Thursday 3/6/25 | Headlines, Education Compromise? | Rep Sarah Vance

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Live around the world on the internet at michaeldukeshow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station. And our translator. Hello, my friends. How are you doing this morning? It's Thursday. And boy, we had a wicked snowstorm last night. Wicked snowstorm. I think we got about an inch of snow up here on top of the hill.

in beautiful downtown homer um it is uh it's still it is like 32 degrees so it's not gonna go much this way i mean i'm okay with winter being like this i know some of you aren't i can heal i can hear uh I can hear Bill in the chat room screaming right now. He's out there just massively doing the dance for the snow monsters because he wants to go snow machining. But, you know, I mean, I'm okay with it.

being this way. I really am. I was having a conversation with a client, uh, yesterday and, uh, and it was, uh, it was funny cause we were both talking about as we get older. we're okay with, uh, with less the cold, you know, the cold starts to get to you. And you're like, as I get older, I feel like I'm wussing out, but man, I just, I'm just, I'm happy. I'm happy that it's been a nice.

uh been a nice winner although i know some people would be like it's not nice it's just i want the snow okay all right i get it i get it you got certain standards and expectations but i'm okay with it i'm i am okay with it being this way So, you know, it's it's all it's all good. All right. I guess I guess we should I guess we should get into it. It being the.

what we're doing for today. We're going to be joined in hour two today by Representative Sarah Vance from Homer, my representative down here on top of the world in beautiful Homer, Alaska. And we're going to talk with her about a lot of the stuff that's going on in the legislature, including her attempted amendments yesterday. on the education bill, HB 69, which we're going to get into this morning. There's been a compromise now, I mean, of sorts.

It's it's well, we'll get into some of the details. And we'll talk about her attempt to make some amendments to it as well and what her thoughts are. Because there's a lot of angst still flying around down in Juneau over stuff that's happening. And I think it's been interesting to watch because... you know, you could see that they were so strident about making sure that they hit the high notes of their goals, of what the...

big spend folks had told their constituency when they were trying to get elected. And you could see some of the highlights there as they try to reach those goals, but also are faced with the fiscal reality that... Hey, it's it's there's not the cookie jar is empty. The cookie jar is empty. So we're going to we're going to we're going to get into all that here this morning.

As well as some other news from around the state, including what's coming up in Fairbanks today, tonight. I'm sorry, I was going to say tomorrow, but tonight, tonight. And the reception that was received in the legislature from the public of some of these new revenue measures, including Rob Yunt's new bill. on um oil corporations which he said you know rob tried to split the baby in a way by saying i'm not trying to target any specific company

But this really only affects one company right now, and that's, of course, Hillcorp. But we'll see what the public's response to that has been so far. And then some analysis on what the new tariffs are going to be doing potentially here in the... uh, in the, uh, in the state of Alaska, particularly around things like groceries and things like that, because we, you know, we're, we're already, um, we're, we're already feeling it. Right.

And not the terrorists, but we're already feeling the pinch from the economy as a whole. But it's going to be a struggle. It's going to be a struggle. I can feel it already. We're going to talk about that as well coming up tomorrow on the program. I'm waiting to hear back today.

I'll just check my phone to make sure that I didn't miss anything here in the meanwhile. Nope, not quite yet. All right, so we're going to hear back hopefully today. We're trying to get JD2 Chili from Reason Magazine on the program tomorrow to talk about. The potential for combining the ATF under the FBI, Kash Patel, we talked about it last week, him becoming the de facto head or what they call interim head.

nominated the anyway he's temporarily taking control of both the fbi and the atf now maybe bongino maybe maybe so we'll see what that looks like as well Um, and I think that's, uh, oh, I guess we could talk about the, we guess we could talk about the pipeline, uh, as well since that has, uh, really, um,

That made a lot of ways. I actually had two people that were talking to me yesterday. We were customers. We were talking about different stuff. And it seems like, as is often the case because of what I do on the show. They started we started conversations about some of the other things that were going on. And the gas line came up in both conversations, which I thought was interesting. So people really are paying attention. And the president mentioning the.

The president mentioning the gas line, Alaska gas line, during his address to Congress definitely seems to have raised the visibility of that. of that project and i think has given some people some hope now i don't know and we had part of this conversation yesterday on the show uh with uh with a couple callers but you know i don't know

If it's even possible, the only way that you mean you the only way we could feasibly get this done is the federal government would have to basically pony up. Right. Because there's. There's no private entity. And I know everybody's talking about Glenn Farn and all this other stuff about how they're going to come in and they're going to help develop the project and all this. But there is no...

economically viable way forward in the private sector. Because, I mean, as we pointed out, even the rosiest assumptions from the from the Wood Mackenzie report. shows that even with an 80% subsidy, 80% subsidy, that it would still, the project would still be delivering gas at about 30% over market value. Which, I mean, that makes it difficult, right? It's not a feasible project when you're delivering 30% over what the market will bear. And there's not going to be any private investment.

So whatever the president is going to try to do here, it's going to have to be done by the federal government. I mean, he can, because in his speech, I guess we'll just get into this now, shall we? In his speech, he talked about both South Korea and Japan. He said that they wanted to be partners and that they were looking at the project. that they had trillions of dollars each that they wanted to invest, which I think was a bit hyperbolic myself. But, I mean, trillions of dollars to invest.

Although the Japanese were quick to point out, the news organizations in Japan were quick to report out that no final investment decision had been made by either. of japan or north or south korea um but the you know And we've heard this before. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to poop on the president. I mean, I'm glad that he's bringing this up and I'm glad he's using part of this is that I think he used, you know, kind of tariff tools to bring them to the table on this thing.

like potential terror like hey you guys want to be a nice country be a shame if we had to slap some tariffs on it you sure you don't need some gas which they do both japan and south korea both need um a viable solid steady source of gas there's no doubt about it but uh you know there's a little strong arming going on in there but here's the thing it looking at the project and expressing interest in the project is not a commitment to the project.

And so while I'm super happy to see that this has raised the visibility of the LNG line and that more people are talking about it, and there seems to be a lot of discussion. rotating and revolving around the idea of that this is kind of a national security issue and other things that potentially because again the only way that i see this happening is if the federal

Government tries to do it as like a national strategic asset, like they did for the pipelines during World War II. Because there was no other feasible way to get it done.

Now, if the president wants to broker some kind of deal between the Pacific Rim, China, you know, not China, but South Korea and Japan, et cetera, and have them pick up a. big chunk of it well more power to him i mean this guy is the deal maker right maybe he can find something that to work there uh maybe it's more maybe it's um

Maybe it's more feasible and more attractive for them to be able to have a stake in the game. I don't know. But again, we've heard this song and dance before, right? Bill Walker talked about, you know, inking deals with South Korea. And and talking about Japan having an interest in gas. Of course, they've always got an interest in it. But an interest in the project does not a commitment make.

Again, the news outlets over there reporting that both South Korea and Japan's governments are continuing to study the project with no final investment decisions having been made yet. And the Japan Times quoting Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan telling the parliament that, quote, we will carefully examine its technical possibilities and profitability, unquote.

The key word there being the profitability. Because if you're looking at it from strictly a dollars and cents aspect of, you know, how much do I spend and what's my return on investment? Oh, it's not good, baby. It's not good. Now, as far as do you want accessibility to gas in a solid environment, you know, the upfront costs on this are good, but the maintenance costs on these are lower, apparently, than other parts of the world.

That's according to an analysis from the legislature's oil and gas consultant, Gaffney Klein. They said Alaska would be a very expensive project due to the capital costs, but its operating costs would be relatively low.

So, I mean, there's pros and cons, I guess, in all that stuff. But again, interest does not a commitment make. Especially since we really don't know how much... the project i mean they keep throwing this 44 billion dollar number around but you got to remember that was from 2015 2016. I just have a question for you. Has your cost of goods gone up since 2015? Has it gone up at all? I mean, is steel any more expensive now than it was in 2015? I'm just asking.

maybe 44 billion dollars is uh um 44 billion dollars is a lot but that was again 10 year ago numbers so I mean, what is it? Is it 60? Is it $80 billion? It'll be significant. It will be significant. But... So but I'm super encouraged that the president is at least talking about it. And somebody asked me yesterday, well, do you think that.

Do you think that because we were talking about whether or not it would become a national strategic asset, whether the, you know, they would they would pay for it on national security grounds or, you know, energy free, you know, energy. Independence grounds. And I don't know. It's about the only viable option left. I mean, I think this Glenn Farn thing is just more smoke and mirrors, quite honestly.

Because Glenfarn doesn't have the, they don't have the backing and I don't think that they have the experience to do a project of this magnitude based on what I've read. But, I mean, I'm not an oil and gas expert, but based on what I've read.

And what some of the other experts are saying, I'm just not convinced that it's anything more than a stalling tactic. But, I don't know. I'm hoping. It would be nice to see some Alaska gas get... to market well mostly to get to us if we could figure out a way to get gas to us then the rest of them are that would be great so i'm encouraged we'll see We'll see what happens and if this is just a one off or if the president is going to continue to push on Alaska gas moving forward.

All right. Well, I wasn't expecting to go in that direction, but that's sometimes that's where the spirit moves you. We're going to continue here in just a moment. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thicken Radio. When we get back, we'll hit a few of the headlines from around the state, some of the lesser headlines, things that are happening.

And we will return. And then in the final segment of this hour, we're going to talk about that new education bill and the sort of compromise. We'll be back right after this. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand. Oh, and it's free. Like America used to be. Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay. Let's see. Let me see some of the comments here right at the bottom of the thing.

What about the 700,000 Alaska and our energy needs? Paying $975 for heating fuel and gasoline is unsustainable when Alaska has lots of gas and oil. But you'd pay more for the heating. That's the problem, Henry. It's got to be economical to get it to you. That's the problem. Now, could we use tankers and trucks and train cars and boats? Yes. But that's the thing. We have all this gas, but we can't get it. It's stranded. That's what it's all about. Yeah.

Let me go over here. Yeah, no, I mean, Brian says probably close to $80 billion since, you know, yeah, it definitely is going up. Timothy says the pipeline isn't worse. The cost, $44 billion, probably closer to $80 billion. I mean, I imagine it's probably closer to $80 billion as well. I would not disagree with that. Like I said, probably the only way this would ever get done is if it was as a national strategic asset. That's what it's all about right now.

Let me sit here. Good morning, Michael from Pahrump, Nevada. I've been to Pahrump. Pahrump. Miss your show. I miss Alaska every day. I listen to your show. I'm sorry. I miss your show every day. No, he goes, I miss Alaska every day. I listen to your show every day. Okay. Other way around. All right. There we go.

Rob Myers says the driving is the worst when it's around 32 degrees. True, but I'm in here right now, so it's okay. You know, everybody else can fight it out on the roads. I'm okay with that. Lots of good mornings here. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Jeannie says HB69 is the NEA's brainchild. Send it packing. The governor's proposed bill are proposed bills are by far more reasonable. Well, we'll talk about we'll talk about that.

We'll talk about that here in just a minute. What the potential changes are. I'm sorry, Doge, it said. Okay, so first of all, I got a question. Who said? Doge, it said, has already found billions in savings in Alaska. Are you talking about the Alaska Doge thing? Because Doge is a federal agency. Are you talking about the Alaska Doge thing? They've already found billions. I mean, I haven't seen any report yet, but if so, I'd like to see it. I'd like to see.

I'd like to see the report. So if you've got links on it, Henry, please feel free to send it on to me so I can take a look at it. Rick said... When I see dirt flying, I'll believe it. Talking about the pipeline. Yeah. And then you guys. And then you guys are besmirching my beloved Taco Bell. Because Rick says, when I see dirt flying, I'll believe it. And Brian says, Taco Bell will do that. And then...

Rick says, Brian, you eat Taco Bell, they'd be more than dirt flying. That's not true. I happened to have a Taco Bell yesterday. All right. I'm scrolling through. What do we got here? Pipeline isn't worth the cost. Okay, we're back to where I were. Hey, look, I'm caught up. Am I taking calls? Asks Tim. Maybe. Why, you got something to say, Tim? You got something to say that's worth talking about. I might take some calls. That would mean I would have to turn the phones on now, doesn't it?

All right, let's see if we can get the phones turned on here in a second, and maybe I'll take some calls. You asked them nicely. I thought that, you know, we could do that. I'll let you know when we get there. All right, here we go. We're jumping back into it. The Michael Duke Show, common sense, liberty-based, free-thicket radio.

Public enema number one. Oh, wait, sorry. Enemy. Public enemy number one, which makes more sense. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a pain in the Michael Duke show. I'm a little bit of a what? That just doesn't seem nice. Alright, welcome back to the program. Uh, we've got, uh, we've got, uh, more, we're ready to, are you ready already? You ready to jump in and do this thing? Talk about this and do all this stuff. Let's get to it.

I've got some headlines from around the state, and somebody asked very nicely if I could open up the phone lines and talk to you. So, sure, why not? We'll open up the phone lines and we'll take a call or two. How about that? Here in just a minute. Once I get them up and I'll throw them open for you. But we got Sarah Vance coming up in hour two. So just be prepared that that's where we're going here in just a minute. So don't get too riled up and ready to go on the whole phone situation.

All right. We'll we'll do that here in just a minute. OK, some of the headlines that are coming up from around the state and around the nation. Of course, you probably heard about that.

hella skiing accident down in girdwood that was tragic poor guys uh three out of state um uh three out of state uh skiers hella skiers and their guide were dropped off uh in the chugach national forest and then uh so there's an avalanche and it was i mean it was freaking huge it dropped him from like 1800 feet all the way down to seven feet a 700 feet rather in elevation

And it was something like 40 to 100 feet of debris on top of everybody. It was it was brutal. One guy made it out. And so, you know. Backcountry skiing, all that stuff. I mean, they were doing something they love, so I guess there's that. That's a plus. Doing something they love, but at the same time, wow. That is a...

It's a dangerous sport. I mean, the headline over at Alaska's News Source reads that backcountry skier and avalanche survivor gives insights on the thrills and dangers of heliskiing. I mean. you know, you don't think that snow, but yeah, it'll kill you, man. It'll kill you. So, uh, it's, uh, definitely a tough situation there. Uh, what was the, uh, what was the other, Oh, um, The Fairbanks Assembly tonight is, and I got the phone lines up, by the way, for those of you who are.

looking for there's somebody who wanted to talk on the phone so happy to do it 319-527-3864 319-527-3864 if you want to sound off um because you asked But let's go. The Fairfax North Star Borough Assembly is going to be meeting tonight, the Finance Committee. And they plan to renew a contract with... Dominion. And apparently, I mean, there's some people who are obviously, I mean, I'm, I'm not ambivalent. I guess that's the wrong word.

I'm concerned about some of the things that we've been shown from people like Dr. Frank and other things about it. But... I mean, I just, I don't know. I feel like I'm being wishy-washy on this, but I just don't, I don't know. What do you think about the Dominion machine thing? Is it the end of the world? I mean, to me, as long as they have the ballots afterwards and they can be hand-counted, that's what I care about.

Do they have a physical ballad at the end of the day, and can they be hand-counted? I have no problem using machines to count them up until that point. But if there's irregularity and there should be audits on this. Right. So have the machines count them, but then have random audits of different areas. And, you know, but you've got to have the physical ballots to back them up. I guess that's what I'm saying.

Anyway, the borough finance committee meeting is going to be heard tonight at 530 at the assembly chambers. And they're going to they have a plan to renew the Dominion voting and tabulator contract. It is a sole source contract for about $220,000, which means it will not go out to bid. It covers programming costs, licensing fees, annual warranties.

And the ballot tabulation system of the borough's Dominion voting machines. And there's public hearing are available to talk and testify about it. I mean, in the Mat-Su, they already. close down the, you know, they're doing hand counting now in the Matsu. So maybe that's what people want. I don't know. What do folks want in Fairbanks? I don't know.

But maybe. Tonight's the night to talk about it because public testimony is being heard and you can sign up ahead of time by calling 459-1401 and getting on the list to sign up. to testify at this meeting tonight at 530. All right. So there's the big news in Fairbanks there. All right. Let's go over to the phone since somebody asked to be...

for me to, I did it. I'm just, I do what I'm told. Here, let's go over here and see what's going on. Good morning. Who's this? Where are you calling from? Michael Dukes. Yes. This is Tim. This is Tim. I'm the guy that asked you. Okay, we'll see how that works. Good. I'm glad we can accomplish it. Well, there's a heck of a delay. What's on your mind, Tim? I've lost you, I think.

Are you there? I can hear you, Tim. What's on your mind? Okay, yeah, no, the gas line. So a friend of mine that worked up on the slope, you remember T. Boone Pickens? Remember that story? I do, I do. Yep, T. Boone Pickens, he's going to build that gas line. And I told this friend of mine, he goes, this gas line is going to get built within, you know, it'll be five years. I think that was about 20 years ago. I remember having when Jim Whitaker sitting in his office and he had a he had a.

He had a framed he had a framed newspaper behind him on the wall. It was a full page of I can't remember which newspaper was one of the state newspapers. And it says gas line to start next year. And it was like 19. 1958 or something. Yeah. Yeah. 1958 or something on the paper. So we've heard that a lot, Tim. Yep. I know you and I are. Yeah. So.

One of the things that I'm adamant about is this new plan for the line. How the hell did they get it running across Minto Flats? That really irritates me. Yeah, I have no idea. I mean, they've got it laid out. They said that they know what's going on. They know where it's going. I mean, are they paralleling the pipeline? What are they planning on doing? I have no idea.

So we can't build a road into the Ambler Mining District, but we're going to put a pipeline across Minto Flats, which for Fairbanksons and Minto people... The people at Minto Villages, Manly Hot Springs, all the people that use, that's okay. Anyway, that's got me pretty upset. But anyway, among many things.

All right, Tim. Well, I mean, any other thoughts here before I let you go? You just had to vent about that? I had to vent. Thanks, Michael. All right. Thanks, Tim. I appreciate your call. Appreciate you calling in. uh all right two three one nine five two seven three eight six four let's go over here good morning who's this where you calling from

Good morning. This is Mike calling from Fairbanks. Hey, Mike. Good morning, Mr. Dukes. What's on your mind? You asked about the Dominion voting machines. I've worked at a polling place here in Fairbanks maybe a total of 10 times. two different polling places. I worked our last election back in both October and November. So yes, you fill out a paper ballot. You must have done this.

Numerous times in your life right you slide that into the machine the machine counts the ballot and drops it into the bottom Then you also have anybody who shows up at the polling place who who isn't? That isn't their designated polling place. They can do a question ballot. Right. They do that, and that's dropped. It's not counted the same way, but it's dropped into a slot. So at the end of the night...

All the paper ballots at that polling place are in the bottom of that case that holds the machine and they're taken out, stacked, put it in specific envelopes. and they go to the borough. So yes, there are a paper record of everybody's vote. I really am doubtful that these Dominion machines are not doing their job. The only thing you could mess with maybe is because these machines now use the internet to report the results I believe to

I'm not sure, maybe to the borough or to the state, depending on the election. But again, there's a paper ballot in there to guarantee that...

It has to match with what's on the machine. Right, right. And that's always been my assertion is I understand that you can manipulate the numbers probably electronically in the machine itself. But if you've got a paper pallet, then... then there's backup to it they can't be spoofed that badly that's always been part of my questioning of this whole thing on the dominion deal if it was strictly an electronic system then yeah i'd be concerned

I really would because I've seen some of the things that have been shown to be able to be done with some of these machines. But if you have a paper ballot, it's kind of hard to fake that. So I think what's important... not as much here in Alaska as the lower 48. You have to have enough polling places, polling districts that there aren't... three million people in a district. You need to keep the number of people in that district low so the ability to count paper ballots is feasible.

Right, right. But I mean, I mean, even large districts across the country, they've just brought more bodies in to do counting. So it can be done. But I think you're right on that, Mike. And that's always been part of my question on it. All right. Well, thank you for your... Okay, that's for me today. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for calling in. Appreciate you being part of it today. All right, 319-527-3864. But I guess the guys that wanted to talk got a chance to talk.

What are a couple of the other stories? Raven has now discontinued its service to Homer, Raven Airways. Raven Alaska said it's no longer going to be flying to Homer because they can't come to an agreement with the Homer airport. And I don't know the intricacies of this and the ins and outs and exactly wise, but it does make it more difficult. Now, Aleutian Airways is still flying here out of Homer, but it is kind of a bummer. I used to fly on Raven all the time.

But I thought it was really interesting when Raven stopped flying between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Of all the places that you got and everything, the one that I flew the most was the Fairbanks to Anchorage leg. And so interesting that they, you know, are shutting down service in some of these areas. Very, very interesting.

All right. We didn't get a chance to talk about the Rob Young thing yet, the tax, the public meeting for Senate resources. But I'm sure we will here. I do want to talk here up next. about the education bill because it has been amended. Is it a real compromise? Well, I don't know. I do know. Well, we'll talk about it here in a minute. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Back with more. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio.

We're broadcasting live through a series of tubes. Allowing all of these entities to provide streaming stuff going on the internet. Well, it's kind of hard to explain. Sorry. Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay. All right. Let me... Let me go, let me go, you know, um, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm, I'm just looking at Henry.

If other countries had this same sarcastic attitude about producing their own LNG for cheap shit, what are you talking about, man? I'm not sarcastic. There's no sarcasm there. I'm trying to be realistic. I'm trying to understand how this is going to work. Right? Yeah, for the Matsu, the hand counting is only borough elections, not state elections. True. Thank you very much. I'm scrolling backwards here to see what else you guys.

have been saying, okay. Oh, that was a reference to the gas supply. I'm sorry. Thank you. probably close to 80 to 90 percent okay it was right now we're talking about now i'm over here how much state money is sarah v going to spend on her commercial fisherman buyout says frank i i i don't know frank let's

Let's see. Floating an idea. How about using LNG barges to access North Slope gas? Positive U.S.-made vessels. Downside. The positive is U.S.-made vessels. The downside, smaller quantities per trip. Maybe it fits in somewhere. Maybe. It's possible. Excuse me. It's possible, Mark. And that's something that actually Rob talked about yesterday. Rob Myers, he said, you know, nobody's really looked at it yet, but maybe there is a way, maybe there is a possibility.

of, you know, being able to barge some of that gas down there. But again, you know, to comply with the Jones Act, everything would have to be U.S. made and everything else. So that is one of the positives, like you said, but it is smaller quantities per trip. And that's part of the problem as well, because a lot of this stuff is built on quantity. You know, it's the size of the load that makes it economically feasible.

David says math is hard. Need a machine to count votes. Well, I'm not saying that you can't hand count things. I'm saying there is a reasonable expectation of time frame. That's part of the problem. But if you've got the physical ballots. I don't understand the fear of a machine if you have the ballots to back it up. That's my question there.

If there are irregularities, says Fat Ray, and the Republican loses, then asking for audits makes you a conspiracy theorist election denier. I think there should just be audits of a lot of stuff just because. Not because I believe. that there may be fraud or there should be audits of a lot of things but because it keeps people honest that's why you should do it in my opinion it's not that i i'm not you know

I'm sure the gas line is on the book, says Timothy, right after Pebble Mine. Yeah, no, I see. The adults were sure that the gas line would be built next year back in 1964. I didn't understand it at the time, but I remember their conversation. Yeah, I mean, exactly. Like, oh, it'll be just right around the corner, right around the corner. Rick says, put serial numbers on the ballots. Boom, done. Maybe. I mean, I would not be against that.

uh homer has an airport says jim i know right i think it was only i was i'd been down here three or four or five times I mean, so that meant like three or four years. I'd been down here over the summer a couple of times before I realized there was an airport here. There's an airport here. The risk is with the electronic balloting and with absentee ballots where only state workers without outside accountability counting the ballots.

I think Doge has uncovered enough government fraud to point to point to non not trusting government workers with anything without oversight. I agree with that. If that's part of the contention, then I'm with you on that 100%. We need to make sure that there's oversight on all those things. Rick says the Dukeser is never sarcastic. You're right. I am never sarcastic. Yeah, never sarcastic.

Now you have to drive to Anchorage since Raven pulled out. Well, I mean, if I'm just going to Anchorage, I got to drive anyway. But I mean, I used to, I was going to, yeah, no. I would drive to Anchorage anyway. But it did, when they pulled out from Fairbanks to Anchorage, I did start driving to Fairbanks instead of flying because it was only about an hour and a half difference and I got my car, my own car. So there you go. All right, here we go. Let's get to it.

Okay. We are ready to go. Final segment of this hour. Sarah Vance is going to be joining us at the top of hour two. Let's continue on here. I know everybody wants to talk about the voting machines. You know, look, again. Mike, here's my final statement, because somebody in the chat room just said, do you remember any of the times the machines had a glitch and were switching votes during any of the previous elections?

I remember there was some discussion on that. I didn't necessarily see it myself, but I mean, again, here's my point. As long as you have the paper ballots in hand at the end of the day. To me, it makes it a lot harder to do it now. Now, Lila did point out that the risk with electronic balloting and with absentees is when they're counting absentee ballots outside of.

oversight. I agree. There should be oversight on all those things. People watching that there should be, who's watching the watchers got that. But as long as there's a physical paper ballot for every person there and they ID them when they vote, then I'm okay with it. That's my final thoughts on the matter. I know some of you won't be happy about that because you want me to be in your camp, but that's just not worried about it right now. All right, let's go over to the...

Let's go over to the discussions on the education bill, HB 69. Sean McGuire reporting over at the ADN and the folks at the KTUU talking about it as well. So they got it into Senate or to House Rules Committee, which is weird because the Rules Committee, generally speaking, is not a body where they amend stuff. Usually it's a scheduling body where they schedule things for the floor. And there have been some circumstances where bills have been substituted or.

They've gone through their final form there in the Rules Committee. But generally speaking, that's not the place for that kind of stuff to happen. That's not Rules Committee. But remember, this thing has had such a weird journey. including the fact that it got pushed out of house education and got rolled out of house education because they...

They had to roll it out with a vote of the body because of the main of all the House, because they couldn't get it out of the committee because they had people who were sick and they couldn't get the votes to get it out. But they've been wanting to fast track this whole thing anyway. So they got it in front of the Rules Committee. And the new bill. which, remember, started out at $1,808 is what they wanted to add to the BSA. $1,808.

which would have been, what, a 35%, 37% increase, something like that, and peg it to inflation. They wanted an automatic escalator built into it. So the new bill... would be about $1,000 instead of $1,800. The amendment would drop the cost down to roughly $250 million per year. And they removed the peg from inflation. So it's no longer increasing every year automatically with no discussion, which, I mean, I'm happy about that part.

But the fact that they want to raise it roughly $250 million a year is, again, a little tough sell because they're $500 million in the hole. How do you pay for it? as Will Stapp, who's become one of my new favorite people on the House floor, his whole mantra this entire session, and he's like, yeah, sure, I'll vote for it and put it out on the floor for a bigger boat, but then you've got to show me how you're going to pay for it.

I thought that was pretty crystal clear there, crystal and clear. So here's the compromise. They're going to cut it down from 1,800 to 1,000. They're going to remove the inflation proving. And then they also have included some policy changes. The added to the measure was limits on cell phone use. The provisions to extend and expand the charter schools. And then a new task force to study school funding and accountability.

A new study to study the study that we've already studied. And it's a legislative task force, so you know they'll get stuff done. Because they'll put legislators on a legislative task force. But they got the, again, cell phone use and the expanding the charter schools. OK. All right. All right. I mean, it's, you know. Now, interestingly enough, Sarah Vance did propose an amendment, which.

McGuire says was a sweeping amendment. But it was just a lot of the proposals that the governor had supported in the past, including a funding boost for homeschooled students, bonuses for teachers. and the charter school expansion plans. And Vance's amendment would have included a $300 boost to the BSA, not $1,000. which would cost roughly about $80 million a year. And she said that better reflected the fiscal realities of the state. But they rejected that amendment outright.

Interestingly enough, I wanted to point out two things here. Rebecca Hemshoot, who was the author of this bill, the Sitka Democrat, I mean... Independent, I guess I should say. Sitka Independent. Said that the $1,800 and eight figure originally included in the HB69 was to quote, maintain all the possible educational opportunities that are students that we can, unquote. And that the amended version of the bill represented a good faith compromise. So what she's saying there is.

And this is so funny because if you read it, you understand it. But the verbiage of reading it and saying, basically, we shot for the moon and asked for everything we could possibly want. knowing that somewhere in the middle there'd be a compromise. This is the art of the deal, right? To maintain all the possible education opportunities for our students that we can. So we ask for everything.

And then anything's a victory at that point, right? When you ask for an $1,800 increase in the B, I mean, everything's a victory at that point. So I thought that was kind of interesting that you just, you know, it's the art of the deal. What do you want? You ask for 150%, you're guaranteed to get close to 100 by the time it's all said and done. When you're looking to make a deal. That's just how it works. But one of the interesting...

But again, I always talk about these throwaway lines in these articles, and I don't mean you throw them. I'm saying that they're just. you know, lines that they're using to join two ideas in an article or something else. But there's always something very interesting sometimes in some of these lines. And this is the one that caught my attention in this article.

I've highlighted it in green on my screen so I know what it is. The committee room on Wednesday morning at the Rules Committee meeting, what they're talking about, the committee room on Wednesday morning was standing room only. filled with around a dozen legislators and legislative staff. That was interesting to me. No public, no... You know, no members of the private sector, no member. It was filled with around a dozen legislators and legislative staff. Okay.

I mean, OK, you know, but it just it just goes to show you again how that bubble affects people. because if it had been probably anywhere on the road system, I know that there would have been some homeschooling proponents and some other people who probably would have made it down there to do it, but they just probably couldn't afford to fly to Juneau for this one hearing. In the final vote of the HB 69, it was a 5-2 vote instead of a 4-3. Why?

Well, Mia Costello, the House Minority Leader, joined the majority in supporting the measure advancing out of committee. Which. OK, I mean. Anyway, she stressed that the GOP minority has been shut out of the negotiations. So she said, I look forward to our voice being heard through the amendment process on the floor. Well, that's great, except for you just if.

They've been shut out of negotiations. And so you vote to let it out of committee. I mean, it still would have gotten out of committee even if she hadn't voted for it. But why vote for it if you. I don't know. Maybe there's some fifth-dimensional chess going on there in the background that I'm missing here. I don't know. We'll have to see. All right, we've got to go. Sarah Vance up next, The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense Radio.

Okay. Yeah, I'm just, you know, I don't know. Sometimes, and I wonder what's going on. And I haven't, I haven't talked to Mia. But I'm just wondering why. I mean, I agree. The minority has been shut out. The minority's voices, you know, they've been shut out of negotiations and they're not being heard in a lot of ways.

But then why vote to move it to the floor? I mean, not again that her vote wouldn't have mattered either way because it was five to two. If she hadn't voted for it, it would have been four to three. It still would have moved. So. But I'm, I'm just curious. And then she said, I look forward to our voice being heard through the amendment process on the floor. Do you think the amendment process on the floor, you think they're going to listen to you any more than they did in the committee?

I mean, they can still maybe maybe you could sway because they've only got a one vote lead. Maybe they can sway you in another way. Maybe that's a possibility. I don't know. But, I mean, this is a compromise, but... Again, the fact that she asked for the moon knowing that they would at least get into orbit is the, you know, we're shooting for Mars. At least we'll make it to orbit. That's essentially what she was saying at this point.

But a thousand dollar BSA increase would be nothing to sneeze at. Two hundred and fifty million dollars. Last year they did that one time funding. Remember, that was one hundred and seventy five million. But they've got a deficit. It's $536 million based on status quo spending. So you want to go ahead and add to that. It's going to be educational, to say the least. I'm going back over here. I'm scrolling. I'm going, here we go. The electronic machine switched votes.

That can't happen and not be found out with physical ballots. Oh, so Layla's talking about machines that are 100% electronic, not the ones that are counting machines that count the hand count, the optical machines that count hand count the ballots. Yeah. Yeah, I'm scrolling backwards here. And to be clear. Sorry, I'm still scrolling backwards here. Okay. Selling.

Brian just said, we should sell advertising on the ballot as a means to raise revenue. I like where your head's at, man. I like what you're thinking. And Mark Thomas said, to be clear, when he was referencing the LNG being shipped on barges, he was referring to LNG barges, not the trailerable tanks. The barges have more capacity than the tanks. Yeah, no, I agree. But then somebody else also pointed out that they would need icebreakers on top of that. And I don't know, but I think.

Well, maybe you could split the baby and say that you had an icebreaker that was a foreign flagged icebreaker and that the barges were being pushed by. I don't know. But I agree. I think we should be looking at it. Let's explore it. I think it's a good idea. Whoops. Let me close that. Scrolling down. An icebreaker LNG's from the slope won't work if the winters get cold again. Okay.

Jeannie said this is when Raven was on its way out in Kenai, they would bump flights until the plane was almost full before they would head to Anchorage. Oh, man. Could you imagine making a could you imagine making a. reservation to get out there because you got to catch a connecting flight somewhere and they just keep bumping it until the plane is full. Oh man, that's crazy. Yeah, that would be problematic.

All right. That's still a thousand dollars too much for the poor record the school system has, says Timothy. I mean, again, we're we're at the bottom of the barrel and they're asking for more. I'm not saying that they have to bring it up before we give them more, but they should have a plan at least as to how they're going to do it. And to me, what came out of the rules committee is pretty light on policy. No cell phones.

and they'll expand the charter school grade. Okay, wait, what about all the other things? Do you have a plan? Do you have a plan to get from 51st out of 53? No? Shut up and give us our money. Let us do what we want to do. We'll worry about policy later. Just give us the money now. Shut up. Why do you hate children? Wait, it was not what I said. Child hater. I mean, isn't that what it feels like? It's trying to...

Going to get it done. All right, Sarah Vance. My goodness. Whoa, what's that mug? That's a good-looking mug. You see that? That's a 6 o'clock club mug. Look at that. that's a good looking muck sarah vance uh on the uh on the program this morning uh all right can you hear me you can hear me i can hear you we're all good cuckoo cuchu you are the walrus

No, I am the walrus. That's the thing. All right. I'm here. Wow. Such enthusiasm. Hold the line. I'll be right back to you. Man, she was so enthusiastic. You hear that? I'm here. Okay. That was it. That was all we get from her this morning. All right. Getting back to it. Here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio. Oh, man. I want to take a nap now. Here we go. Let's go.

Put that thing back in its holster. We haven't gone anywhere. I don't understand. Check out themichaeldukesshow.com for information on how to get access to the podcast. Welcome to the party, pal. The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement. is astounding to me what more could you want from a low budget radio program this is a dumpster fire that was just bs it is time to get a new perspective

We know just what you need, and we've got just the cure. Open wide and prepare for a steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't fathom it. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. All live around the world on the internet at michaeldukeshow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. Hello, my friends. Hello.

You ready to go? You ready to do this? We're joined this morning here by one of my favorite people in the legislature, who now I'm proud to say is my own representative. Representative Sarah Vance joins us from an undisclosed secret location where she's being held hostage by a small. Good morning. Who's the we got a passenger here. This is Liberty Bell. Liberty Bell. Oh, man. Oh, man.

Uh, she's, uh, she's hanging out with Liberty Bell. That's very cool. Um, I know, I know that if I had to go to Juneau, I'd bring, I'd have to bring my dog with me because man, I don't know how I'd. huddle up in a corner at night, suck my own thumb, and if I didn't have my buddy with me to try and make it better. Anyway, Sarah Vance joins us this morning to discuss, well, pretty much everything that's been going on in this crazy, crazy world. I'm sure we're going to start off here since...

We were just directly talking about her actions yesterday in the rules committee. Let's I guess we'll get started with that. First things first, Sarah, this this education bill. Has had a tumultuous ride from the very beginning. I mean, getting rolled out of the education committee and then.

votes on the floor. I mean, I said it, I think Will Stapp's one of my new favorite people because he's like, sure, I'll put it out on the floor, but you got to tell me how you're going to pay for it. And I've seen nothing that says anything about how you're going to pay for any of this. And I'm like,

wow, where was this guy last year? I mean, we need people asking that exact question. And here we are. Okay. So it's 1800, but now, now it's just a thousand and we're going to give you a couple little things, but nothing more. And I'm just like, How do you pay for it all, Sarah? This is another $250, $260 million. We're already $500 and something million in the hole with regular spending. So now you want to...

Tell me about yesterday. How did this go and what happened with your amendments? Why couldn't you get all the things the governor supported across the finish line? What's happening there? Well, good morning.

And I feel bad that I missed the first part of this conversation. Yeah, that was a dump. Sorry, I just dumped it all on you. But yeah, this is crazy what's going on. Well, you know, first of all, I... I feel like I had a great opportunity to be able to bring forward some amendments in committee. were kind of surprised that they were suddenly going to do a committee substitute in the rules committee before it ever reached the floor. But I think the reality of how are you going to pay for it?

was starting to sink in and they had to figure out something to save face. So they knew that the inflation proofing wasn't even going to have a shot. $1.47 billion fiscal note was not even going to be considered in the Senate. And so they had to start, you know, reeling things back a little bit. And the committee substitute. just reduced it to $1,000 inside the BSA, and they called that the compromise. But the committee, they still couldn't answer the question of how are you going to pay for it.

That's the thing. They call it the compromise. In fact, I read that quote because, you know, when they said. Where did she come up with the original number, you know, everything else? And she said it was originally $1,808 to maintain all the possible education opportunities for our students that we can, which if you read that.

and look at it in context, you realize what she's saying is, we shot for the moon to get everything we possibly could because they knew that if there was a compromise, they'd at least get half or something, right, and be happy. But that's the thing. They can't explain.

how they're going to pay for it and i hadn't heard about this fiscal note 1.47 billion over how long what was it explain that to me So over what the original bill did was have $1,000 inside the BSA increase this first year, $4.04 the next year, $4.04 the year after that. Each year it would be inflation proofed. So it's actually would be 12 something the first year, six something the next year. So when you're talking about the inflation proofing. Yeah.

calculated on top of each increase forever yeah it was gonna be Yeah, it was $55 million the first year, and then it just went up from there, $55 to $57 to $60 million by year three. And Brad did the numbers, and he said, here's where it would go. And it starts off at $55 million increase year one.

and then it just goes on from there for inflation gripping and and first of all you know that's been the mantra of nea in the school districts is that they their budget hasn't been inflation proofed all this time We should never factor inflation proofing into our budget because it's something that we cannot control. So that narrative needs to end. It's not responsible fiscal planning.

over the buildup of the next three years, just the next three years was $1.7 billion, which is a 43% increase to education budget over the next three years.

yeah that was their original proposal so now it's thousand dollar inside the formula and then they had a few policy changes now in the title it sounds good like they had open enrollment charter school removing cell phones from the classrooms and i forget what the other the other factor was i i honestly i i was hoping for a little bit more i thought you know they're gonna try

They're showing that they're going to try to actually get this passed and garner more votes. But once I saw the policy, I realized that they're not... truly at the negotiating table because to me it didn't didn't look like they were serious in garnering any more votes. So we'll see how it goes. The open enrollment is only within a school district. And it's something that... was pointed out to me last night, open enrollment for Anchorage would really rock their boat. Right, right.

you know my concern on the way that they wrote the language on open enrollment is that it would prevent the current activity of homeschoolers who want to use a different um district network yeah a different district a lot of people like idea or raven and that's galena and uh you know i use connections which is down on the peninsula so it would

it would greatly prohibit a quarter of our students, and that's the correspondence students in the state. So we asked alleged legal if it would do that. And they said, no, no, no. But I said the language doesn't specifically outline that. Another colleague of mine thinks that it could be open to that. And when you're thinking about all the lawsuits that are coming after the correspondence. uh statutes i think that one is is right

They may be setting it up as a stalking horse to be able to be used to argue that. Oh, no, now you can only attend correspondence inside your district. Correct, and we know that's one of the big complaints. Yeah. um which which again goes back to the capture right they want to it's the monetary capture by the districts they're seeing people going to idea galena you know cyber links raven all these different ones that are outside of their districts

And to them, that's just, oh, it's lost revenue. We can't do that. This would be a way to try and capture some of that back. That's some sneaky Pete stuff right there. And so that's super interesting. The discussion on the charters was the amendment on the charter. What is it? Was it what the governor was looking for within a secondary advisory body or authorizing body or what was the.

No, absolutely not. The committee substitute that the majority had on charter schools would not change it to being. authorized under the board of education it would remain in the local school districts it would cap their carry forward money to 10 percent And it would also double the administrative costs that the school districts could take from the charter schools from 4% up to 8%.

So I don't know why they think that they're expanding the opportunities for charters. It does say that if they are denied, that the school district has to provide a written reason. for their denial. But that's pretty much it. So again, I was not impressed with what they were offering for charter schools.

it doesn't look like it's going to make it a better easier path for charter schools i wanted clarity so that whether it's whoever controls the charter schools whether it remains in local control or goes to the state school board i wanted a clear path on hey this is how you do it we're going to walk beside you help give you the tools that you need if parents and teachers want to create a charter school and and really a clear path that's what the governor's bill did

is create a more straightforward structure in statute. But that's not what was in the committee substitute by the majority yesterday. Right. And so you put your own amendment together. uh and and put it in front of them and that had some of the stuff that the governor wanted in it um but Was there much discussion? It got voted down on party, I mean, pretty much on party lines, right? So what was your amendment and what was some of the discussions that surrounded that? So I had two amendments.

And my first amendment was on transparency. It was two pages that said the school districts should post their budgets and their audits to their website every single year. and report to deed. If they don't do that, they could lose school funding. Most of the larger school districts, at least, are doing this already to some degree. But I wanted to make it equal across the board because one of the complaints is that it's hard to find.

the budget and the audit of these school districts and really know where the money is going and know what it's being spent on by having available on the website every single year that gives deed the tools that they need to know where the money is being spent so we could have more but it's transparency with the people. And they said, no, this sounds like an unfunded mandate and a burden for schools.

Fiscal transparency should not be optional. OK, that should be a contingency of the money being given to them. That should be contingent. I mean, that's just good governance, having that kind of open checkbook transparency for every. department for every enclave of this. And especially if they're coming to you hat in hand to say, please, please, mommy, give me some money. There should be some stipulations. That's not an unfunded mandate. That's being responsible.

with public monies. I agree. I thought, you know, the great way to get parents and community members engaged in their school and in the process of the budget is give them access to it. you know just say here it is help us out help us figure out this problem of where the money should go and uh you know one of the things is people are saying hey the school district should be audited well they are they are required by law to be audited every year

But people go, where can I get this information? And I thought, let's just have it. right there in their local site and then on the department of education website so it's a one-stop shop and much easier to find now there are some that's available on the Department of Education website now, but it takes several steps to get there and it's not a robust.

as robust as what i would prefer it however it wasn't even a part of the conversation yesterday they just said nope this is this is too much if it's required by law how hard is it to upload the thing when it's required by law and put it on the home page You know, here's a link to the audits page that has a list list of all the audits that have been done. I mean, if it's being done and it's being done by law, what's the hubbub, bub? What are you what are you, you know?

Methinks you are protesting too much at that point. I agree. All right, we're going to continue. Transparency in government shouldn't be hard. I mean, it shouldn't be. And with what we've been uncovering at the national level, everybody should be going, where's the money? Where did it go? What was it spent on? You know, when you've got billions of dollars that are being expended without even being categorized as to what the spending is, you might have a problem, right?

And maybe we should be chasing the money here in the state as well. All right. Sarah Vance is our guest. We're going to continue here in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. We'll be back with her in a hot minute. Her and Liberty Bell. We'll be back. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense. Liberty Bay's Free Thinking Radio.

listened to by more staffers in Juno than any other show. Because their bosses told them to. And after what they just heard, oh man, they're gonna be best. You're a bad, bad man. The Michael Duke Show. Okay, commercial break time. Commercial break time. Naresh says... We need a forensic audit that starts with deed, the money flow down to the boroughs that captures all the state appropriations, plus local contributions, plus any and all direct federal dollars, and then on to the school districts.

to see exactly what came to them from their boroughs and what they in turn are spending in administrations versus classrooms. Then back upstream reports a deed via clear and detailed reports. Till we do this, we will be forever chasing where the money. Where'd the money go? He's not wrong. He's not wrong. And to say that, I mean, that's insulting. The fact that it's mandated by law and that it's a, well, that's just an unfunded, to what? To put it up on the website?

You don't have IT people sitting around playing solitaire during the day? Are you kidding me? You can't upload a file and put a link, put a hyperlink on a menu on the front page of the thing to say, here's your audits. That, again, me think they doth protest too much. You may have touched a sore spot there, Sarah, on that. Sorry, my brain is starting to explode over this deal.

Any thoughts on, and I'm not trying to ask you to put words in a while, but in the article, I thought it was interesting because it showed, it said that, you know, Mia Costello voted for the, voted for the measure. But at the same time, she stressed that the minority had been shut out of negotiations. So it would have, and I want to be crystal clear here, this would have passed out of committee whether she voted for it or not, right? So it would have been four to three instead of five to two.

But she votes for it. And then she says the minority has been shut out of the negotiations. I look forward to our voice being heard through the amendment process on the floor. Is there a... parliamentary reason she would have voted for it to then because obviously she was not in favor of it because she's you know the voice wasn't being heard the amendments were thing it would have passed without her so i'm trying to think of a parliamentary reason why she may have voted for it

even though, so can you, is any, can you, can you fill me in with your thoughts on that? Yes. And I think you hit the nail on the head is that, and the only reason that I'm.

in essence speaking for her is because she's made it very clear she wanted to stay consistent with the message that we have had as a minority to move the bill to the floor so we could have a full conversation with the entire body so she was staying consistent with that message that said let's move it out of this committee uh yes let's move it along not yes i think this is the

Right. Because that's similar to what Will Stapp said. He goes, look, this is dog crap. This whole thing is you guys are not paying for anything. Yes, sure. Move it to the floor. We'll have a full discussion on it. Right. And I think that's what they're afraid of at this point, is that they're going to get it to the floor in a way that's unacceptable, and then they're going to have to defend it. Like you said, they cut it back to $1,000 and still couldn't say how they're going to pay for it.

So they're going to be facing some of the same problems. And last night I heard from a member that is doubting that they have all the votes now. So it will be interesting on the floor. They have the weekend to be able to. Start counting their votes and make sure that they have it. We're going to be taking up amendments on Monday. So, you know, we're trying to have things drafted right now. Make sure that we touch on all the topics and and.

uh hopefully are able to get some policy in i mean i in reality i am surprised that they adopted the reading proficiency grants uh into the committee substitute but i think they realized they need to have the governor and they better they better put us at the table uh you know at least with one policy right right

we didn't talk we didn't talk about that there was a 22 million dollar increase uh that had to do with reading proficiency and uh so that would least is one of the positives that came out of this is what you're saying yes yes so you know it's a good place to start it does increase the spend uh and i think you know that may be why they said wait a minute we should we should take a look at this because it's increasing money to schools so

We can at least get behind that. Whatever it is, as long as it increases money to schools, we're okay with it. All right. Well, we'll finish up with this here. Sarah Vance, our guest. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Would you like and share this show? Would you please? I know Sarah's going to like it here in just a minute. At any time, she'll like it. But if you could like and share the show, follow it, ring the bell.

we'll get more people involved all right you ready let's uh let's let's get to this here we the michael duke show not your daddy Wait, sorry, not your daddy? Ooh, not your daddy's talk radio. Whew, I was scared for a second. Thought we were going down. Here's Michael Dukes and the show. That's right. Not your daddy, nor do I play him on TV. I just wanted to point that out. It's a thing. The Michael Duke Show, we continue. Sarah Vance is our guest.

And so let's have her help us walk us through what's going on here. So it's been moved out of the rules committee after being amended, which is kind of weird anyway, because that's not normally the place that you do that kind of stuff. But again, after the unusual rolling it out of the education committee, where it went into finance and was heard for... 37 minutes before it was they will staff said hey you know what let's just move this out of committee and uh which i thought was like wow

And now here it's in rules and it's been in. They got a substitute amendment yet. So where does it go from here? What is the what's the process? Walk me through it. And and where does it go now? So you'll see it on the calendar for today's House floor. However, what I'm told is that we will keep it in second reading and not take up amendments until Monday.

okay so it will not be debated as far as what i've been told today uh we'll likely do introduction of guests read bills across that are being introduced and that'll probably be all that happens today um there's the reason that we're having floor today and not tomorrow is because uh the majority leadership has some some meetings i forget if they're

some municipal meetings something important that they asked us ahead of time hey could we swap floor days to be able to take care of our business so that they could go out for the uh couple days and be a part of whatever it is. So that's why things are shifted a little bit. Monday morning is when we have our amendments due to the clerk's office so that

It can be distributed to everyone so we can see what they are when we start debating on the floor on Monday morning. Now, you heard the same thing that I heard was that they're saying that, oh, we've got the votes for this. We got the votes to pass this 21.

Um, but again, no discussion, no discussion in, in house education. I mean, there was some discussion and amendments in house education, but I mean, rolled right out of house finance and now with minor tweaks coming out of the rules committee. We know a lot of times that it's, you know, it's a steamroller when it hits the floor, right? It's a steamroller, especially if they've got a big majority, more than one person.

They just basically steamroll right over the minority. Minority can try and make amendments all they want, but they just steamroll them. But you only have a one vote. They only have a one vote margin right now. Now, they say they have the votes.

but what do you expect on the floor? Do you expect that they're actually going to listen to the amendments? Are they going to bring up a new fiscal note with this? Are they going to talk about how they're going to pay for it? Do you think it's going to be a steamroll? i think there could be a couple of amendments that people struggle with and you know that's what we have to figure out is

What are the areas that we could sway their votes and get some stronger policy in? And that's something that the Republicans are discussing right now. We've been saying, hey, what amendments, you know, is everybody going to carry so that we can. be coordinated on this effort and where do we think that we can find agreement. I'm hoping that the correspondence funding can increase to consider a homeschool student equal to one.

right now it's not it's 0.9 it's 90 percent and i think that that amendment will be a struggle for some because correspondence homeschool students represent 25 ish percent of Alaska students statewide. That's one area that that they could possibly struggle with but you know it's hard to tell because if they have a resolve you know they they can just take the hard votes and and and move on.

Now, the interesting thing is right now, yes, they lowered the amount to a thousand dollar BSA. But word on the street is that Senate is going to lower it to 680. So in essence. it almost doesn't matter what the house does for this funding because Lyman Hoffman is already saying that the house is spending too much money, that we can't even afford a 680 PFD.

because the House is wanting to spend all the money on education. So when you have the longest sitting senator, you know, flexing, saying, there's no way that we're going to be funding, you know, to the level that you're wanting. We know there's going to be some changes coming. Yeah, it's because, again, the rule of the day in today's legislation, in this session, the one unsung thing is how do we pay for it?

They're talking about, you know, I mean, you're seeing the news articles. We've talked about the opinion pieces this week of everybody saying, well, it's a thousand dollar PFD. That's all you can get. I mean, we'll be lucky to get a thousand dollar PFD this year, quite honestly.

will be shocked if it's a thousand bucks and i will be shocked that if we get a pfd next year at all uh quite honestly based on the trajectory of spending that we have right now i don't think we're gonna i think this will be the last pfd what do you think i think people need to to truly be engaged in what's been happening with our budget. You know, you saw the controversy that Lyman Hoffman introduced a bill that was 25-75 split on the dividend. 25% to the dividend and 75% to the government.

And I obviously oppose that. My predecessor, Paul Seton, introduced that same bill, you know, what, seven or eight years ago. And my district said, that's it, we're done, because he's not representing the will of the people. And, you know, now it's not just a matter of full dividend. It's a matter of retaining a dividend at all for the people. And it's not because many of us.

don't believe in the statutory formula and want that for the people again it's just that they have uh they have continued on this path of of spending the dividend because there's no other revenue sources. The legislature has been so disconnected from the economy that they have not incentivized growth. to be able to have that natural source of revenue well and the the truth is they haven't fixed the underlying behavior that's caused the problem

I mean, in the late aughts and early teens, as oil spiked and went crazy, they were spending like, you know, drunken sailors. Then when you hit the mid-teens and oil started to crater again. They continued spending like drunken sailors. And that's how you burn through 16, 18 billion dollars out of a CBR over the course of three or four years, because you were spending three billion dollars a year out of your savings.

And when that's gone, they've never addressed that core behavior, which is overspending. It's a dirty word. Nobody wants to talk about fiscal responsibility. Correct. And at this point we have to make some major policy changes to really have the impact. We have to move law in order to shave down. a lot of the excess and a lot of the waste and you know that takes work it takes a lot of determination and people being laser focused and we just haven't

haven't been at that place to do that. We haven't had the will of enough people at the same time in order to make that happen. What people forget is just like what we're seeing in the nation right now. When you have Congress and Doge wanting to do that, the bureaucracy, the people that have been relying on that system, you know, start pitching a fit.

And that's what happens in the state legislature as well. In Alaska, we start saying, hey, I see that you have positions that haven't been filled for a decade. We need that back. And they say, no, no, no, no. We need that money for overtime. There's things that we use that money for. We just got to have it. And it becomes this big tug of war. And you have to have everybody on board in order to make that happen.

And I haven't seen it in the legislature in my entire tenure. No, I mean, that's the thing. I mean, that's the most you're pointing out some of the most egregious stuff when you have had positions that have not been filled for not one year, not two years, not five years, but for. 10 years they've been unfilled and they've been funded and that money has been used. I got questions.

Right. I got questions. If you need overtime, then you should be budgeting for that specifically as overtime, not as another position and using it as a slush fund. And yet we had legislators last year that were like, oh, that's fine. oh that's fine no it's not fine it's not fine because there are positions and places out there uh that are 10 years old and three years old and five years old that have not been filled and it's hundreds of positions

And each one of those is $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 per position. That starts adding up pretty quick when you start looking at that. But we've got to fix the behavior, sir. And that's what I've been saying for years. And that's what's really coming to a head now. Now that all of a sudden everybody in the legislature has found religion and it's like, whoa, how do we pay for it? You know, like this was a shock. Oh, he had no idea this was.

coming. The sand has really surprised us. Have you not been looking at the 10-year forecast for the last 10 years? You know, one of the interesting things is that last year when Bryce Edgeman was a part of our Republican majority, he was saying, guys, I'm really concerned about next year's budget. That one is going to be the really hard one. And I respect him for that. He was looking forward saying.

I know that we are going to fund things this year and do what we can. We have a responsibility to that. But we also need to be looking to the year after that because it's going to be really hard times. And now there's talk about... uh trump wanting the price of oil to get down to 50 a barrel that may be great for the rest of the nation but that's

absolutely detrimental to our state budget. And so we have to be thinking about how we're going to be adjusting revenue. What are we going to be doing to opening up more oil flowing through the pipeline? more resource extraction in a responsible way. And the thing is, we can't turn the spigot on and make that happen tomorrow.

So it's going to be tight budgets, especially when the federal dollars are not going to be flowing into the state like we were before. And every time I'm talking about this, I hear Ben Carpenter. his voice on this, that for years he's been saying, guys, we have to stop relying on the federal dollars. We have to start looking to stimulate the economy, to have the revenue flowing through our communities.

And people acted like he was crazy. Crazy like a fox. I mean, that's the, you know, I mean, that's but that's the thing. Again, it's not like you couldn't see that. I use the analogy for years. The bridge is out. You're in the locomotive. You're in the car looking down the track. You can see the bridge is out. The answer is to apply the brakes.

But instead, the legislature is like, let's shovel some more coal in here and see what happens. That's that's where we're at. You can't jump the gap. There is a fiscal cliff. And when we hit it. It will be painful unless we pull on the brakes now and do something. And that's the problem. There is no discussion. I mean, even.

We had an interview last week with Shelly Hughes. And during the end of the interview, all the Matsu delegation came into her office. And so we got a we got a minute with each person real quick just to say something. And I was asking about who pays.

And a lot of them were talking about new revenues, which, I mean, that's a short-term solution. Because maybe even if you get new revenues, it may fix it for a year or two. But if you do not... change the underlying behavior, which is spending more than we're taking in, it doesn't matter how much revenue you have.

It doesn't matter if we change SB 21 and we get another billion dollars out of the oil industry. It doesn't matter if we, you know, create new revenue streams out of new resources. It doesn't matter because if you don't change that underlying behavior. They'll consume all that. It's Parkinson's principles for government. Right. The spending expands to consume all available dollars. Yes. And that's where we're at, right?

Yes. I mean, you know, Jesus said the poor will always be among us, right? It's we will have a never ending supply of need. That's what that means. And we have people that think that government is supposed to fill every need. And that we have to shift from that mindset in the state of Alaska. We have to help.

We have to help people stand on their own two feet, including the state government, and not rely on the feds, and be able to fund the things that we are responsible for. And right now, we've been relying on the feds. uh since you know before statehood right and it's time that we grow up we have like you said we have to change the way that we're doing business but we also need to look at how we are going to be

bringing revenue to the state. And what's on the table right now is taxing the oil companies that are paying the bills, taxing the people, and drawing more from our savings. If there's one thing that I'm nervous about is that that the Senate will likely do it. And, you know, what is that going to mean? How is it going to end? You know. At the end of this session and next year, what what is going to be left for Alaskans? And I'm concerned because, you know.

We need to have a bright future. We need people to have hope that they're going to be able to afford to live here and not have the heavy burden of government. you know i don't know that the democrats are painting a very good picture for the future yeah well they're definitely not looking towards the future uh beyond the next election cycle in my opinion uh because if you were looking beyond that you'd understand that

You can't continue. Math is hard, but you can't ignore arithmetic, right? That's how you just can't ignore arithmetic. All right. Sarah Vance is our guest. We got one final segment dead ahead. I'm going to argue with some of the chat room people here for just a second. We'll be back with more. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio.

Listened to by more staffers in Juno than any other show. Because their bosses told them to. And after what they just heard, oh man, they're gonna be best. You're a bad, bad man. The Michael Duke Show.

Yeah, they're going to be pissed, but they're not going to change their behavior. I mean, they'll be mad at all the things that I say, but they're not going to be, you know. And so let me just take a couple things. I know Sarah's here, and I don't want to step on her too much here, but let me just go over here real quick because you guys are.

You know, Harold says, just keep giving away our oil and wonder why you're broke. Look, Harold, you and I agree that there's money on the table for the oil companies. I believe that there is still some money, probably four or five hundred million. in total that could be picked up on our finite resources because sb21 has kind of slipped out of you know kilter here but we're not broke because we're letting the oil companies take more money than they were you know

We're broke because we're spending too much. That's why we're broke. Jeannie said, our problem is revenue. If there's a way to ship oil, we need to ship at more production, more sales. No, the problem is not revenue, Jeannie. I mean, I hate to disagree with you. The problem is spending. This has been an argument I had on this show 25 years.

You know, somebody came in and some legislators are, you know, what we really have is a revenue problem. I said, no, we have a spending. When you spend more than you take in, what you have is a spending problem. Now, if you want to generate revenues to equal that out, then fine. Then it's good. But the problem is you've got a cart before the horse thing.

Your spending problem created the revenue problem. You want to generate more revenues first and then spend up to that? Okay, I guess that's arguable. But what we have is, I mean, Sarah, what is it? This is... 12 years now? No. Yeah, 12 years of spending, of deficit spending in the state, of having to draw from the CBR, the SBR, or the PFD.

This is 12 years now, right? Is that right? Because 13, 14, right? That was the first year. Because in 12, 13, 14, we had to draw over $3 billion a year. So here we are, 14 years later, we have a spending problem. You can't say it's not a revenue problem because the revenue was there. They drew it out of savings. We now have nothing left. It's all about spending, and nobody wants to address that.

The spending is so out of control that the managers of the permanent fund corporation are concerned about the 5%. pomb draw that goes to the general fund to pay for state government and the the ability to keep the cushion in the corpus that's concerning people think oh we have all the money in the world but uh the corpus of the permanent fund is there to be able to protect the fund so that we don't drain that to down to nothing and you need to remember that

for the earnings reserve account, it only takes a simple majority of the legislature to spend that. And the corpus of the fund is a higher threshold by... Well, it's constitution. It's constitution. Yeah, well, it is possible, but only through basically through court order. You can't it's you can't act. The legislature cannot access the corpus of the fund.

It would take a court order mandated by something else, like if there's a contractual obligation or something like that. Here's the danger with that. And that's a whole show in and of itself, combining the two funds. That's been the goal all along. The goal all along has been to get access to the corpus. That's really what, and we talk about, well, they drain down the ERA and that guy.

What about the $8 billion? What about the Scrivener's error? What about all these other things? Are you telling me that this is not working as intended? I mean, we've transferred billions of dollars into the corpus of the funds that probably shouldn't have been transferred in there.

We're still putting money in the ERA. They're acting like, well, it will never go back up again. So when they talk about it, they don't talk about the money being deposited every year. This is a Bill Walker thing. He did the same thing. But this is what they want. They want to create a sovereign wealth fund where it's a single account that can be accessed by a simple majority vote. You want to kill the state? There you go. That's how you do it.

They are building that fund to make Alaska a trust fund baby so that government can completely rely on the permanent fund as the source of revenue that's stable it's reliable they know ahead of time what it's going to be and then government can grow with the growth of the fund Yeah, exactly. That's why, remember, their stated goal, was it four years ago, was $105 billion in the front. They figured if they hit $105 billion, then they could draw 5% forever.

And it would just keep going up and they would they would be they would be completely non-reliant on oil or people or the private economy or anything else. It would just grow. But even with that, even with the five percent. That is a set amount that's going to limit the size of government. And when we're having the conversation about a stronger constitutional spending cap.

That is one of the most frightening conversations that people on the left have is because they don't want a cap on spending. And they know that a stronger constitutional spending cap would limit that. And they think that with the fund, there could be unlimited growth. So that's another reason why we haven't had the conversation about putting a lid on the growth of government in Alaska. Because, again, they're terrified of the spend. They're terrified of that right there.

A herald just said, if spending were an issue, you would never have had a $12 billion CBR. That's not true. I'm not saying it was always been an issue. I'm saying it continues to be an issue and nobody wants to address it. And by the way, when we put that money, we had so much money, we didn't know what to do with it. That's why we put money in the CBR. The Michael Duke show seriously humorous with a pinch of the intellect Pinch of Intel. Sorry that is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes Okay

So mean. Pinch of intellect. All right. Let's do this. Sarah Vance is our guest. One final segment with Sarah. I want to give Sarah a little bit of the reins here to talk about some of the other things that she wants to focus on. I mean, this is all we've been talking about. since the beginning of session, right? Is the education, the defined benefits, now Medicaid spending because they, you know, now we're going to have to pick up the bill. I mean, no talk of...

Let's just shut it off. If the feds are not going to pay for it and we don't have the money to pay for it, maybe we should just shut it off. I know people are going to get hurt. I know that there's people you've created dependencies, but maybe I mean, no money. Sorry.

This is why I said we won't have a PFD next year. But anyway, Sarah, final thoughts on anything we were covering before, and then we'll get into what else you want to focus on. I mean, is there anything else you're going to be able to focus on this session? You guide me here. You know, I think so. Once we get the education bill over to the Senate, it'll allow a little bit more breathing room about other things.

you know one of those other things is zach fields is introduced in a retail theft bill that has a two percent tax that the the purchaser will pay so when you go to the store you will pay a sales tax on anything retail that you buy that will go to the the state general fund specifically for law enforcement so you have to pay the tax for your your safety

for all of the extra theft that's going on right now. And I said, I disagree. The law-abiding citizens should have to be paying for other people's criminal activity. So I'm going to be amending that bill. But I think it's a way that he's trying to implement a sales tax in the state, which I find the hypocrisy interesting because Anchorage hasn't even.

activated, enacted a sales tax that they could have been paying for a lot of their wants and needs and dealing with the issues that Anchorage has. Not that I want a sales tax. However, they should be responsible for their own, right? For trying to inflict some of those issues across the state. So, you know, the majority is talking about we have to have taxes.

and where do you think they're going to get it they're going to take your dividend which they're already doing they're they're going to try to impose a sales tax and they're going to be taxing the companies that provide jobs and and growth in the economy and you know it's we're gonna have to hold firm that's That's what's the reality here. But I want people to see this is what Democrats have been wanting. And now since they control both the House and the Senate, we get to see it in full.

Full front row seats to this party. And bright, living in Technicolor. That's what you're saying. I mean, that's what I've been saying for years, right? I mean, the PFD will be gone, and then they'll look at you and go, hmm, sorry, honey. Free rides die hard. Time for you to pay your fair share. That's what's going to come out of it. Although this Zach Fields, I hadn't heard about this bill yet. This Zach Fields bill, how does he designate those funds? There's no dedicated...

I mean, how do you say we're going to put this in the general fund and we're going to spend it on public safety? You can't do that. That's not how the Constitution in the state works, right? Well, it's designated for law enforcement. Well. Again, I've got, I have questions. I know they've used the whole designated versus dedicated thing, but essentially what you're doing is dedicating it to a specific cause. And as you said.

I mean, Anchorage just postponed their vote. They were going to put a 3% sales tax in. They just postponed their vote. Was it because Zach Field said, hold my beer, I'll get the money for you from the state, right? I mean, is that where we're going on this? But you're right. You could see it in all the news.

articles over the last three months, every member of the majority at one point or another said, well, we're going to have to have new revenues in the future. Some of them actually said, we're going to be looking at taxes in the future. But anytime they say new revenues, you better hold on to your wallet.

That's exactly right, because new revenue to them means taxes. And we just do not have the working population to make it happen. So they're going after the companies right now who are paying our bills. you know, when the bill was dropped to tax Hillcorp, that very day we were hearing that Hillcorp was already looking to who they needed to lay off and whether or not they should remain in the state of Alaska anymore. That to me... has serious consequences.

I just don't get the leftist mindset that thinks that that is going to solve our problems. We need to attract businesses here and provide stability so that people want to do business in the state of Alaska. Those dollars circulating through our economy is what strengthens us that what that they provide great jobs. They're the ones who pay the bills and somehow. That basic understanding of how the economy and the world works is not talked about. It's not common knowledge in the capital.

Well, I will say, if you don't think that somebody at the Hillcourt PR department was like, let's leak this. So we'll see. They'll see. We'll serious. I mean. There was the same thing that happened when Giesel talked about this last year. They immediately started saying, well, you know, it's a hell of a nice gas field out there. It'd be a shame if we pulled out. I mean, you know, I mean, come on. They're still making a lot of money. I'm not saying that it's perfect by any means.

but we should at least have a discussion about it. Finite resources, non-renewable resources. It should never be off the table. Yes, it makes some people uncomfortable. But again, my final answer to all this, whether the taxes got increased or not, is it doesn't matter because the underlying behavior is they're going to spend it. If we do increase it.

They'll just spend more because nobody's got fiscal discipline. That's the, that's the main, that's the big problem here. What other bills are you working on here? Sarah got about four minutes. Well. There was House Bill 101 that is raising the age of consent that is introduced by Representative Andrew Gray and I worked with his office on amending that to take care of some concerns that we have but it's it's

It's been a bill that has had a rocky path in the legislature. We want to provide protections for sexual contact. for minors under 18 and right now the age of consent for sexual activity is 16. So he's wanting to raise that to 18. I fully agree with him. You know, he was considered my arch enemy last year in Judiciary Committee.

But I'm working with him on important things this year and we get along fine. We highly disagree on a lot of things. However, this is one area that we say, hey, we need to protect the vulnerable. So that will be.

moving to the next committee and uh you know it just shows we can disagree on a lot of things with the majority but then there's a few key areas that just make sense for alaskans that's some of the stuff that i'm focusing on right now and um you know i have favor with the majority that on some of my other bills that they're going to be hearing in the next couple weeks so i'm highly appreciative because even though we do get out

on fiscal issues there's still some policy that alaskans want us to come together on and actually do something productive right so it is possible The fiscal conversation completely different because we come from very different worldviews. However, there are some smaller items that we can get done.

And there are, there are some issues that you definitely disagree on. I know that you just did your capital minute talking about the red flag law that's being put on by Josephson, which we're going to talk about tomorrow on firearms Friday, but give me a. Give me a 25, 30 second, your thought on that real quick here. So I've been getting a ton of emails about, what is it? House Bill 89, I think. Thank you for emailing.

uh you know because that that really does matter saying do not pass that red flag bill that bill has so many constitutional concerns i think there's what five or six constitutional areas that I don't think it could pass Mester. It's the gun violence protective order bill. by Representative Josephson. He is the chair of House Finance, so it does have a high probability of moving through the legislature. But you know what? I'm looking forward to the fight. I double dog dare them to move that bill.

I think it'd be a great time. Let's, let's do it. Let's talk about it. You know, I would love to get them on the record for voting on that bill. I want to do it. Let's get them on the record talking about gun rights in Alaska. Even there's some Dems out there that would.

just blast them right out of office just vote them right out all right sarah vance our guest thank you uh so much uh and uh coming on board thanks for trying to be pollyanna there at the end i mean you know trying to pump us up we appreciate it thanks for all you do Sarah thanks Michael all right folks that's it for today tomorrow Firearms Friday remember be kind love one another live well we'll see you tomorrow Get on with your bad self, Pollyanna, says Melissa. Get on with your bad self.

All right, Sarah, final thoughts for you today. I give you a final bite at the apple. What, you know, any, I guess, wrap it all up for me in a pretty bow. Well, you know. We're in a really bumpy time, and I told people at the very beginning, it's going to be bumpy right now. We're going to see a lot of changes, but we need this time of exposure. Alaskans have to see.

what the Democrats are going to do when they're in charge of both the House and the Senate. And we have to have this exposure in order to make the changes that we need to. to govern well in the state so don't be afraid don't be concerned that all this crazy is happening uh we just need

our people to do the right thing and to keep pointing us in the right direction. So that's why I'm choosing to be the Pollyanna and saying I'm okay with the exposure that's happening because then people will see the truth. then we can find a way forward. But until people see what's going on, they aren't going to believe us. Yeah. All right. So Monday is going to be the big debate on education. That's when that's when it's going to hit the floor.

That's right. Amendments are going up on Monday morning, so we'll see what happens then. We'll see if they get steamrolled. And I guess no matter what happens, it's going to go over to the Senate, where maybe some cooler fiscal heads will prevail, but still. Even if it's $600, $680 increase, how do we pay for it? I mean, I think this should be the mantra. This should be the bottle. How do we pay? Who pays and how do we pay?

Because taking the PFD, I mean, again, I think the PFD is dead. I've said that earlier this week. I started a show with that. I said, I think it's dead. This will be the last year we get it, probably. And probably in three years, we'll have taxes. And I know people have been railing against me for years because we've been talking about taxes on the show, not because I want taxes, but because we should have a discussion so that when they do come upon us, because it was inevitable.

we would at least have a say and be educated on which tax works the best and hurts us the least. I'm just saying. the most regressive tax because it even taxes children. The conversation about the 25-75 split is happening in the Senate. They're taking public testimony. you need to have your voice in that. And it needs to be one of reason. I don't like it, but that could be the way that we, the only way that we have a guaranteed dividend. And I don't like it as much as you do.

But I want people to see that might be our only shot right now. It's hard to say, but that's kind of where we're at right now, unfortunately. All right, Sarah Vance. Thank you. Thank you, Liberty Bell. She was just a perfect angel the whole time. I don't even know what to do. So it was great.

I appreciate you coming on board, and we will talk to you again here soon. I mean, maybe we'll revisit after Monday. I mean, it's going to be interesting to see what happens on Monday. So we'll see what it looks like. So thank you for coming on. Sounds good, Michael. Appreciate you. Appreciate you being part of it today. All right, my friends. Well, hello. Why is it? What's going on? There we go. Wow, that was weird.

All right. We are out of time for today, my friends. Got to go. Full day. Busy day today. We will see you tomorrow with Firearms Friday. Be kind, love one another, live well. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We'll see you. Have a good one. you Lizard.