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, Katie and I. Haley Demboski, the show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Good night. Good morning. It is Monday, March 31st, Seward's Day here in Alaska. So if you work for a state or local government, today is Alaska holiday.
If you work for iHeartMedia, it is not. Or a school district. Or a school district. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It is a holiday. Federal workers get to go to work. State, local workers do not. Let's just say it's an opportunity. And for all you confused plumbers out there, it's Seward's Day. There is a D on the end of it. You don't get the day off either. That's it. Well, I guess if it was Seward...
Sewer Day. I mean, I don't know. A-W-W, you would want a day off and a bunch of the others. All those people who are celebrating. Well, A-W-W gets the day off because it's a city entity. Are they? Yeah, I guess we are. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they are. But, you know, here we are. See, this is dedication. Today feels like a free-form Friday to me, Daryl, because it's a holiday. I will tell you, I did my show prep. You know, I looked at my show lineup for Friday, and I laughed because...
You know, I would say more than three-fourths of the show prep that I had for Friday I never got to. I'd say the number was probably higher than that. You got maybe two stories out of that. Yeah, two out of ten, maybe. But that's okay. I mean, Friday's my favorite day. I love Fridays. Fridays are great days because I get to actually just talk to people and hear what's on their mind. How was your weekend?
My weekend was pretty much uneventful as far as I can tell. So, I mean, there might be something that snuck up on me. I'll find out today that I didn't do, but it was uneventful. It was good. Warm. I mean, I got to give it that. It was warm this weekend. Oh, yeah. I was going to say, you know, I'm looking and I'm starting to see little specks of green, like my grass is wanting to grow. I will tell you, we'll get into it a little bit, but...
Man, almighty. I'm looking around. It is very, very dry, very high fire danger. Right now, they're saying moderate, but I will tell you, as I look around, I think it's a little bit more than moderate. calling it moderate, but we'll get into that in just a second. There's really, because governments, local governments, state governments, are closed today because of Sewers Day. The only exception is going to be the PFD office, right? They'll be open.
Oh, just temporarily. They're open, I think, 9 to 4. Yeah, 9 to 4 today. I don't think there's a phone system. Is it 10 to 4? No, it's 9 to 4. It is 9 to 4. The phone system's not open today. So Monday, March 31, 2025 is a state holiday. It's Seward's Day. The PFD offices, however, will be open to the public to collect applications from 9 to 4 today. The phone queue will not, however, be open.
The Anchorage and Fairbanks offices, their lobbies will be open. The state office building in Juneau will be closed and locked due to the holiday. So if you need to submit your PFD application, the easiest way to do it is online. Just go through your My Alaska account. That's the easiest way to do it. But if you're not an online person, you can still file your PFD application today. Today is the last day. 11.59 p.m. is the last time.
where you can submit your PFD application. Of course, that's online. If you want to go in person, again, those PFD offices are open. The lobbies will be open today from 9 to 4. But if you have questions, you can't call anybody. You're going to have to go there in person because...
It is a state holiday, so closed. I have one question on this. Go ahead. And I can't remember the answer. That's why I'm going to throw it over to you. If you do are one of those hard copy people and you do fill out a hard copy, you must take it to the airport. post office box to get stamped today or whatever post office. It's got to be dated today, right? Because they have to be postmarked or do they have to actually be in? That is for the ballot.
So it does not say anything about it being postmarked today on the PFC office. It doesn't say anything about that. It says right here. The PFD filing season is coming to an end soon. The filing deadline is March 31, 2025. The online application will be available until March 31, 2025 through 11.59 p.m. PFD offices and phone queues. It says, well, it, okay.
So it says phone queues will be available today, but it says they won't be open two sentences later. So they're not going to be open. So it does not say that it can be postmarked. I mean, that may be true. I don't know. But it doesn't say it on their website. So my recommendation is online or at the office. Yeah, online for sure is the easiest way. But otherwise, you go and hand-deliver that sucker to one of the PFD offices today. And again, they're only open 9 to 4.
And any time, you know, I've worked next to these PFD offices in the past, and on PFD Day, like the week leading up to it, really, but on PFD Day, Oftentimes, the line extends outside down the sidewalk. So my recommendation is you get it in. You might be able to find somewhere on the website where it says, You know, maybe I just it's not on their main landing page that has their FAQ for for today. So, again, the PFT offices opened from nine to four.
The phone queue will not be open. Did you find it? Well, I found ADN, Anchorage Daily News, or I don't actually know what their new name is, but the newspaper in town does have in their article on it, mailed applications need to be postmarked no later than... and March 31st. So you do need to make sure that they hand stamp that. Hand cancel it or it's not going to work.
Yeah, I'm a huge fan. I know there's people out there that just don't. I mean, we at the Senior Center, we give out a lot of PFD applications to people that like to do it by hand still. But I would strongly recommend that you get your PFD in early. A lot of our listeners have mentioned to us that they got it in a long time ago. Here we go. It says right now 595,477 Alaskans have already applied for their PFT. Who's the 200,000 that haven't applied? Good Lord. Yep, well.
It doesn't mean just because they reside in Alaska doesn't mean they're Alaska eligible. Maybe they're, I don't know, foreigners. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Who knows? Maybe they have residency somewhere else. That could happen. Or they're just the ultimate procrastinators. Or, you know, I actually know people who intentionally do not file for their PFD because they're like, nope.
i don't need it i don't want it yeah so good for them you know there's always this discussion over the years about having a box to check that says i don't want to donate it back to the general fund my whole thing is like Like, I think that's a fine idea. But if you don't want it, just don't apply for it. And that works. I mean, that does work. That also makes it better because it makes our share bigger. If you apply for it and check the box, that then, you know, reduces it.
Yeah, yeah. Well, that is the announcement we have today. Looking at the weather around South Central and around Fairbanks and whatnot, I will tell you, right now Palmer is sitting at 33 degrees. I have 36 for Anchorage. Is that right? Yeah, 36, 35. Like I said, it's been toasty in here. That's warm. Kenai is checking in at 28. Big Lake, 32. Fairbanks, 21. They do have a winter advisory in effect right now. Multiple rounds of wet snow are expected in Fairbanks.
Thursday, possibly mixing with rain or wet snow during the afternoon hours. Total snow accumulations of 5 to 12 inches. The heaviest amounts will be from Eilson Air Force Base East across the higher elevations of the Chena Basin.
conditions will accompany snowfall Tuesday and southwest winds gusting to 30 miles per hour in the valley and up to 35 uh miles per hour in the hills so this is for the the weather alert in fairbanks is for fairbanks and the surrounding area so it looks like you guys are still going to have it today's high in fairbanks is only going to get to about 33 but i am looking around the rest
the area and it ranges like when i look at anchorage it says anchorage is high today is 45 big lake though 50. my area 49 so i think it's going to be right around 50 out here in the mat too um but upper fit mid to upper 50s Sorry, mid to upper 40s in the Anchorage area. And as I look at Kenai, they're supposed to hit 44. So it's going to be relatively warm here in South Central, but Fairbanks is still very much in the winter mode.
I'm looking at their streets right now. I'm looking at their traffic cams up there. And, yeah, there is definitely snow on the streets. Not very deep, though. I mean, they haven't got that depth you're talking about that's probably going to come later today. But, yeah, if you're up there, it looks like your roads are going to be slippery. And, look, it looks like real Alaska. up there.
Yeah, as I'm looking, you know, the weather advisory that I just read, it's through Thursday. So you think about, you know, it looks like they're going to have some of this inclement weather, you know, off and on. Today through Thursday. Today, though, it looks like they're expected only one to three inches through the afternoon. A mix of rain and snow possible in the valleys this afternoon. Heavier snow will arrive Monday night into Tuesday when an additional three... to seven inches will fall.
Snow will taper off on Tuesday evening before more snow arrives Wednesday, tapering off on Thursday. So it looks like the next three days, Fairbanks is going to have, like, this wave of snow. Snow and wind and snow and wind, snow and wind. That sounds like a good song. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, for my friends up in Fairbanks, you know, you guys, this is why I say real Alaskans live in Fairbanks.
So I do not live in Fairbanks. You guys are far tougher than I. I do want to give you an update on Mount Spur. As of 1030 last night, The advisory for Mount Spur is still at a yellow. Unrest continues according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Unrest continues at Mount Spur Volcano. Seismically remains elevated with numerous small shallow...
Volcanic earthquakes detected beneath the volcano over the past day. No activity detected in satellite data. Minor steaming from the summit observed in web camera imagery. AVO continues monitoring. activity at Mount Spurfer, signals indicating that the volcano is moving closer to an eruption. Based on previous eruptions, changes from current activity in earthquakes, ground deformation, summit lake continue. late conditions, and it looks like, I don't know how to say this word, formalic.
activity would be expected if magma begins to move closer to the surface. Therefore, if an eruption occurred, it would be preceded by an additional signal allowing warning. So again it is still at the yellow status. We'll keep you updated. We check this every day. So we'll keep you updated and let you know. You know, I just want to caution people against social media. I was on social media on Monday. Or no, Saturday. Saturday was the day. And I saw people post.
that mountain spur had erupted it again Don't get your news from social media. Go to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. You can go to avo.alaska.edu, and that's where you'll be able to find your updates. That's where most news organizations right now are monitoring is through the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Volcano Observatory. Again, the website, if you want to monitor it yourself, is avo.alaska.edu. All right, we're going to go ahead and take our first break in the morning. If you'd like to call in and be part of the show, the number's 522-0650. We'll be right back. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on a Monday morning. Currently, light traffic is... Amy Demboski, 628 Mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650.
Welcome back. Current time, 623 on this Monday morning. Yes, it's Seward's Day. Happy Seward's Day, everybody who's up. Didn't get the day off of work. We feel your pain. Trust me. Both Daryl and I both felt like today we could have had the day off. We're fine with that. We would have been fine with that. But, you know, here we are. We're happy to be here. So there we go. All right, let's go to the phones. And Jeremy is with us. Good morning.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy and Daryl. Always a pleasure to talk to you all. Hey, it's great. It's great talking to you. How's life on the Kenai today? Oh, it's been beautiful, but I'm worried about the fire season, so I had to whoop out my chainsaw pretty soon and cut a bunch of trees down. I really don't want to cut, but that's how it goes. I know. I'm the same way. I was looking at my backyard, and I was seeing some dry brush.
You know, I have a couple trees that are a little too close to the house, so I actually have a call-in to a tree service because, you know, I'm too impatient to wait for my husband to do it. So I have a call-in to a tree service to get a couple trees cut down.
You know, this is what we've got to do. Well, you should be fighting fires and stuff, isn't it? Well, he retired from the Anchorage Fire Department in September. Yeah, so he went to work up on the slope. So he's up on the slope now. I didn't know he finally retired. He did.
25 years and then I told him he was too young to retire so I said you got to go back to work you're too young to retire so he's working he's working but you know your mind is in the right spot you got to have defensible space right Yes, ma'am. All right. What do you got for me this morning? I was wondering if you knew how many punks, I meant government workers, does it take to screw in a light bulb? I don't know how many. Ten, one to screw it in and nine to...
Sit around whining about how much better the old light bulb was. You're probably on to something there. You're probably on to something there. I'm going to have to come up with a joke for you, Jeremy. I don't have one ready this morning. I had two or three that I pulled yesterday, but of course I have to go back and pull them. So I will come up with one today. All right, you too. Thanks for the call this morning.
Oh, man. See, all these pithy people this early in the morning, they got me beat. They got me beat, I got to tell you. They got me beat. Well, you know, talking about fire safety, you know, there's a couple different places you can go for information. Right now, Anchorage is listing a moderate fire safety. And I will tell you, Daryl, man almighty, I saw the fire in Spenard over by your house this weekend. And they have some great video on there that I've seen circulating around.
I mean, look, you hear the explosions, and it's pro-paintings. That's what it is. That's exactly what it is. It's pro-paintings. Stolen from people's yards. That's exactly what happens is they go around, steal these propane tanks. You'll walk into a homeless camp and there'll be like eight or nine propane tanks in there. And, you know. I saw the story on it. It says, you know, emergency services, and it was close to a neighborhood.
I mean, you said you could see it from your house. Well, I can see the smoke from my house because I have pulse point. So pulse point kicked up that there was a fire in my neighborhood. So I stepped outside, of course, and looked around. I was like, oh. There is where it is. And again, looked at the map and went, I know where it is. Not just in the middle of a neighborhood. I mean, smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood and directly next to and behind two major hotels in the area.
Oh, wow. Well, I will tell you, the video that I saw, it looked like somebody across the street was shooting, and it was right behind a house. Yeah. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And you could see the explosions happen. You're like, I'm like, yeah, there's a propane tank. And look, nine times. out of ten these are these are started by homeless camps that's usually usually what is started you know where it starts and
Well, we'll see. But, you know, I saw the ADN article when they were reporting on it. They said, you know, city services, you know, showed up and redirected the homeless people to services. OK, so just so you know, that fire was literally. 500, I'm going to use yards, 150 yards from their main homeless facility over there. I mean, Spenard is full of homeless facilities, and that fire was literally 150 yards from the facility. Wow. That, you know, that is something.
That, you know, I look at it and I just think that it's crazy. I mean, like I said, you know, look, what's going to happen is they're going to burn down houses. That's what's going to happen. AFD was quick on scene. I think I read in the article Station 5 and Station 1 where the ones that... originally arrived on scene and uh they they got it under control but
You know, I suspect this is going, unless something changes and we get a lot of rain this summer, I suspect we're going to have a serious fire season. We didn't have very much snow this year. A lot of the areas, you know, many of us who have gone bear hunting and whatnot, in the spring, you'll go to your areas and you see, like, lots of water. It is dry, dry, dry right now. And so we're just not seeing the same amount of water that we would. see after winter.
And so you're going to have to be, like Jeremy said, be very fire-wise. You're going to have to look around your house and see, do I have a defensible space? There's lots of places you can go for more information. Let's just start with... Let's just start with the Division of Forestry. If you go to forestry.alaska.gov, they have all kinds of information on their website. So I'm going to start with they have a PDF up that says safe burning requirements, general burn permits.
required for debris burning and the use of burn barrels from April 1st to August 31st. So starting tomorrow. You typically will need a burn permit. You can get them on the website forestry.alaska.gov slash burn. or stop at your local Division of Forestry office. Debris piles must be 10 feet in diameter or less and no more than 4 feet tall. You should only burn debris one pile at a time.
And keep the pile small and manageable, feeding the pile as you burn. Construct a fire break 10 feet wide down to mineral soil around the debris pile. and at least six feet wide around the burn barrels before lighting the fire. Don't burn when it's windy. That's probably pretty self-explanatory, but again... We have people in the population that eat Tide Pods, so we've got to say this stuff out loud.
Never leave a fire of any kind unattended. Have at least one adult attend the fire at all times until it's completely out. You should always have sufficient tools and water. On site, right there, ready to go. So have your water hose charged and have a shovel nearby. Don't burn debris piles or burn barrels within 30 feet of a structure or utility lines.
Right? You are allowed to burn paper, untreated wood, and organic debris in a burn barrel. Burn piles must contain only untreated, unpainted wood and organic material. If the fire starts to get out of control, call 911 immediately. Or if you see a wildfire, call 911 immediately. The faster they get to it, the faster they'll be able to...
get it out and hopefully stop it from spreading. So again, some of those safe burning tips on Division of Forestry's website, as well as how to get a burn permit. If you are in a first-class city like the municipality of Anchorage, they have their own type of requirements, and you should check every single day to see if it's a burn day. Right now, they're calling in Anchorage. moderate fire danger, which means recreational fires are allowed, use of barbecue grills,
Electric gas and charcoal and enclosed pellet grills, like Traeger's, are allowed. But in the municipality of Anchorage, burn barrels are banned. You cannot use a burn barrel in the municipality of Anchorage no matter what day it is. if it's a burn day or not no burn barrels in the municipality of Anchorage and they do require burn permits when you're burning different types of debris piles but
Again, right now, when they say recreational fires, it's those small, small, typically cooking fires, all right? That's usually what they're talking about. In Anchorage, fires can't be more than three feet in diameter and two feet high. They have to be located at least 25 feet from structures, power poles, vehicles, decks, trees, brush, and dry gas. This includes barbecue pits.
Clear an area on the ground at least six feet in diameter and remove and dispose of all combustible surface materials. And, of course, you still have to attend the fire the whole time it's burning. You're required to have means to extinguish the fire, such as an extinguisher, sand, a charged water hose within reach, and fire tools such as a shovel to extinguish the fire when you're done.
The following practices in Anchorage are illegal use of burn barrels, burning trash, construction material, or debris, use of fireworks. On municipal park lands, any open fire outside. an approved fire pit or barbecue is banned Right, so you're not supposed to be doing that. So, again, if you need more information, there's a burn hotline in the Municipality of Anchorage. You can call every day, and they can tell you what the burn status is. So, again, the number is 267-5012.
if you're in the municipality of Anchorage. All right, that does it for my PSA for today. We're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we'll hit the headlines of the day. Reach out to Amy now. 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Devosky on NewsRadio 650. KENI. Welcome back. Current time is 6.37. Well, I'm going to do some cleanup because we have so many stories that we just didn't get to last week.
And I have some that are kind of going to intertwine. I'll start with one that was popped up yesterday on Mystery to Alaska. Doge prevails in court. USAID is shuttered. foreign assistance can be done without USAID and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X wrote quote Foreign assistance done right can advance our national interests, protect our borders, and strengthen our partnerships with key allies.
strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs too high. Thanks to President Trump, the misguided and fiscally irresponsible era is now over." Rubio wrote that on the post.
on x he went on to say we are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the united states and our citizens we are count continuing essential life-saving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partnerships in our country End quote. So we'll see what happens. The federal appeals court overturned a lower court's ruling that had claimed certain Department of Government efficiency actions at USAID were unconstitutional.
allows DOGE to continue digging into waste, fraud, and abuse at the agency. I mean, this is the result we said was going to happen, because here's the thing. The courts do not have the authority to supplant their will for the executive branch. They can't tell the executive branch employees when to show up to work. They can't direct military operations. They can't direct internal workings of the administrative branch. They don't get to do that.
That is not allowable. You know, if that were to happen, we no longer have a republic. There's no point in having a president because the courts can overrule him. You know, Stephen Miller, I have become over the years a fan of Stephen Miller. He's a deputy comms. guy at the White House. He's incredibly bright. He is very articulate. You know what I'm talking about, Daryl? I actually do.
Yeah, he's very brave. He posted on X, there are 677 local district judges. Under current procedure, the president needs unanimous consent from all 677 to implement a major decision. communists out of 677 unelected judges disagrees the action is frozen nationwide that is not democracy that is tyranny and what is he talking about he's talking about district court judges
district court judges being able to put a national freeze on presidential power. And so the goal here is not for them really to take over, I'll be honest with you. I think the goal here is just to slow down Trump. Just long enough to delay, delay, delay until the Democrats can take back the House in two years, which they think. And then you turn around and then Trump is constantly fighting it. This is the deep state.
swamp doing everything they can to throw roadblocks up to make trump to neutralize him and make him ineffective because once you get to the supreme court or you get to appeals courts like we see with doge here Even some of the appeals courts are going to say, no, no, you can't do this, because then you'll have a three-judge panel who listens to it, and they're like, yeah, no. I've been advocating for this for a while. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned it on the air.
And I laughed last week when I saw it. When I saw it mentioned, but I said a couple weeks ago that I thought the district court in Washington, D.C. should be dissolved. Do you remember that conversation, Daryl? I 100% remember that conversation. So I was just like, you know. Here's the problem. They go judge shopping. They're able to do that. Look, if they are able to go judge shopping like that, why can't the Trump administration pick a district court in Florida?
Because I'm telling you, you're probably going to get a better, more likely result in Florida, right? Pick a district court even in Alaska. I mean, you're going to pick one in Texas. You see where I'm going with this? Pick one in, you know. In Tennessee. I mean, the reality is it's ridiculous that you have to go to this point. And when there's clear things. There's absolute clear presidential authority. And then you have a district court coming in and saying,
Oh, no, Mr. President, even though it's in the Constitution, even though the law specifically states you have this power, you can't do this. You need to turn a plane around. You need to do this. You need to do that. You know what? Screw you. I've got to be honest with you.
Trump is far more patient than I would be. I'd be like, yeah, right, okay, take me to the Supreme Court. Yep, keep going, buddy. I'm going to keep doing my job. I mean, but this is what Trump's dealing with, and it's absolute lawfare. You know, a friend of mine sent me this audio a week or so ago, and I wanted to play it for you because it's pretty obvious what is happening. This is judicial law fair, and Schumer was on some unnamed TV show.
on some liberal channel somewhere. And Chuck Schumer said the quiet part out loud. We're going to play that audio for you now. Go ahead, Daryl. For those who believe that we are in real time living through an assault on the constitutional order, do you believe that we are in a constitutional crisis right now? Yes, our democracy is at risk because Donald Trump shows that he wishes to violate the laws in many, many different ways. The good news here is we did put 235 judges.
progressive judges, judges not under the control of Trump last year on the bench, and they are ruling against Trump time after time after time. And we hope that the appellate courts, when it gets up there in the Supreme Court, will uphold. hold those rulings. They restored the money to NIH. They required that 8,000 federal employees have to come back. We're in over 100 lawsuits against them, and we are having a good deal of success. It's only at the lower court level.
right now see i mean the point is we we all knew this we knew they were going for judicial activism we knew this was their strategy and schumer Without any shame, says that part out loud on national TV. Oh, yeah. I mean, that literally...
That's exactly what we've been seeing. Yep. And here's an interesting fact for you that I found last Friday when you had this up and I was kind of looking at the court for the D.C. court. The head of it, the guy who's in the news constantly about fighting with Trump about the deportation, the plague. all that kind of stuff. He is the chief justice for that court, okay, for the district court. He is their head justice. They have 14 judges.
Oh, yeah. Bozenberg or something like that. I forget his name. So they've got 14 judges, including him. He's the ruling one. Supposedly now they can't judge shop because, you know, they're randomly distributed. lawsuits. Did you know that four of the cases against Trump are in his court? Four of them! Major ones. Major ones. The biggest ones of it. So how is it that he is pulling four cases on a random poll with 14 judges? I don't believe that.
It's nonsense. It's total nonsense. Well, you know, and I have to laugh because this is what I say. It takes so much time to do good show prep because, you know, the headlines, I had to laugh because we started this conversation with a couple weeks ago. saying that I thought the D.C. Circuit should be dissolved because, first of all, number one, it's not a state. Number two, it's the swamp. It is the center of power in the government. It is where, I mean, look.
You get to a point where there's no way a Republican's going to ever get a fair trial in D.C. Let's be honest. It was something like... It's something like 92 percent of voters in D.C. voted for Biden. Right. I can't remember the number, but it was really, really, really ridiculously high. And so you look at that and you're like, OK, so again, it.
is the epitome of the swamp in D.C. Well, then I started looking at headlines last week, and I had to chuckle a little bit because Mike Johnson, he started He started floating the idea of potentially not ruling out dissolving the D.C. Circuit. I think it's a great idea. I agree. I think it's a great idea. And I want to, you know, because, again, this is the swamp. And this is what you have is you have these activist judges that are stepping in and they're going absolutely out of their lane.
And I'm sorry, here's the problem with the Supreme Court. You have, in my view, you have a couple conservatives on the bench in the U.S. Supreme Court. that are very much, in my view, institutionalists. Amy Coney Barrett, probably Roberts. Those are two that you just, there's a good opportunity they side with the institution versus, in my view, the Constitution. Look, I'm an Aledo.
type of type of person you know um Clarence Thomas you know Scalia Scalia would be more Amy's cup of tea right obviously he's not there anymore but but but when you start seeing some of these more
you know, institutionalists, like, oh, you know, this is the way we've always done it type of thing. That's not really my cup of tea. I'm a constitutionalist. What does the Constitution say? You know, and really the point of the Constitution is... limit the power of government so I'm not a confident that some of these things when they get to the Supreme Court I think you have what I believe the the wobbly ones are Amy Coneyberry and probably Roberts so you know
But I do believe that so many of these orders that we see on a national level, I think, should be clearly pushed back on. And frankly, I'm with Johnson on many of these. When a judge knowingly exceeds their authority I think they should be impeached. I'm just going to say it. I don't think they should be a judge. If you cannot be fair and impartial, I don't care what side you're on. If you exceed your authority, obviously, knowingly, look, I'm not a lawyer, but I can read.
And when I can read, the common sense tells you the constitutional crisis here is political activism by judges. That's the constitutional crisis. And you know what? You've got to make an example of a few of them. You absolutely have to make an example. So I'm with Speaker Johnson on this one, and I know Justice Roberts has come out and said, oh, no, no, you know, we shouldn't be impeaching judges. And I'm paraphrasing.
Pushed back on that notion, but I think he's wrong. I think it's Congress's authority, and when judges exceed their authority, later, see ya, go get another job. You don't need to be a judge if you can't be impartial. Okay, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Now back to the boss, Amy Demposki. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI.
Other big news coming out at the end of last week. AGDC, that's the Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation, met in a special meeting on Thursday and voted to allow the corporation's president, Frank Richards, to sign a major project. agreement with Glenn Farn. I hope I'm saying that right. I think I am. I think you are. The company had earlier signed an earlier letter of intent to build the Alaska Gas Line AGDC and Glenn Farn with its subsidiary.
signed definitive agreements for Glenn Farn to become a majority owner of the Alaska LNG project which is the only federally permitted LNG export project on the Pacific Coast under the agreement AGDC divests 75% of eight-star Alaska, a subsidiary of AGDC created to hold and manage the Alaska LNG project's assets. assumes the role of Alaska's lead developer and will lead all remaining development work of the Alaska LNG from the front-end engineering and design. We call that feed.
Through the final investment decision, AGDC will remain a 25% owner of eight star and key partner. It says right here, the three sub-projects are an 807-mile, 42-inch pipeline, the LNG export terminal in Nikiski, and the North Slope-based carbon capture plant. Remove and safely store 7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. We'll get into that. Oh, my goodness.
In light of the steadily declining gas production in Cahok Inlet, which has historically been Alaska's primary in-state natural gas basin, phase one of the project will kick off immediately prioritizing the development and final investment decision of the pipeline infrastructure needed to deliver.
deliver North Slope gas to Alaskans as rapidly as possible, according to AGDC. So this is good news. This means we have a private sector partner who actually knows what they're doing and can get this done. You know who's outraged about this? Daryl, did you see who's outraged about this? A giant rhino. Oh, Kelly Merrick. She's outraged. Outraged at this. Why? Because her husband's company didn't get the LNG contract. I got to tell you, you know, in most Alaskans' minds, this is exactly...
Exactly what public corruption would look like. Bingo. In a Senate Finance Committee meeting, Kelly Merrick made it clear that she is a no vote on the state's support of the Alaska LNG project with a private developer who signed on to take over. ownership of it so she goes on she did what she did what she didn't disclose in her little rant is that her husband Joey Merrick along with governor
Bill Walker and former AGDC president Keith Meyer launched a private company to take over the project in 2020. So she didn't disclose that her husband, you know, the head of one of the local unions, had... signed on and created a company in order to benefit from this. So when the new company, Alaska Gas Line LNG LLC, was formed, the new management at AGDC, led by Frank Richards, had no appetite for dealing with the prior Walker administration.
Merrick, the thuggish head of Laborers 341, according to Mustry Alaska. The company dissolved in 2021, but the company website is still standing showing Merrick as the president of the company. Huh. Interesting. Interesting! Sounds like a little conflict of interest there. Just a wee bit, number one. I'm just throwing it out there. Sounds a little suspect to me. I think the state's going in the right direction to get this LNG project started. So I'm glad to see it's going down the road.
I mean, I know Rhino-meric is not going to be happy about it, but, you know, here we go. You know, it is what it is. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. Stay with us. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media 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 DeBosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here in Palmer, Alaska. I'm in Palmer. Daryl's in Anchorage. Between the two of us, we have a good swath of the state covered. I want to thank everybody for listening. Of course, you can do that. If you want to listen live, you can listen to us on the radio at 6.50 a.m. Or you can stream us at the website, 650KNI.iHeart.com. Or, of course, you can use the...
iHeartMedia app. And on that media app, you want to use them preset buttons. Why? Because it makes your life simpler, easier, and just so much more fun. You can literally pick the shows or the stations you want, put them into the preset buttons, just like in your car. You click on it, it's going to put what you want in there. No more hunting around for your favorite shows. You got Amy Domboski at your fingertips.
All right, well, today is Monday, and I've been telling you, I love Mondays with McCabe. Representative Kevin McCabe is joining the show. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. How are you? I am fantastic. Well, I was just kind of going over the deal with AGDC and Glen Fair. I hope I'm saying that right. I think this is positive news overall. Have you been tracking this?
Yeah, so we've all been watching it. You know, there's still lots of balls in the air, so we're still kind of, you know, I mean, everybody, some people say it's a done deal. Some people say it's not. Some people say there's... You know, it needs to have the legislature weigh in on it, heaven forbid. And, you know, so, I mean, there's lots, still lots to be done. But at the end of the day...
You know, I have to focus. I'm watching it, but I'm not as focused on it maybe as I am on transportation because, frankly, if we don't have transportation to get pipe and all those things up north where we need to get them. How are we ever going to do a pipeline? So I'm backed up a little bit into maybe developing the infrastructure that we need to...
do the gas pipeline when it comes up here. I mean, I would hate to transport a bunch of pipe up the Parks Highway and destroy it even further when we could put it on a rail from Port McKenzie. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense to me. I mean, especially as we talk about development. You know, I was supportive when Governor Parnell, you know, had his initiative, Roads to Resources. I think it makes a lot of sense to open up. I mean, you have to have.
transportation corridors and transportation means if you're going to have large-scale development to your point as we think about developing a gas line you I mean Poor McKenzie is right there. I mean, and you could move a whole lot more stuff by rail, I would suspect, than by truck. But that's just, you know, my uneducated opinion on the matter.
Sure, and a lot more stuff by rail with less damage to the roads, to the parks highway, and less problems with motorhomes in the summer and ice and snow in the winter and all that sort of stuff. So rail does make a huge amount of sense. There's a bit of resistance, though, leftover resistance still to developing Port McKenzie Rail Spur, mostly coming from Anchorage, folks. And keep in mind that the railroad's headquarters is right down there in Port of Anchorage, Port of Alaska.
and they are resistant as well. So the resistance comes because people understand that if we do Point McKenzie rail extension, it will unlock Port McKenzie. And the Anchorage folks see Port McKenzie still as competition for the money for the Port of Alaska in Anchorage. So I think there's still some resistance. And think of all the... people that actually live in Anchorage that are pushing back against the rail spur for this reason, including railroad. So I feel sometimes like I'm, you know,
screaming at the giant, but in fact, I mentioned it to Senator Sullivan the other day, and he's like, man, you are relentless. And I go, yes, I am, Senator. You have to be. You've got to be. You know, and I was one, even when I was on the Anchorage Assembly, I think I was more the minority voice, but I was one who always viewed Port McKenzie as complementary to Anchorage versus competitive. I mean, you guys are a deep water.
Anchorage is not a deep water port. I still saw our roll-on, roll-off as being, you know, probably not as a competition, but as something that I thought... For Alaska, it was in the best interest to have both functioning ports. But I think you're exactly right, because the sentiment with my colleagues at the time was they didn't want the competition. That's exactly what the argument has been.
I think it's a misc for the rest of Alaska because I think it is a great opportunity, and it's right there. I mean, this isn't complicated. I mean, it's right there. I mean, what is it, eight miles of a spur line that you have to build to hitch into the railroad, and you're there. I mean, it's just, to me, it's a no-brainer. Right. And, you know, Port McKenzie does not want to be what Port of Alaska is.
They want to be complimentary. They want to do what Port of Alaska won't or can't do. You know, there's a certain amount of goods that maybe you need to come into Alaska that you wouldn't want running through downtown Anchorage. trains or on trucks. And so, you know, a bulk carrier, a barge roll-on, roll-off, or even a barge...
where they roll them up on the airbags, you know, to do maintenance on them in the winter or even storage. There's so much that we can do at Port McKenzie. It's a blank slate. It's 9,000 acres with virtually nothing on it that could be done out there. And, you know, that's where ports thrive is on their land, not on their tariffs, frankly. You don't really make any money. No port makes money from their tariffs. They make money from leasing the land. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Well, I'm excited to see. I think the future has great opportunity if we don't mess it up. And I think that's what a lot of people are focused on is look at this opportunity we have at the federal level. and now is the moment to seize it. What do you see? You know, last week, obviously, there was a lot of drama, it seems like, in the legislature, and people are starting to get really hyper-focused on the Alaska legislature and saying, you know, are we going to take advantage?
of this opportunity what do you see or how do you see the conversations you know develop in Juneau especially after Some people, I know you wrote a really lengthy op-ed relating to development opportunities, Canada, the U.S., the Trump administration. Can you kind of just give us in a nutshell how you see those? conversations in Juneau, like kind of summing up, I would say, especially after last week's resolution that passed? Sure. So, well, first let's address Carmela's letter.
Carmela's letter was sent to Senate President Stevens and the Speaker of the House, Representative Edgman. But it wasn't really meant for them. It was meant for you all. It was meant for the listeners. your listeners and for Alaskans to say, yeah, hey, what about that, Senator? Stevens, or what about that representative management? So if you don't call folks and if you don't write emails to those two and to the legislature, I mean, write them to all 60 of us and say, what are you doing about it?
Carmela's letter is going to be worthless, essentially. And as far as the resolution, yes, there was a resolution that went out, and I know that you talked about it. We had other things going on down here with the budget and that sort of thing. So, you know, the Republicans signed on to a resolution that was going to pass anyways. It was put out by the Democrats, the majority.
And so it was going to pass, and we signed on to it because I put an amendment in there that basically threatened Canada. It was the strongest language I thought I could get in there and have the amendment still pass. And frankly, we had no idea that it was going to get blown up by one of our own, frankly.
Yeah, you know, now it's in the Senate, and I heard yesterday, I heard that they're going to hear it prior to the big kerfuffle over at the Senate was just going to let it die. From what I heard from... from some of the senators, they said, yeah, we're not even going to hear that. Well, now apparently it's going to be heard in resources because the other side, frankly, the Senate majority heard that it was...
such a problem for the minority. So they're going to leverage it. They'll probably try to take my amendments out, which said, hey, Canada, if you try to use us as a chess piece on the... on the big chessboard between the U.S., between Trump and Canada, we're just going to remove the funding that we put in for the Shackwack Road, which was like $31 million. and there's some federal pass-through money and that sort of stuff. So why would Canada want to try to use us as a pawn?
is basically what my amendment said. And we'll see if it goes forward. The Senate told me, I mean, before Friday, I thought that they weren't even going to hear it. Now I think it's scheduled in Senate resources. That's what I heard. So if the Senate changes it procedurally, if the Senate changes it, it has to go back to the House for concurrence, right? Right. I would then assume if the House doesn't change it and passes it,
then the governor would have an opportunity to veto it. Is that correct? Yes. Well, no, I don't think so. I don't think it has to. Because it's a resolution. I wasn't sure. Yeah. I wasn't sure. Yeah, so. Well, we'll see. You know, it's unfortunate the way, like, when I read it, and I don't know, I just come back to it. I just didn't see any way other than this being used as a national, like, it was a way.
I wish the legislature would have taken the tactic that the Matsuburo Assembly took with SB 92 and said, you know what? We're going to step back. We're not going to weigh in on this one because, you know, I think the Matsuburo did the right thing with SB92 on their resolution for it.
I wish the House would have done that with this one, because especially with these high state games, or shall we say high state negotiations that are going on at the international level, I don't think it's helpful to Trump. my perception. The thing about the borough, though, is they stepped back collectively. You're a Republican conservative. We could have stepped back and not tried to make a
a bad bill better, which that's always the question. Do you try to make a bad bill better, or do you just vote no? And we could have all voted no, and it still would have passed.
But it wouldn't have had that amended language in there. So, you know, I don't know. We've talked to the D.C. delegation, and they understand what we try to do. And if you notice where I put the amendment, it was right in front of the... the tariff um language the last whereas in the resolution talked about tariffs right in front of that was my amendment that said hey if you try to do this canada we are
We are going to remove this money. And it's absolutely a threat, but it's a diplomatic threat. And unfortunately, that didn't get reported when it first got pushed out to the public. It's unfortunate that it should have, and it's unfortunate that we would call somebody anti-American just because they tried to do something legislatively that we didn't agree with. I don't think I would ever do that, so it's frustrating.
got put out that way. But, you know, it is what it is. It's politics. Well, we appreciate your candor, you know, and that's the thing I've always appreciated about talking with you is you're not afraid to have those conversations with people and say, look, this was my strategy, this was what I was trying
to do so we appreciate the candor we need to take a quick break but when we come back i'd love to talk about this this upcoming week kind of what you're focusing on and what people should be watching for we're talking with representative kevin mccabe we'll be right back You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-522. 0650.
Welcome back, Current Time 723. We're speaking with Representative Kevin McCabe. He represents District 30, which is kind of the Port McKenzie, Big Lake area. You actually have a pretty big district, Kevin. Your district is not small. It's not compact. Let's put it that way. No, it goes all the way up to three miles on the other side of Anderson, kind of following the parks and west. So, yeah, lots of varied, you know, two different school districts, Golden Valley Electric.
Like Healy Power Plant is in my district, as is Usabeli Mine. And, you know, all of the West of Sitna Access is in my district. So pretty huge, very, very interesting and very diverse, and a lot of opinions.
No doubt about that. Well, and it's a big resource potential for the state of Alaska. I mean, the area that you represent is very rich in mineral resources. And so I can see why you're so focused on... resource development but also in transportation because if we could only unlock the potential can you imagine we you know what could happen to your residents in your district I mean the jobs that I could create the opportunities it could create
It could really be massive. Oh, it's huge. It's huge. And I know that there are folks up there that are concerned for the wilderness and they're concerned for the beauty of Alaska and that we maintain Alaska. as best we can. And I would point every one of them to Usabeli Mine and their reclamation project and how Joe Usabeli does it. They don't turn a shovel full of dirt up there.
that they don't already know how they're going to reclaim it. And what they've done to reclaim it is better almost than when they started. So I just think that we do a better job. So when you're looking for antimony... or you're looking for copper or even coal, some of the minerals that we have in abundance in my district, you know, in the West Sioux, just consider that, that we plan to do it the way Alaskans always do it, better.
safer and with more respect for the environment than any other country on the planet, any other state on the planet. So I think that we kind of have a responsibility to do that. We start thinking about, you know, the legislative session. Tomorrow we're in April, which means it's not too far away. The end of session is near. As you start looking forward to this week, what are you kind of expecting?
or what do you have your eye on this week? You know, I think all of us are going to be watching the finance committee, the House Finance Committee. We expect the budget probably towards the end of this week to be out on the House floor. If not the end of this week, then certainly the first part of next week.
So, you know, everybody will be watching that. I think they have 96 amendments. I don't think they, you know, they're up around number 46-ish, I think, but they have skipped a whole bunch of them. So there are still some of those. some of those to go, and it'll be interesting to see. And there's some of the most contentious ones, like defunding NPR. I'll probably have an article coming out about that sometime this week about NPR.
And the guy that wrote the article, the 25-year NPR editor that wrote an article saying, yeah, we are absolutely political. That's one, you know, the PFD is a big one. The budget currently, as it sits in finance, has a full PFD in there. It has the governor's full PFD in there. And everybody's looking at that going, well, how did that come about? And I suspect, and this is just Kevin's opinion, but I suspect that they are leaving it in there so that they can leverage...
our vote, my vote, frankly, at the end of the day for a CBR draw. So they're going to say, okay, Representative McCabe, if you want a full PFD... then you're going to have to give us your three-quarter vote to get into the CBR. And I think they want half of the CBR right now. It stands about $2.8 billion, and they want 1.4 out of it.
So now they're going to put me in a spot in conservative full PFD legislators, and there are a number of us, and there's even some Democrat full PFD legislators, believe it or not. So they're going to put us in a box and say, okay, if you want a full PFD, you can have it, but you have to allow us to go into the CBR. And now we are left in a quandary. Do we want to dip into our savings for a full PFD?
do we want to vote against a full PFD and keep the CBR locked up? So that's going to be the question, and I am hopeful that Alaskans weigh in and tell me and tell us what they want. by the thousands, frankly. So we'll see.
Well, you know, this is political chess, what we expected. And I don't think from conversations we've had in the past, I mean, I think this is kind of what you expected them to do this year, is leverage the PFD for... you know their increase in spending I mean because really what we're talking about here is you know you guys initially didn't accept you didn't get a balanced budget from the governor and then the governor says the legislature okay
You have to balance the budget because the legislature is supposed to pass a balanced budget. But the only way to do that with increased spending is to cut the PFD, to increase taxes, or take it out of savings or some combination. thereof is how I look at it. But from the Democrats' point of view, it's kind of brilliant putting you in a position where you have to choose yes or no, whether people get a full PFD, without having the conversation of them increasing spending.
Sure. That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. A red button or a green button. It's a binary choice and we have to choose no matter... No matter how many things are on the scales on one side or on the other, you have to push either red or green. I think some of the kabuki... Theater is designed to highlight that, but frankly, Will Stapp's bill to VRBO, the Governor's Mansion, or Airbnb, or whatever he called it, is a brilliant sort of satirical means of...
poking at the governor who gave us an upside-down budget and also at the legislature, at the finance committee. Hey, are we going to have to stoop to renting out the... Governor's Mansion, we're talking about everything else, per barrel tax credits, S-Corp, closing the S-Corp loop.
income tax, sales tax, you're talking about everything else. Well, here we have this governor's mansion that costs us $800,000 a year. Maybe we should VRBO that too. I mean, it's kind of sublime, but it points at the... ridiculousness of some of what we do in the legislature, truthfully.
Well, you know, we just had a caller call in and wanted you to know that he wants his name is Dan and he wants his whole PFD. You know, we had Senator Myers on last week and the numbers were just staggering when he said, you know, if... We're talking about a whole PFD. We're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of about $3,800. And then he said, you know, with a 75-25 split, we're talking $1,420. And then we're talking, he said, with an...
He said the governor's budget was about $500 billion in the red. Is that right? I mean, maybe I wrote it down wrong. But then he said if that were the case, it would be about $1,000. But they're also proposing new taxes. And so, you know, there's a possibility here we could be talking about a $600 PFT. And I start thinking about those numbers, just that sheer.
incrementalism that we've seen with this PFD over the years. And I think that's where a lot of people get really frustrated with the legislature because it seems like every year now it's coming down to this fight over the PFD. spending are we trading to take more of people's PFD? I mean, that kind of is like the multi-million dollar question.
Well, I get it. And don't forget that, you know, if we put $3,800 into the pockets of every single Alaskan, the multiplier of money in the free market economy is going to be huge for us. So small business... will absolutely thrive. I mean, if you think of the multiplier of money is that now I have $3,800, so I'm going to go buy a TV, which keeps a TV shop in business and pays for the... salesman and the salesman is going to take his money that he gets from his paycheck and
and go buy something else. And it's just the churn, the economic churn. And I know you know this because I know how well studied you are on that. But most Alaskans don't understand that when I say, well, the multiplier of money is nine times. of free money versus 1.2 times of government money. So when you hear a Democrat say, well, we know how to spend your PFD better than you do, he's absolutely wrong. He or she is absolutely wrong.
1.2 times if government spends it, and up to nine times if you spend it. So I think that getting a full PFD into the economy in Alaska might be key to... resolving some of our problems. The economic churn is going to be amazing. I agree with you on that. Well, it always seems like our time together is too short, but I do appreciate your time getting up with us before your day starts. Thank you for calling in this morning. We look forward to the conversations as always, sir.
Okay, Amy. Thanks a lot, everybody. Enjoy Seward's Day. Oh, we will. All right, take care, sir. All right, that's Representative Kevin McCabe. He represents District 30. If you want to get in touch with your lawmaker, all you have to do is go to akleg.gov, and you'll be able to find the list of all your lawmakers there. I encourage you to reach out to him. Tell him what your thoughts are. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. Well, I want to thank Representative Kevin McCabe for calling in. You know, it's always interesting with legislators because you'll notice some legislators will never. call into live radio and take just off the cuff questions because i don't pre-script questions with my callers i always try to be respectful and i'm going to ask hard questions but i'm going to try to do it in a respectful way especially when it's topics i don't necessarily want to talk about um but
You have people like Kevin McCabe that are just willing to call in. We don't sit there and have a script before we talk of, hey, sometimes I'll ask, are there specific topics that you want to cover? Because I want to be respectful of their time. It's like a two-way street, right? They call in. They're giving us information. I want to give them the opportunity to talk about things they want to talk about too.
Like, on Friday, Senator Myers called in, and the numbers he gave me were just, if you just think about the permanent fund dividend, it's almost staggering. But this is what, we've been talking about this incrementalism for years. a PFD. Because from the moment... The legislature realized they could break into the PFD and spend your money, because that's what it is. Let's not mix words about it. It is your money that you are entitled to by statute.
Once they realize they could spend it, no amount of money is ever going to be happy for them until they take it all. Because they can't control themselves. And I'm generally lumping the legislature as a body in together here because all I can go on is history and the budgets they pass, right? So if you think about this, it started with... Governor Walker vetoing the permanent fund dividend and taking some of that money for state spending. And then it was, oh, we're going to take a 75-25 split.
75% for you, 25% for the government. And then it didn't take long. A year or two later, then it's a 50-50 split. Because you know what? We have to pay for essential state services. Right? So now it's a 50-50 split. 50 for you, 50 for the government. Now we're to a point... Where it's a 25-75 split, 25% for you, 75% for the government. And I will tell you, they're not going to be happy until it's gone.
until they can take the whole thing for government spending and when we talk about economics and we talk about the value of the dollar And Representative McCade said this so well, what happens when the government spends the dollar versus you spend the dollar? When you spend the dollar, you get the money. You spend the dollar. You may go pay for your kids' braces. You may go out to dinner.
You may go and get your car fixed, and then that mechanic takes that money, and maybe then that mechanic goes to the store and buys, you know, goes to a small business and buys some stuff. And then those employees... employees get paid and then they go to a restaurant and maybe they, and you see how the money turns when it's in the private sector. But when the government says, no, we're just going to take that money and we're going to spend it on government services.
The money from an economic standpoint doesn't turn as much as it does if the money is in the private sector. And so that's what he was talking about. But the numbers that Senator Meyers shared with us last week, like, it was almost mind-blowing to me. When you think about, by statute, your PFD this year should be somewhere around $3,800.
use 3 800 would that be helpful in your life oh beyond helpful in my life i mean beyond helpful so and then when we start now talking about you know the 75 25 split and now it goes from 3 800 down to 14 20. And then you start talking about, and I had said it in the past, you know, the government gave, the governor gave, you know, a budget that wasn't balanced. And I said, you know, 500.
And that wasn't accurate, actually. I think that when you start looking at the budget after they increase the BSA and with their spending, I think they're going to end up somewhere about $1.4 billion in the red, to be honest. honest that's about where they're going to end up probably so the governor's budget relied on using savings right but in order to use savings
I mean, you're going to need a supermajority of the legislature if you want to break into the CBR, which is called the Constitutional Budget Reserve. So they use a lot of acronyms, but effectively it takes a higher threshold of votes to spend from the Constitutional Budget Reserve. But the question you ask is, by the time the legislature gets done, they're doubling down on saving spending
which really means, you know, when we talk about a balanced budget in our typical lives, most of us say our expenses, you know, meet our income, right? If we're not... Meeting our income and we're spending out of savings. Are you really passing a balanced budget? I mean from a technical standpoint The reality is they're spending more than they're taking it bingo
They are effectively deficit spending because they're pulling out of their savings account. So these are the conversations that happen. And Representative McKee cued you in to what is going to happen. I'll be honest with you. We all knew before this legislature started what this year was going to end up with, right? This year, their two main priorities for the Democrats were to increase the base student allocation, so the formula funding for education.
which in the house they've done by a significant amount. I mean, when we're talking about $1,000 per kid, I mean, Alaska already spends near the top in the nation and has some of the poorest results. So clearly, but... but no significant educational actual reforms, which is crazy. But that's what they wanted to do, was increase the base student allocation, and they want to go back to a defined benefit plan.
Now, the defined benefit plan in the Senate will face some resistance. Why? Because you have Stedman there, right? Stedman and Ben Stevens led the charge to get away from the bankrupt... defined benefits, you know, plan years and years ago. So Stedman will be a little bit of a pushback in that, or a lot of one, of a pushback in the Senate. So we'll see what happens there. But there are two biggest things.
were massive increases in spending. Massive increases and no way to pay for it. So common sense, yes, common sense tells you they're going to go to your permanent fund dividend. But here's the reality. The amount of spending that some in the House want to see, especially on the Democrat side, the PFD doesn't cover it, even if they took every penny of it. Still doesn't cover it.
So this is my point. You are in an unsustainable framework going forward. No matter what they do, unless they get this under control, We're going to be back here every single year. And when they run out of the CBR, the Constitutional Budget Reserve, when they run out of savings and they take all of your PFD, what is left? Oh, they're going to go after the corpus. Pop quiz. Okay, well, that'll take a constitutional change, but I was going for taxes. Okay.
An income tax, a sales tax. We heard Senator Myers reference this and it was the first time I heard anybody actually talk about it. An online business tax. What does that mean? All your online purchases. Amazon. I am against that hardcore.
Anything that you buy online. So last week, that was the first time I heard anybody actually talk about an online business tax. They are everything they can think of. It'll be an income tax. It'll be a sales tax. It'll be an online business tax. They'll raise taxes. on the oil and gas industry. They'll probably institute some sort of death tax. I mean, the reality is...
That's where they're going to have to go because their level of spending cannot sustain it. In Alaska's population, the reality is you don't have enough people here to tax to maintain this level of spending long term. That's the reality. You need actual people that are really serious about doing their job in charge of the lastest budget. Because right now, here's some money for you. Here's some money for you. Here's some money for you. Oh.
But I'm going to take it from all your neighbors in order to pay these special interests. That's where we're at. So we all knew how this was going to end this year. But, you know, really the pushback, this is where it comes down to politics, right? They're going to push these guys for a CBR vote, and they're going to leverage your PFD against it. Okay.
Then what's going to happen? The governor is going to have the final word, and he's going to line item veto. All he has to do is have enough conservatives that are actually willing to stand with him to uphold his vetoes. But the one thing he can't do by veto, he can't increase your PFD. So you're stuck. You're stuck with whatever PFD the legislature gives you, you're stuck with that.
because the governor can't increase it by a veto. But what he can do is decrease spending, which I suspect he will do. All right, we're going to take a quick break, last break of the show. If you'd like to call in, 522-0650. Looking at your Alaska Total Traffic camera. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. All right, this is where Amy goes into full.
Ice queen mode. I was going to say something else, but I won't because I'm on live radio. So Suzanne has an article up, Alaska GOP chairwoman asks House and Senate leaders why they aren't acting to build on Trump's executive orders unleashing Alaska. So I'm seeing a lot of people, look, I've got to be honest with you, I'm seeing a lot of people say, oh, good letter, good letter.
and I'm glad you put this out there. I can't read it to you because it's two pages. It's long. But I'm going to give you a couple excerpts. It says, Dear Senate President Stevens and Speaker Edgman, as I write to you today, we are more than And halfway through this legislative session on President Trump's first day in office, more than 60 days ago, he signed an executive order entitled Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential.
And then she goes on to say, why aren't the committee chairs of your majorities focused on supercharging the growth of our economy and the private sectors? Instead, we're moving legislation forward that can be paid by tax. Taxing hardworking Alaskans or by using money from the permanent fund. And, you know, like I said, I'm just breezing through this. I recommend that you go to Alaska GOP's website or you go to Facebook. You can see the entire letter there.
And she says, now is the time for choosing to unleash Alaska's extraordinary resource potential and lead each chamber that you serve. and to truly seize the golden opportunity that is before us. Now, I've got to be honest with you. I agree with the content in the letter. But it was written March 28th.
Hmm, imagine that. And I've got to be honest with you. Ain't going to do nothing. What is this going to do? You know what I want to see from a party chair? Why don't you hold the damn people in your party accountable for caucusing with Democrats? You're sending this to Gary Stevens, who's leading the Democrat majority in the Senate, and Bryce Edgeman, who's not a Republican.
Do you think it would have a little bit more impact if, say, the chairwoman of the Alaska Republican Party sent it to Kelly Merrick? How about that?
How about if she sent it to the Republicans that were actually caucusing with the Democrats and said, you know what, we have more Republicans elected to the Alaska legislature than Democrats, but Democrats are in charge. You know what, in the next legislative... election we are going to find people to run against you we are going to ban you from having any Republican resources committed to your campaign so we're going to do everything to get you out of office
I think that might have more of an impact, frankly, on the shape of the Alaska legislature and what they put forward. So I've got to be honest with you, Carmela. I think it's a little too little, a little too late. You didn't sway me. I think the letter came out, frankly, because we started talking about the Alaska GOP last week. On the air, we started talking about it. We started talking about it and we said, you know what, where's the leadership?
Sending a letter to the Democrats in charge? A little short. I like the content of the letter. But how about we turn up the pressure on the actual Republicans that are turncoats? Let's do that. All right, that does it for Daryl and I today. Happy Sewer's Day, everyone. We will be back with you tomorrow at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless.