. Every now and then I know he peels off one or two. So we'll see.
I just get to the point where I just shake my head. I don't even know what to say anymore. Did you see Tulsi Gabbard on Fox News last night? I did not. You know, I've got to be honest with you. This is why I said people are taking the doge bait. It's not that complicated. It's not that hard. You know, as we're looking at these people can't help but expose themselves for the rabid.
partisan hacks that they are. And the problem is when you have people that walk in the door that are honest and that aren't going to take any nonsense. You know, a lot of the bad behaviors get exposed. Well, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence now, was on Fox News last night. She was on with Jesse Waters. Apparently, there were some, let's say, explicit chat rooms on NSA platforms that employees
were using to describe some of their sexual fetishes, shall we say? And as Tulsi Gabbard became aware of this, let's just say, Lots of people are getting fired, and lots of people are losing their security clearances over it. Fox has an article up. President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence is taking action against federal employees within the intelligence community for alleged ties to explicit conversations on the internal agency messaging board.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put out a directive Tuesday to terminate the employment of and revoke the security clearances of employees who participated in obscene and explicit chat rooms on the NSA's IntelLink messaging platform. There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in what is really just an egregious violation of trust.
What to speak of like basic rules and standards around professionalism, according to Tulsi Gabbard, who was on Jesse Waters' prime time. Federal employees are under investigation for allegedly misusing the internal agency messaging board to dish on their sexual fantasies under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Chat logs from the NSA's Intelink messaging platform obtained by researchers from the...
Conservative Manhattan Institute, reportedly via sources within the NSA, revealed employees from various intelligence agencies discussing their experiences with gender reassignment surgery, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy, Polyamory and pronoun usage. Some of these agencies reportedly include the Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as the U.S. Naval Intelligence and the NSA. All right. I'm sitting here flabbergasted by this, Amy. I'm literally going...
This is a workspace. I can't imagine them in their office doing this. Literally, you've got me flabbergasted here. I almost choked on my coffee when you started. I'm telling you. Come on now, people. Like everything you do at work, everything you write, I've always been told every single thing you write could end up on the front page of the paper. And in my case, it has. So true, so true. You know, but here's the thing.
And if I didn't mean it, I wouldn't say it. I'm just saying. So whatever, you know, that's the reality. I've always owned up to whatever I've said or done. But, you know, it's just, like, come on. Like, explicitly chatting. Like, I have never at work. It's just not an appropriate place to discuss your sexual fantasies and fetishes. Like, it's never appropriate.
Ever, ever, ever. Now, we won't talk about what they discuss at the firehouses. Inappropriate, gentlemen. Inappropriate. Well, but there's a big difference here, Amy. And I was going to say. I have made inappropriate comments to other coworkers, and generally when I say that, it's, you know...
Wrong jokes to, you know, people of, you know, guys. Dude combos. Dude combos. So we'll be making those jokes and stuff like that. And it's inappropriate. But actually talking about, yeah. Chatting it. So you're chatting it, Daryl. So you're chatting. You're writing it down. And it goes back to, I think, look, boys will be boys. We know those conversations happen. Over the 25 years my husband was on the Anchorage Fire Department. Like, I will tell you, Station 4, guys, y'all.
I don't even know. Like, I'm just saying, there was a time 25 years ago the culture was much different than it is today. I'll just stop there. It's very different today, right? It's more PC today, but boys will be boys. But they're not going on the AFD's...
Chat link and, you know, putting stuff in writing. And, you know, they might make off-color jokes or, you know. And these are intelligence officers. These are people in the intelligence industry that, I mean, search these things out. But I want to clarify one thing, Amy. What? I one time worked in an office or in a situation where it was literally all women except for me and one other person, and that person swung the other way. So basically it was an office of all women.
You guys are wrong, rude, and oh my God, some of the discussions you guys have. When I say you guys, I mean ladies. My job was literally like, hello, man in the room, please don't, please don't. I know you're trying hard to take up for the firefighters. But right now, look, I'm married to one. He's a slope worker now. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, he's a slope worker now, which probably are just as bad. But, you know, I'm just saying.
There's probably, and I know you military guys are just as bad. I've got to tell you. You know, some of the things my son has told me about, you know, things they do or say at work, I'm like, don't tell your mother this thing. Like, I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. But when you talk about the NSA, Tulsi Gabbard, you know, she's...
quoted here and saying when you see what these people were saying they were brazen and using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really really horrific behavior and they were brazen in doing this because Because...
When was the last time anyone was really held accountable? Certainly not over the last four years. Certainly not over the last 10, maybe 20 years. And we look at some of the biggest violations of the American people's trust in the intelligence community, end quote. You know, again, so when we start talking about these chat groups and stuff, it's just, okay, HR lesson 101, work is not the place to talk about your sexual fantasies. Just throwing it out there.
Just throwing it out there. Work is not the place to do it. I don't care what job you have. Work is not the place to talk about your sexual fantasies. Keep it to yourself. Keep it to yourself. My word. You know, but, you know, and then it's interesting because there's another article that tells Zeke Abbott, and, you know, it's kind of funny because...
She says, you know, we talked about this briefly yesterday where we're talking about, you know, some CIA folks are basically hinting. I'm using that word liberally. Through their media arm CNN, they're hinting that, you know, if they end up getting budget cuts or end up getting fired, they could sell what they know to, you know, foreign agents or foreign countries.
So people are, wait a second, and we talked about this yesterday. Daryl and I had this firm belief that if you have CIA agents, Operatives whatever you want to call them that are working for our government that capacity and the moment they lose their job they're gonna run and sell what they know to a foreign country I'm thinking your screening process needs a little help
Yes, big time. But, you know, Chelsea Gabbard, you know, she made this very common, you know, very, very common sense, let's say, observation. When she was asked about this threat, she says they're exposing themselves. This is what I keep saying about the doge bait. These radical partisan hacks.
As things, as policies are changing, as, you know, and we kind of talked about it a little bit yesterday in a different way, but as you get an email from a superior, from the Oval Office, let's put it that way, that says, name five accomplishments you have last week, and you refuse to comply with that, Like, there's this sense of entitlement, like, how dare you ask me what I'm doing for my job? Like, honestly, you're exposing yourself. I mean...
This is not complicated stuff. And this is exactly how they're going to root out. the partisan hacks this is exactly how they're going to root out the lazy people that aren't doing their job that aren't showing up this is I mean if you can't do a simple task I've got to tell you, you're kind of putting a bullseye on your back. It's not really all that smart. And if you're threatening, if you're threatening,
To sell foreign governments our secrets because you don't like policy changes at the CIA. Because you're mad. Yeah, because you're mad. You're kind of an idiot. I love that motion. I know, I know. All right, let's take a quick break. 5-2-2-0-6-50. We'll be right back. Reach out to Amy now. 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Devosky on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Well I have up in front of me a story from the Anchorage Daily News. Anchorage School Board makes broad cuts to staff programs and sports in next year's budget. The budget passed on a vote of six to one. I can only guess who the dissenting vote was. But I think it's the man that's joining us now. Dave Donnelly is a school board member with the Anchorage School Board. Good morning, sir.
Good morning, Amy. Yeah, it was quite the evening. You know, I'm only for myself. Thank you. Not for the Anchorage School Board or the school district when we talk. I always love it when you start with your disclosure. that don't know Dave is required to say that so I appreciate you making your disclosure well you know I'm looking through this ADN story and as I'm looking at this story you know a couple of things catch my attention
You know, and it says in a six-to-one vote Tuesday night, the board slashed funding for the 25-26 school year by about $43 million. The cuts include more than 380 teacher, staff, and administrative positions ending in night. program, eliminating all middle school sports and high school hockey, gymnastics, swimming and diving.
Class sizes are set to increase by four across all grades. But then a little bit later down in the story, it says, oh, but with this budget, uh there likely won't be uh they will largely avoid layoffs so basically they were they were funded but unfilled positions is that what i'm understanding well what the board did and They had an actual budget, and then they had an additional amendment that said if the legislature approves additional $1,000 per student,
we want the executive to restore this list of items. And so it was a $71 million list of items. So those weren't in the actual budget, but they're in kind of a very strange amendment that would say, if this money comes, this is what happens. There were two main constitutional problems with the amendment.
I think as it originally read, it was an improper delegation of authority because it said the superintendent would be amending the budget. And the superintendent doesn't have the power to amend the budget, only the board. And secondly, it's... violated the legislative entrenchment theory of law. You've heard it many times. One elected body can't bind a future elected body.
And unless that money was to show up before the upcoming April election, well, then that's unconstitutional to say, you know, say this binds us to do these specific additions to the budget because there'll be a new board after April. Well, I'm sure you brought that up in the conversation last night, but they clearly ignored it if that's what they passed. Let's talk a little bit about this. What I see this as from a political standpoint,
We've had the discussion about rebuilding schools that maybe shouldn't be rebuilt, especially when we have other schools that are not even at 100% capacity. We've talked about the declining enrollment numbers in the Anchorage School District. you think we are seriously going to address you know this imbalance if you will in ASD's budget because you can't sustain
this level of spending with a shrinking population? I wish I had a crystal ball to see that. I don't see that happening in the near future. I think the board had a pattern of... of... Just gambling on what the legislature is going to approve or what the state's going to approve for money from year to year. Now, it was sustained by the federal COVID money for a few years, and the state has provided one-time funding. But it's...
I've proposed reductions every year I've been there that have been rejected, and I've tried to do the best for holding down class sizes with my reductions. I think it's a dangerous pattern that the board is in over these years, just hoping for more money from the state. You know, some of the proposals, I was going back through David Boyle's article that he wrote earlier this week in Must Read Alaska. And some of the proposals that you've had, I mean, just make a lot of sense to me.
Talk about just getting rid of in middle school the extra planning period and restore 12 teachers to language immersion programs. It could potentially save $1.9 million. That one thing right there is a lot of money. Yeah, it is a lot of money, and it was really important to me to get the immersion back into the actual budget, and that's just beyond the wish list for future funding, because...
they have to contract for these foreign teachers that speak the languages. There's about six of them, and it takes months and months and months to get those contracts in place. They come from France. and Japan and faraway places. And it should have been in the actual budget. In my opinion, it was not as high a priority as extra planning period for middle school.
Yeah, I'm looking at it. I mean, as I'm looking at some of these savings that you're talking about, you know, discontinue the middle school model extra planning period and restore the deaf and hard of hearing department. school and save $2.8 million. That's another one of your potential ideas. Reduce the number of middle school assistant principals by two, saving $498,000. Reduce the number of assistant principals by four in high school, saving...
$644,000. I mean, Dave, some of these things that you've targeted in seems like it would have a lot of bang for our buck. I mean, you get a lot of savings and at the same time you're preserving the programs that people really care about. Tricochula is a fantastic school. It's an immersion program, right? My kids went through Chugac, and so both of them were in the Spanish immersion program, and both of them have used it in their careers after high school.
I mean so some of these programs actually have a significant impact on these kids lives and abilities after they graduate. And what I see here is I feel like I'm seeing a lot of the Washington Monument argument with the passage of this budget, you know, cutting hockey, cutting gymnastics, cutting this, cutting that. But we're not dealing with the big elephant in the room, which is we have way more schools.
and we have way more square footage capacity than we're having students, student population shrinking. So rather than dealing with a tough issue, they're going to get all the parents stirred up and put pressure on the legislature to try to increase the BSA. That's what I'm seeing. Well, Amy, there's a lot of emails that would express that opinion, but I have to be careful because under board rules I'm not allowed to.
imagine or imply any intent other than it was expressed at the meeting but I'll say this I've been in elected office representing this this is my hometown I was born here For over 23 years now. And I made promises at the last election. And I've always kept my campaign promises. Always. The things I said in the campaign, that's what I did.
I said I was really going to prioritize Ignite and Immersion and class sizes, and I did that last night. I offered rational amendments that I felt those things were higher priorities than other things in the budget. and the board rejected those. They should not have been in a supplement. They should have been in the actual budget. It shouldn't have been like a hope for the future. They should have been in the actual budget.
And I hope the public understands that, that that amendment just saying we're going to do this if more money comes. Well... you know, it may or may not. And when I asked the question, what if this exact amount of funding isn't approved, and it's more than was approved last year, and it was significant money approved last year by the state increase, you know, one-time increase.
And the answer was, well, I guess all bets are off. Because it only works if a specific certain dollar amount is approved. That's really dangerous. I just don't think it's the right thing for these particular very important programs to risk them that way. I agree with you. And, again, this to me, I mean, It's going to be harsh that I say this, but this to me is a lack of leadership. I mean, that's what I see. I see. It's not...
It's not that the ASD doesn't have enough money to educate students. It's where they choose to prioritize where that money goes and how they do it. Let me ask you, in the budget, just off the top of your head, you may or may not remember. But I know the superintendent was proposing increasing some spending to DEI. Did that happen? Well, it wasn't so much the increases to the DEI office, and I specifically targeted that for elimination last night, and I'd done that before in prior years.
I love the original name of this. This was only created about five years ago. It was called the Department of Equity and Compliance. And when I said, that sounds like something out of the Soviet Union, people, oh, you can't say that. You're not allowed to say that. And I said, well, it does, doesn't it? And it sounds like something Stalin would have. Right.
So then it evolved, and they changed the name to the Department of Equity and Community Engagement. And at that point, they included a few other things in there other than DEI-related issues. And one of the things was interpreters for the deaf, and I support that, and volunteers trying to get more management to get more parents into schools, and I support that too. So I broke those things out, and the remaining amount of money was about $419,000, which I moved to delete and shut that thing down.
which is frankly what the university did this week also. They removed all references to equity and diversity from their efforts. So I think we had an example of the University of Alaska addressing this problem because of the upcoming federal instructions and the potential loss of federal funds. targeted the $419,000 remaining $1,000. Well, I have to tell you, I think as parents see this, I mean, clearly I know...
I won't ask for your commentary on this. We've got to take a quick commercial. But I think as parents see this, they see it for what it is. This is a massive political pressure move put on the Alaska legislature to say, look, if you guys don't pass this huge increase,
to the BSA we're going to have to cut all these programs so basically what they're saying is if you refuse to give us a raise a massive raise we're going to make it politically hurt for you and I think it's wrong I think what that shows me is people
that are weak in leadership it shows me people that look you can't always guarantee in life that you're going to get a raise every year at your job and that's what that's what asd is banking on now is they're banking on the fact that they will be able to create enough pressure to get a raise, so think of it that way, to the BSA. We've got to take a quick break. Dave, I hope you can hang on with us for one more segment, because I had a quick question for you about the overlying...
We're talking with Dave Donnelly. He's an Anchorage School Board member. Stay with us. to the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on NewsRadio 650. KENI. Welcome back. We're talking with Dave Donnelly. He is talking on behalf of himself, not the Anchorage School Board, and he is an Anchorage School Board member. You know, Dave, I read this entire article of the ADN like a couple times, and I didn't see the top line budget number.
What is the actual amount of the ASD budget that was passed last night? Well, the pro forma budget summary projects it to be $594 million in general funds. $238 million from local taxpayers, $311 from the state foundation formula, and $17 million from the feds. But the total spending is $916. 1,249 Yeah, see. Million. Million. Million. Yeah, I know what you meant. I know what you meant. I mean, you're creeping in on... You're creeping in on...
You're creeping in on a billion dollars in spending. That's unbelievable, really. You know, I got to tell you, there comes a point where parents will have enough, and you cut programs like Ignite, the programs that are working.
And you're going to drive people out to the mat soon. That's what's going to happen. And I think we're already starting to see it to some degree. Dave, I appreciate you calling in and kind of giving us an update on what happened last night. We will keep updated on this as the legislative... session goes on thank you for calling i appreciate it sure amy have a great day you too sir all right we're going to take a quick break we'll be right back
The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to Hour 2. of the Amy Domboski show broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 a.m. You can catch us on the radio live or you can go online and you can stream us at our website, 650keni.iheart.com.
Or you can just download the iHeartMedia app. That's another way you can find us, whether it is live or whether it's our podcast. You can find our podcast on Spotify, the Amazon app. There's all kinds of places you can find us. I can't even list them all anymore. There's lots of people. It always blows my mind. Daryl will send me quarterly.
He'll send me updates on how many thousands and thousands of people listen to the podcast, and it just blows my mind. I just don't think I'm that interesting, Daryl, but apparently we are. Right. Well, I want to thank Dave Donnelly for calling in because he was talking to us about the ASD passing their budget last night. And I know the music was starting to play, so I wanted to recap this number. The baseline number, I should say top line number, where they say was passed. $916,249,000 budget.
That is insane. That is a huge budget amount. Now, I don't know if this is still the case. I'm going to have to do some recon. I'm going to have to call my friend Dave offline. But let me tell you a little trick. When I was on the Budget Advisory Commission for the Municipality of Anchorage, me and Bob Griffin, Liz Vasquez was on there with us too, Jim Bailey, lots of people were on there with us.
But when we were on the Budget Advisory Commission, so this is probably, I want to say 2011, 2010, 2012, somewhere in that range. Carol Como was still the superintendent at the time. You know, ASD was creeping up on that $1 billion mark with a B. And one of the things they did in their budget is they pulled out their PERS-TERS liability. That way it wouldn't look like they were having a billion-dollar budget. Okay, we're just cheating.
I know. So this is why I always say, so I haven't looked in a number of years whether their PERS, TURS liability is counted in their top-line budget. My guess is probably not. Because you're probably looking about a 200... $150 million to $200 million liability is my guess. This is totally just a guess off the top of my head. I can't remember. I mean, it's been, you know, 12, 13 years since I've actually looked really in-depth at this particular issue.
But that's what they were doing. So when it comes to government accounting, you always have to look to see, okay, what are they counting? But then you have to say, okay, wait, is there anything they're not counting in their budget? But they're reporting somewhere else on an addendum. on a supplemental. You always have to look at those numbers because, like I said, they played fast and loose when I was on the Budget Advisory Commission, and they were getting a little creative there.
They are trying really hard to keep it. But my guess is they haven't added it back in. And my guess is they're really, when you look all in at their budget, my guess is it's probably over a billion dollars. But even with that number that Dave gave us, 960.
million dollar budget, that's huge. It's almost twice the size of the municipality of Anchorage's budget. I'm still, like I said, a billion dollar budget. People, that's a B. a billion, and you're getting a 30% rate of return on this for educated kids? It's not a good ROI, is it, Daryl? You're talking to a person who's been through all kinds of businesses. That's actually almost worse than what you get returned from being a restaurateur, okay? And that's one of the worst returns out there.
I know. You know, and let's bring this conversation full circle. Because effectively what ASD is doing is they're trying to hold the, like I told you this a couple days ago. Everything that is happening right now on the local and state political levels, this is all setting up for the 2026 governor's race. Make no mistake about it. All the jockeying for position, the sound bites, the leverage, everything you see right now is all designed to create talking points for the 2026 election.
They know the governor is just not going to give them this massive $1,000 increase to the BSA with no fundamental changes. Why? Because he's not an idiot. Money is not going to equate to better results for students. He knows you actually have to have policy changes. You actually have to have accountability, right? That's why the governor introduced his plans to do some reforms.
Because what he's looking at is improving outcomes. All the NEA wants, all the left is wanting is to throw more money at the problem. So what they're going to do is, this is why we call it the Washington Monument argument. They're going to make it as painful as possible to every parent out there. They're going to get you as mad as possible and then they're going to turn around and then they're going to blame Republicans. They're going to blame the governor.
Oh, he just won't give us the money. It's just like when they have these, look, see, I didn't mean to get all worked up, but here I am, Daryl. Every single year we hear the same thing. They're cutting our budget. They're cutting our budget. I don't know why when I imitate an ASD member that I sound like Forrest Gump. I don't know why that just came out like that, but it did. But that's what they start screaming. They're cutting. No.
They're not actually cutting your budget. They're just not giving you as much of a raise as you want. You know what they say, school is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Well, you know what you're going to get if you go to the Anchorage School District. You're going to get a 30% passing all the nuts. That's hilarious.
It's just so infuriating because it's so obvious what is happening here. Look, if last year, let's just round it out at your budget was $850 million. Let's just... For argument's sake, let's just say your budget was $850 million last year for the Anchorage School District. I don't know what it was, but let's just pretend that was the number. This year they passed a budget of $916 million. Whatever.
Let's just say it's $916 million. Let's just say it stayed exactly the same. What they're saying is we need massive cuts because we didn't get a raise. What it tells me is you're crappy at fiscal management. If your student population is decreasing, that means you're going to get less funding through the base student allocation. You see these students leaving.
You're not planning for that. The attrition rates have to match your fiscal policy. Because if they don't, you're going to have a budget deficit. Right? So what it tells me is they're not doing their job. Right? They're ignoring the fact that people are leaving their school district. They're ignoring the fact that they have multiple schools that are at... you know, half capacity, they're ignoring the fact that they're not performing as well as their counterparts, let's say, in the Matsu.
Instead, what they're saying is if you don't give us a huge raise, we have to make massive cuts because they're not doing their job. This really isn't that complicated to figure out. But what they will scream and yell, and they will blame Dunleavy. They will blame the Republicans. They'll say this is all their fault. We had just got cut, you know, the Ignite program.
We had to cut hockey. We had to cut gymnastics. We had to increase school sizes by four. But they're not talking about the fact that they're trying to increase their DEI programs. They're not talking about the fact that they're losing students. And if you lose students, guess what? You're probably going to lose some classes. Why? Because you don't have as many students.
So you've got to rebalance. You've got to reshuffle. You've got to move teachers sometimes from one school to another school. And, yeah, sometimes you've got to close schools. If you have a school that's at 50% capacity, you have to question whether you actually need it. I mean, these are, like,
common sense conversations to have. But instead, they're going to argue that it's the legislature's fault. If we don't get $1,000 increase to the base student allocation per student, if we don't get that increase, It's all your fault that we have to cut all the hockey programs. We have to cut the Ignite programs. We have to cut the Immersion programs. It's all their fault. No, it's kind of your fault because of the way you've been spending your money all throughout the year.
You probably didn't do your job. That's like saying, I go to Disneyland every single weekend, and when it's time that I have to make my house payment, I can't make my house payment. It's somebody else's fault. No. You probably should have paid your house payment first. Maybe you shouldn't have gone to Disneyland as many times. Like, I'm going to lose my mind. I'm going to lose my mind, Daryl.
Well, don't lose your mind because I'll have to find it later and pick it up and clean it up. Yeah, right, right. All right, I'm going to take a quick commercial, then I'm going to come back with Larry. If you'd like to call in, 522-0650. We'll be right back.
Morning, we are going to see a bit of sunshine for today, followed by the clouds rolling in. Temperatures will be a repeat of yesterday with highs in the... You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy... Good morning, Amy. I was listening to Dave Donnelly and your discussion, but as all my friends know, I'm very busy and I'm very important, so I didn't quite catch it all.
And I was hoping, it sounded like there was, what, $594 million approved last night. And then would you, in a short way, explain what the nearly billion dollars is? Yeah, so when he originally said it, he said, when I asked him what the top line budget number is for ASD's operations for the next fiscal school year, he said $916,200,000. Now, my guess is that probably includes the capital budget, too.
So, because he originally said, oh, I think Larry already hung up. He originally said $594 million from the general fund, which includes $238 million. $311 million from local taxes, $311 million from the base student allocation, and $17 million about from the feds. So my guess as I'm looking at his top line number that he gave us at the end. And my guess is it probably includes the capital budget, too, is my guess. That was 916, right?
yeah yeah so but i'll i'll actually follow up with him and just make sure i understand the numbers because again we are having a lot of back and forth so my chicken scratch as I was writing it down, I think it would be helpful. It would be helpful to have that conversation. But look, no doubt about it, when you look at ASD's budget.
They're significantly larger than the municipality of Anchorage. And you think about that. You think it costs more to run the school district than it does the city. Interesting, right? I mean, last time, think about one department at the municipality of Anchorage. Like, last time I dealt with APD's budget, the budget was about $111 million for APD, for that department. Police and fire are always your two most expensive departments.
So if you think about, you know, okay, you have APD, you have AFD. Between the two, you're probably going to look about, probably about $225 million between the two of those departments. And then, you know, you build in the rest of, you know, the municipality's budget. They were over $500 million last I looked. But it's still...
And pales in comparison, frankly, to the ASD's budget. ASD's budget's huge. And according to Dave, when he said the top-line budget number was $916,249,000, that's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. Now, let's segue a little bit to Kathy Giesel. And the legislature. Because, again, we're in this power position between ASD, right, trying to pressure the legislature. And contact your legislator to let them know they need to fund the BSA so you don't leave.
hockey in Anchorage look this is really a local issue it's not a state issue they're not locally managing your money well and so if they have to cut anything It's because of the situation they're in. It's because they're losing students. It's because they can't afford their bills. So it's not really because the state's refusing to give them more money on top of the money they always would give them.
Right it's they want a bigger increase to cover their debts basically to cover their shortfall. It's like they're making bets but they're short on their bets, so they're going to dad to say, hey, you've got to increase our allowance because we can't cover our debts. I mean, that's the situation they're in. So we start looking at the legislature, and we said this yesterday, and we're playing this just for you guys.
Kathy Giesel. Kathy Giesel. Remember earlier in this week, she said basically an income tax is unavoidable. It's going to happen. They had a press availability yesterday, and Daryl pulled a couple clips for us. Daryl, let's just... Roll into them. Let's go for it. Here's Senator Kathy Giesel. When we're talking about a 75-25, that means 75% of the...
percent of market value going to government services and 25% to a dividend. It's time to really seriously start talking about what is a sustainable dividend and Where is new revenue coming from? Okay, so there's our first one. So senators are proposing fixing the permanent fund calculations. And I said fixing with air quotes. What does that mean? I told you this years ago.
came into the dividend you know then the argument was okay let's do a 75-25 split 75% for the people 25% for government and then it migrated And then we were fighting to hold on to a 50-50 split, right? 50% for the government, 50%. And then it turned into government's taken 75%.
We're gonna get 25% and I told you they're not gonna be happy till it's gone They're not gonna be happy till it's gone And now you hear Senator Giesel start to talk about, oh, we really need to look back into this, you know. Suzanne has an article up. Senators propose fixing permanent fund calculations. The Alaska Senate Finance Committee has proposed amending an existing law that the legislature hasn't followed in years determining the Alaska permanent fund. dividend the calculation it remember
They passed this what they call percent of market value. It was about 2018, 2019 time frame where they passed the POMV. That's what we call the percent of market value. But now, Senator Bill 109, proposed by Senator Lyman Hoffman, gives Alaskans 25% rather than 50%. I told you that's where they'll go. But you can already hear Giesel talking about...
I don't know. 25% might be too much. Daryl, do you have the one where she talks about the cash handout from the 80s? Do you have that one? Can you play that one? I do. Give me a second and I'll get it. Okay, tell me when you're ready. But the key provisions of Hoffman's bill is to fund the income calculation. The bill updates methods for determining the permanent fund's net income based on generally acceptable accounting principles.
excluding unrealized gains. The annual amount available for appropriations is set at 5% of the fund's average market value for the past five years. The dividend formula would be adjusted. It would be reduced from 50% to 20%. So, you know, as we start talking, I've been telling you, they're not going to stop here. And you can hear it from Kathy Giesel. Are you ready? Well, I was going to say, which one did you want again? Because I got myself confused on so many clips.
Oh, I wanted the one where she's talking about the cash handout for me. You know, let's do this, Daryl. Let's just start with the clips. Just start with the first one, and let's just roll through them, and we'll talk about them as they go. All right, here we go. Let's just do that. Okay, go ahead. Sean, I've lived here since before statehood. We've lived since 1982 with a cash handout from the state of Alaska.
I think it's pretty obvious that the time for that is ending. Oh, there it is. That's what I was looking for. So your mineral rights, you know, you can own property in Alaska. You can hit oil on your property, and the government comes in and confiscates it and says, you don't own it, we own it. But in exchange for that, collectively, Alaskans will get a royalty.
That's your permanent fund dividend. You will basically get a royalty on the collective-owned minerals resources here in Alaska. Right? That was the deal. That's what your PFD is. Your PFD is not a handout. This isn't welfare. That's your ownership interests and assets that are forcibly held collectively. That's what the PFD is. But you can hear the disdain. You can hear her when she talks about a cash handout. You can hear the disdain. Okay, let's roll into the next GESO clip.
I think the income tax is on the horizon. So that's what I'm trying to prepare people for. All right, let's go to the next one. One more. What I'm basically hoping to prepare people for is the fact that... The gravy train is over and we're going to have to make some serious decisions. We've got some revenue suggestions on the table. We're going to get a huge amount of pushback on that. Revenue, that's taxes.
The gravy train is over, but they're talking about increasing the base student allocation by almost $500 million every single year. They're talking about returning to a defined benefit plan for state and municipal workers effectively, right, public employees. That's $6 billion in the hole, by the way. They're talking about returning to a golden parachute type of retirement system. And they're telling you the gravy train is over.
Oh, you're just going to have to accept that taxes are coming. They're inevitable. How about you stop the spending? How about you stop spending? I don't even want to... I don't even want to offend drunken sailors at this point. How about you stop spending like you're a fat girl in front of a cupcake? How about we start there? How about we have a little bit of self-control? And you actually spend what you have.
Not spend more than you have. Because when you spend more than you have, you come and take every one of our PFDs. And then you turn around and you take money from an income tax. You talk about a sales tax. You start going after S corporations. which are people. You start driving business out of Alaska because you're taxing the tar out of them. This is insanity to me. This is absolute insanity to me.
And the fact that people are not really paying attention, I'm telling you, I told you this two years ago, they started with Governor Walker in 2015 taking part of your PFD. It was desensitizing you. It was preparing you to get screwed. And then they turn around and they take 25%. Oh, we're just going to take 25% for the government because we can't afford these essential services that we keep expanding. And then they take 50%.
And then Hoffman introduces legislation to take 75%, but Kathy Giesel is already saying, you know, it's over. Gravy train is over. Taxes are inevitable. Your cash handout, you know, you're right. Your royalty, your forced collective royalty, right, because they won't let you own the minerals under your own feet. That no longer, that's a handout. That's a handout. That's what they're saying.
I'm going to take a break. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
All right, we are going to go rapid fire through the phone lines. But first, Daryl had a comment. What did you want to add, Daryl, to the conversation? I just want to add this to people because a lot of people probably don't know this, but when they do the student calculations for the schools, they've actually... actually got five steps that they go through to calculate how many students are in each school okay so
What they do is they take the number of students, and for the Anchorage School District for last year, it was 40,000 students in the school. Then they run through all these separate calculations. At the end of it, We had 72,000 students by their calculation. So we asked the state for 72,000 students worth of BSAs. So those are...
Those are kids, then they're counting, that are homeschooled, that are in charter schools. So they're layering on? So the homeschool ones, they actually cut back on that. Their formula for homeschool students is times .9. They actually cut back a few thousand of them. Oh, you know, we only have 900 is what they're saying. But for like students that have the ILPs, those extended learning programs or intensive learning programs, they do time 13. That's crazy.
Wow, wow. All right, let's go to the phones. And John is with us. Good morning, sir. Oh, good morning. First of all, you're on the Dennis Miller level with your rants, I can tell you that. That's a compliment in my world. Thank you, sir. How long has the Fagin been gone? Oh, two years. Two years. Yep, two years. I took over two years ago.
I thought it was longer, but anyways, I don't know if you listened to him, but I recall him saying before the governor got into the dividend that if they left it alone... in not too many years, everybody would be getting $10,000 a piece. Yeah, that's probably true. Could you imagine what that would do for the economy?
It would be amazing. You know, you are 100% on fire right now because you're exactly right. This is the problem you have with politicians, though, because any time they see a pot of money there, generally speaking, there will be a... group of them that are scheming on how can we get into it to spend it and that is what exactly what has happened with the permanent fund dividend unfortunately John I'm running a little bit short on time did you have anything else you wanted to add
No, that was good. I understand your points exactly. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you. I mean, John brings up a great point. See if they would just leave it alone. Imagine how much better off we'd all be. All right, let's go to Roger. Good morning, sir. Hey, good morning. Great show. Kathy and Bert Zedman have always had something personal against the PSD, at least for like the last 10 years. And Kathy's comment, she said Trump's cheap energy.
Talk about Trump's cheap energy is going to hurt our budget. No, Trump's cheap energy, he's going to open the taps at ANWR, and oil's going to flow through the transatlantic pipeline. This is their moment to kill the PSD, because if they don't do it now... They will have the gravy train of TASP being opened up. They need to kill the permanent fund dividend right now before Trump gets in or opened up, and that's why the big push is right now.
Great observation because, you know, again, one of the most important aspects to growing your economy is cheap energy. Right. And so it's great for Alaska. Of course. It's great for us as we consume energy. It's great for Alaska as we produce more energy, as we produce more that can go on the market. I mean, it's great.
for national security. I mean, there's nothing bad about us producing a lot of cheap energy. Yep, and our biggest problem now is rank choice voting. Hey, thanks so much. Great call. Thank you. Great show. Thank you, Roger. I appreciate your call this morning, sir. All right, Jim, you get to close us out this morning. Go ahead, sir. We amend the Constitution so that I own my land. How many countries you don't own anything, especially if you don't own your land?
That's what they've got to do. I'm in the Constitution. It was done in Fairbanks and not down in Juneau with politicians. It was done in Fairbanks with a lot of strange people. I'm in that. I want my land, property. I want 100% of my land. That's all. Amen. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. You know, Jim's hitting on the point that I made earlier. Look, the reason we get a permanent fund dividend, it is not a handout. It's not welfare.
Mandated that we are not allowed to own the resources and under our feet on our own property The government has mandated that those resources have to go collectively in ownership to every Alaskan which means if I own stuff I get a dividend if we have to collectively own our mineral resources you should get a dividend
And what they're telling you, they're trying to change the language. They're trying to change the contract. They're trying to change their end of the deal. And now they're saying, you know, you don't need it. You don't need it. I mean, that's it.
And if you think it's going to stop here, it's not going to stop here. I'm telling you right now, they're going to start raising corporate taxes. There are going to be sales taxes. There's going to be taxes on cruise ships. There's going to be income taxes. because they can't control their spending we do not have a revenue problem we have a spending problem which ultimately means we have a leadership problem who is going to step up
to inject some sanity into this conversation. I don't know, but we'll be watching. That does it for Daryl and I today. Stay tuned to this station. On deck is Clay Travis and Buck Saxton. followed by Sean Hannity at 11. And, of course, the great Mike Piccaro and Crash are live and local every weekday from 4 to 6 p.m. Daryl and I will be back with you tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless. The countdown is on to our iHeart Podcast Awards.