Thursday 5/8/25 | Senate Presser Recap part 2 | FNSB Brett Rottermund

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The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Oh, yeah. Live around the world on the internet at MichaelDukesShow.com and across the state of Alaska. on this your favorite radio station and or fm translator hello my friends welcome to the program it is the thursday edition of the show and uh we are We are ready. We're ready, ready to go. Ready to go. It's been an interesting week. in the legislative session, and we're going to continue some of our discussion on it.

Yesterday, the Senate passed their final budget of the final version of the House, excuse me, of the operating budget back, and now they've passed it, passing it over to the House. We're expecting conference committee to meet. next week. And, um, Well, we're going to talk about that as well as continuing our discussion and breakdown of what took place in the... Senate majority presser this last week, this week.

It's a very interesting thing, and I don't know if you guys enjoyed it yesterday. I certainly did. being able to look at some of the things that were being said by our elected leaders, especially those who are in power in the majority. In their own words, I guess, more than anything else. And so it's some interesting stuff. And we're going to continue to go down that road. I got some of the, I started to watch some of the things that happened on the floor yesterday.

But I ran out of time. You know, that's the thing. Part of the problem here that we're dealing with is... just the availability of people to be able to kind of follow along at home unless you're watching for hours at a time. You're not catching a lot of this stuff. And for those of us who are doing this, Not as a... full-time gig, right? Don't have a researcher, don't have a producer, don't have somebody who can peruse several hours of discussions.

to pull out all the relevant points, it makes it harder. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying, how is the average person who's busy holding a job down and doing all this stuff, both to follow along at home, and then just get the highlights from the local news, you know, where they... In my mind, it's very obvious when their own biases are kind of on display as well at the same time. Well, it's frustrating. It's frustrating. I started working on that last night at...

I don't know, it was 5.30, 5.15, something like that. And after an hour and a half, I was like, I can't do this anymore. I've got to go have some supper. Get ready for bed, right? You know, so it's how is everybody else who's holding a job down, you know, business owners or employees or, you know, we're not watching it during the day. And so I'm thinking that as we get a little better at this, it's hopefully this is something that we'll do more often where we actually have.

the actualities of people on the floor and what they say in support or in opposition to certain things out there. I really enjoyed yesterday. And I'm hoping you did as well, because we're going to continue here this morning. It was only a 25-minute press conference, but... It took us most of an hour to get through half of it. It was really like, wow, there's a lot to parse out here and a lot to break down. In hour two, after we finish up with the...

After we finish up with the press information, press availability, we will take some phone calls from you and see... You know, what are your thoughts after we've kind of analyzed it all and taken a look at things? I'm interesting. I'm interested to see what you guys have to say as well. So we'll open up the phone lines in hour two to get back with it. Um...

So I guess let's just get started. For those of you who weren't here yesterday, we've got the full press availability up and broken down. There were some interesting highlights. in that, including the fact that... It seems like some of the leadership in the Senate just doesn't want you to... They want you to be concerned about next year, but they really want you to focus on this year.

We've heard Bert Stedman say several times that one of the reasons why they've cut the size and scope of the dividend this year, it's only $1,000. which has been pointed out is with inflation is the lowest PFD since the permanent fund dividend since it first started. It's the lowest one ever at a flat $1,000 per person payment. One of the reasonings that they gave for that was, of course, well, we need to prepare for next year.

And then later on, they go back to say, Stedman specifically goes back to say, I don't want people really focused. It's not that, you know, we shouldn't, well, this is what he said. The Senate President listed off of a series of headwinds that we're facing. I just don't want the public to dwell too much into that arena. We see them coming. We're going to try to deal with them. I'd like to have a focus on the FY26 budget and the recognition that

that next year might be tougher. So, but he doesn't really want us paying attention to, you know, I just don't want the public to dwell too much into that arena. I just don't want the public to dwell too much on that. Because if they did, If the public did... Pay attention to that. They'd be like, well, they might ask the question, how did we get here? How did we... How did we get here? If we didn't want to, you know, why are we doing, you know, why are we doing this if we did? And so it.

There are definitely some interesting things that took place yesterday in some of the questions and some of the commentary. that came out of the, or not yesterday, but this week, came out of the press availability. That was one that struck me, though. was this idea that somehow we shouldn't be paying attention to what's happening in the long term. It's all about the short term.

It's all, you know, that's the thing. We don't want you focusing on that. You know, we'll let you know that we're having it, but don't focus on the full fiscal picture. Don't look at, we want you to look at this year and then understand that next year is going to be hard. Yeah, okay, I get that. I got the point on that. But how did we get here and how do we get out of it is the question.

And that doesn't seem to be the question that they're asking themselves, let alone talking about it with the public. So anyway, yesterday we had just finished up all the commentary from the various legislators and senators. And we were just getting into some of the questions from some of the reporters that were in the room. Now, I commented yesterday. Somebody sent me a text.

or a message and said, well, that can't possibly be as true. And I was, because I was saying that every time you watch the video of this, which is all this video and audio is coming from KTOO, right? The gavel to gavel. But every time you watch it, there's like four people in the room outside of the staff that work there. And they're all reporters. There's no public there. You know, there's no opportunity for the average Alaskan who doesn't happen to live in the Juneau area to be there.

I mean, they could have flown down, I suppose, for this one meeting at, you know, $2,000, $3,000 or whatever it cost to do it. But yeah, it's true. There's just a handful of people in the room. But they started to ask the questions. And so we're going to get into some of the questions.

And we covered Sabatini's question yesterday, but I think we'll probably revisit it here as we go through. But I'll give you a little bit of a better idea of where these people are at and kind of some of the questions that are being asked. in this price availability. Let's start over here. I've got to catch up on where I'm at here. I believe it's right.

Becky, to answer your question, the Finance Committee... Okay, so this was Becky Borer from the Associated Press asking the question. And much of the revenue that is generated... No, let's... Yeah, Senate Bill 113, also known, deals with apportionment. This was Wilikowski talking about his so-called non-tax tax bill. Which I have got some serious questions on. But we'll get back to it. All right. Go ahead Maggie. Hi, maybe for the... The co-cairs, please. In 2023, the Senate passed a 2575.

bill. And at that time, there were cautions that, you know, we could reach a point where 25% wasn't affordable for our dividend. because today we're at a point where that minimum is being perhaps you know pushed aside with the budget considerations and the house is having discussions about

rewriting the dividend and who should qualify for a dividend if it should be based on income. So I'm wondering if If lawmakers aren't able at this point to hold to what many thought was a minimum just a couple years ago, what facial actions have that the program and any traditional stance will continue? And could it be true, I guess? What needs to happen to insure a dividend program or a dividend for all of our students can see or is that an idea that it's self-advented?

So, I mean, this is a great question because she's talking specifically about now we're revisiting it. Now we're talking about whether there'll be means testing and everything else. And her question is, How can Alaskans have faith that this program will continue? What do we need to do to ensure it? It's a good question. It's a very good question. And unfortunately it doesn't really get answered. uh but i mean they're they're gonna they're gonna try and do some some cat swinging here but

She is asking what a lot of people are asking. How can we trust you? If you said that 75, because that's what the Senate president said last year, when asked about a long-term fiscal plan, They said, well, 75-25 is our fiscal plan. That was Gary Stevens. That was almost a direct quote. That is our fiscal plan. And now we're seeing that. She just said that's basically being thrown to the wayside. What do we need to do to fix this? The answer is...

Well, underwhelming. Let's just put it... Thanks, Ricky. We only have one co-chair here, so we'll go to... Well, Becky, to answer your question, the Finance Committee has targeted 75-25 in the Senate for several years. And that would be the split from changing the statutory formula. We've had an unprecedented expansion in our oil basin which has led to billions of dollars in expenditures coming against the revenue stream.

So, you know, at first I thought he was going to say we've had billions of dollars in expansion in our government spend. But no, instead, he's going to say it's because we've expanded our oil stuff. And so they're writing it off again. So we're seeing a hit. this is then it becomes about well it's the oil company you know they're the ones that are it's not has nothing to do with us

has to do with the fact that they're expanding their operations in Alaska and they're riding that off against their revenues. And so we don't, you know, we're seeing a lower, basically we're not getting what we should be getting is what he's saying. We've had an unprecedented expansion in our oil basin which has led to billions of dollars in expenditures coming against the revenue stream which has pushed down our revenue. Then we've had declining oil prices.

And other headwinds that we're dealing with so this year we were forced to balance a budget with less than a 25% dividend. We also had serious concerns on school funding that needed to be addressed. So what they're saying is that, you know, we were forced to balance the budget on 75-25. Which is a choice. They had a choice. They could have cut back on other services. They could have eliminated, again, how many times have we tried to eliminate the PCN?

The permanent, the positions that are funded but not filled. How many times last year? How many times this year? Tens of millions of dollars that could have been freed up. But they don't want to do that. So they didn't. So when they said we were forced. To balance the budget against the PFD, That's a choice that they've made.

We're not making, but the answer is, we're not making enough money because, you know, the old companies, they took all this and then, and then, so we were just forced to do it. We were forced to take the easy road. So the dividend portion this year will be $1,000. per person. I hope that's not anyway. Which is what she just said. I mean, you're just, thank you, Captain Obvious. I hope that's not.

Anyway permanent that we get through these next couple years financially and we get the ship kind of turned around and we get some flexibility in our expenditures I hope this is not... It just doesn't sound very hopeful, does it? We get some flexibility in our expenditures. Which is only going to happen if they get new revenues, right? Because they're just not in our expenditures to not only deal with increased dividends, but also increased capital budget.

to help us push back on our deferred maintenance and other things. But there is a limited amount of funds. So we have to stay within the recurring revenue. The fallback of going into the CBR looks to me to be Very dangerous. There's only about $3 billion in there. And if the headwinds continue the way they appear to be the last couple months, we could walk through that little bit of money in no time at all. So we're saving that for a rainier day than there is today.

for the rainier day. I mean, it's monsoon season outside, and you still are like, well, it needs to be a rainier day than today. You know, what it sounds like is we're going to be saving that for down the road. We're going to burn through it, but just not today. Just not today. They're just extending the inevitable. They're refusing to face the reality that cuts have to happen.

Now they've talked about some new revenues. That's also probably going to be part of the issue, but they won't even acknowledge that cuts have to happen. They fight against, again, empty positions. Empty positions. that have got money attached to them. Some of them for years and they won't do it. that we're We're going to be back with more The Michael News. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand. Oh, and it's America is...

Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live. MichaelDukesShow.com I mean you can't make this stuff up folks. You literally... I hope it's not permanent. I hope it's not permanent. Rob said, I tried to pull $10 million in empty positions yesterday. Positions that have been empty for two plus years. No good. I mean, no joy in Mudville.

I... very dangerous there's only about three billion dollars in there and if the headwinds continue the way they appear to be the last couple months we could walk through that. little bit of money and no time at all so we're saving that for a rainier day than it is than there is today If there's continuous headwinds, you mean headwinds that you guys created yourself? I mean, granted, the market situation is troubling and it does make it harder.

but you guys set this all up as like if this is like the perfect storm of we've just grown government and grown government and grown government to the point now to where it is it's growing on its own to the point to where you're not going to be able to keep up. You're just not going to be able to. She asked the perfect question. And he still hasn't answered that question. They don't have any. Because she said, how do we? How do we?

Keep it, right? If lawmakers aren't able at this point to hold to what many thought was a minimum a couple years ago, what facial actions have that the program in any traditional sense will continue? Yeah, what faith do they have? And could you speak to, I guess? That's the thing. What needs to happen? They never answer. They never answer what needs to happen because they have no plan. I mean, they had a plan. It was 75-25. But that lasted all of, what, 10 months?

11 months, and here they are back already. They have no plan. I mean, she's asking, what do we do? Is that an idea itself that is antiquated? I mean, come on. Come on. Their plan, says Chris, is to end the dividend. You cannot expect them to say that in plain English. The problem is, Chris, they could take all of the dividend. All of it. and there's still not enough money.

next year, potentially next year the dividend could just go away, and I don't think they would still have enough money to balance the entire budget next year for the proposed budget of what's going to be happening. Still not enough. We haven't even gotten into the supplemental. From this year. Right? The supplemental budget from this year, which gets super interesting. It gets real squidgy around there. Another $200 million that nobody's really even talking about.

Why do I keep using we? Well, you know, because. All right, we're going to continue. Here we go, The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We're going to keep rocking and rolling along here as we go through this. Please like and share, like and follow, do all that kind of stuff. Let's keep going. There we go. Two. One. The Michael Duke Show. versus right. I had to look that word up too. I don't think it means what he thinks it means. Dukes!

Okay, we're continuing now breakdown of the Senate press majority presser this week. And, you know, I just, again, I want to highlight the question that Becky asked, Becky Borer of the Associated Press asked early on, that they never end up answering. But again, just a reminder, this was the big part of her question during the briefing that never got answered.

This is what she said. What needs to happen to ensure a dividend program or a dividend for all of our actions continues? Or is that an idea that itself is antiquated? What needs to happen? Or is it an idea that's antiquated? Bert Stedman continues to go on and on about, well, we just had to. We just had to. Never answering how we fix it. A little bit of money and no time at all.

So we're saving that for a rainier day than there is today. That's right. They're saving all that money and thing for a rainier day than it is today. So I think there's a lot of elected officials that have not given up on the 75-25 split. And we will see what the future brings. Thank you. They haven't given up. We'll see what happens. what it was i think was rob said earlier hold

is not a plan. Hope is not action to fix the problem. They never respond to what the answer to her question was. How do we ensure that the PFD survive? Nope. No answer. No answer at all. Okay, thank you, Senator Sabanin. Thanks, Becky, for your question. We'll go on to our next question. Never even answered the question. Never even got into it. Mark Sabatini, you know I'm higher. So this is the one that we played yesterday, and I'm going to replay it because...

It's such a setup question. And at the end, Jesse Keel gets involved in what I just think is one of the most ridiculous... Well, let's just put a ridiculous commentary. By the way, you remember in the last segment I mentioned they won't even cut How many times have we tried to cut empty positions to try and make this better? You know, positions that are funded but not filled?

Rob Myers said yesterday he put in an amendment to pull $10 million in empty positions out yesterday. Positions that have been empty for more than two years. No joy. They can't even remove positions from yesterday. Follow up, I guess, for you as well, Senator Stedman, which is the $1,000 dividend prompted some fairly predictable reactions and comments from folks going...

You're stealing $2,800 of my money. Find another way to make this work. And so I'm hoping you can... spell out, take a scenario where you've got your $12 billion budget, you don't tap the CBR, and using discretionary funds only, tell me how you construct a budget. That provides a full PFD.

and doesn't tap the CBR. What would you have to do, cut, or otherwise adjust to make that happen? Well, that's like asking the captain of the Titanic, what are you going to do after you ran into the iceberg? You've got bilge pumps, turn them on. You're not going to save that ship no matter what.

So under your scenario, the ship sinks. The scenario that we want to go down is looking ahead and steer away from the iceberg. The ship is... sinking we've already hit the iceberg that's the thing i mean his analogy is so far off we've already hit it I mean, you know, it's like the fiddlers are on the deck doing their thing and everything else. And we're like, well, we'll hold that till next year when we really need it. That's what we're going to try to do is avoid it.

Quick follow, I guess what I was trying to illustrate is... I don't know what's discretionary, what you can cut. If you can provide examples of, we'd have to eliminate the entire Department of Education or whatever. Has any scenario ever been constructed up? Here's how we could cut $2 billion out of the budget. I think $2 billion of general funds out of 4.5 or 4.8 is rather daunting, if not impossible. you know I'm hoping that after we deliver the

cutting 2 billion out of 4.8 billion in general fund spending is, you know, daunting if not impossible. Yeah, but you won't even cut a little bit. That's the thing. It all starts with a single step. But you won't cut anything. I mean, I'm hoping that after we deliver the FY26 budget to the governor and he implements it. that he instructs his team in preparation for the FY27 budget to look at programs that we can eliminate.

that we could get political support within the legislature to shrink the expenditure side, because the revenue side is going to be contracted. next year and some of the flexibility that we're using this year won't be available next year. So again, he wants to lob this grenade back into the governor's court. Well, I hope that the governor next year, you know, puts a budget together and cuts him. He did that.

In 2018, 2019, they did that. They put a budget together with the help of Donna Ardwin, one of the most brilliant women on the planet when it comes to governmental fiscal matters. They put a plan together. And it was like people were stabbing kittens everywhere. That's how bad it was. But now you want to lob the thing back over the fence and say, nope, it's back in your court, Governor. We hope that he does it. Because they don't want to make the hard decisions.

I mean, that's obvious from yesterday's vote on eliminating $10 million worth of positions that haven't been filled in two and a half years or two years. And they said no. But we really hope that the governor will step up and that he instructs his team in preparation for the FY27 budget to... look at programs that we can eliminate He tried that. You guys beat the piss out of him. I mean, you absolutely beat the fight out of the governor. He's not been the same since. Barely survived a recall.

Because of what he... And now you're like, well, you should just continue to... Oh, okay. And it would be, in my opinion, in the state's best interest for the chief executive of the state to pursue that path. versus just do a cookie cutter budget and put it back on the table next December.

Well, the governor has no appropriating power, so it's just a guideline anyway. Now, granted, I've often made the argument that if you were going to do it, you should make a good guideline to start with, but these are the folks... that are in charge of the money. They are the ones that have the constitutional authority to do it. Oh, I'd rather have the governor do it. Of course you would!

Because you have no plan. So we'll see what the governor does in the next budget submission. But the handwriting is on the wall with bold letters. and the Finance Committee is putting their foot on the brake, like I mentioned a couple months ago, to the point where some people's lips are going to be on the windshield. I love his analogies. They're so colorful, so colorful. Yes, Michael in the chat room just said, this is the same guy that was told by Donna Ardwin that we were out of money.

She said that, and he said that was the wrong answer. But here we are. Here we are, out of money. So this is an amazingly difficult situation we are in. This is Gary Stevens, who I'm getting more and more convinced. Well, I'll let his words speak.

so this is an amazingly difficult situation we are in and we're asking pretty much impossible things of our finance committee we know that we've got oil prices going down it could be somewhere in the mid 60s possibly or more um we know that we have contracts that uh we hadn't we knew we were coming they were coming we didn't know how much it would be

possibly within the 45 or more million dollar range we know that the federal government may be cutting we understand they may be cutting up to five percent maybe more so it's just a lot of unknowns right now mark i think uh we simply can't ask those questions We simply can't ask those questions. A lot of unknowns. We simply can't ask those questions. We simply can't ask those questions.

We simply can't ask. And again, this is where Stedman goes on to say, well, we shouldn't focus on this. The Senate president listed off of a series of... headwinds that we're facing. I just don't want the public to dwell too much into that arena. I just don't want... I don't want the public to dwell on that because, you know...

Then they might ask the question, well, how did we get here and how do we get out? They may ask more Becky Borer questions like, how do we guarantee that this is going to continue to happen? How do we do that? That's what we're... Senator Stevens, President Stevens. And then Kathy Gaisel gets involved. Oh, we didn't even hear from her yesterday, but this is what, this is what, this, she's already planning on the next steps, folks.

already planning on the next steps, the next evolution of what they're going to do for our money. Thank you, Senator Gerson. Senator Stevens, President Stevens outlined the challenges along with Senator Steadman. One thing they didn't mention is the Permanent Fund Corporation earning reserve account. is forecast to be jeopardized in terms of having enough money in it to even put out a percent of market value that we've been expecting.

You might remember that part of the reason why they don't have enough money in there is because of the ad hoc transfers championed by the aforementioned Senator Steadman. $8 billion that was transferred out of the ERA in three different transfers. That's one of the reasons why they don't have enough. This is a crisis of their own making in this regard to this component. Why? Oh, she's going to tell you why. To be jeopardized in terms of having enough money in it to even put out

a percent of market value that we've been expecting every year. It's paying 60% now of our general fund, right? Our unrestricted general fund. So in the next three, four years, That liability that chance of not having enough funding there is is becoming very real We need to do something to modernize the permanent fund corporation and how the bill... I love that phraseology because otherwise it's antiquated. Right?

It's antiquated. We need to modernize it, to bring it up to what everybody else is doing. Otherwise, it's just ancient and old and decrepit. Words matter, folks. She may be a weasel, but she is very good at talking about this stuff. Words matter. We need to do something to modernize the permanent fund corporation and how that fund is structured as well, which is another big letter.

And so I do hope the public is paying attention. I do hope that they understand the gravity of the place that we're in. says this is all a sales pitch for sjr 14 rob can correct me if i'm wrong sjr 14 which is the combining of the era into the corpus of the fund why because that's the next big pot of money. That's the next big, because folks, they understand. There's not much left of the permanent fund dividend. That's gone. That's gone.

So they're already looking to the horizon for the next... cookie jar that they can raise. Thank you, Senator Kiesel. Uh, no, uh, please, uh, Senator Kiehl. Just even Kiehl, yes. Briefly. Okay, this is Kiehl responding to Sabatini's question. on, well, how do we get, what does a $2 billion cut look like? And again, this is one of those most, this is what in arguments, Socratic debate, they call this reducto-redictum, which is reduction to the ridiculous, right?

This is Jesse Keels. Couldn't find it anywhere else, but here's what he has to say. Mr. President, I think it points to the need also to look at the revenue side of the picture. We should always look for the most efficient possible ways to deliver government services. We should always be in conversation with Alaskans about whether there are things We don't necessarily need the government to do when we talk about a permanent fund dividend in $1,000 1100 ranges. It's about 650 700 million dollars

Which begs the question, does he think that's something that we need to do? See how he juxtaposed those two things? When we look at things that we really need to do, he's holding it up. Is it something that we really need to do? 700 million dollars. is the unrestricted general fund and the smallest 11 maybe 12.

departmental budgets I say departmental I include branches of government so to get that kind of savings just starting from the bottom you'd close the entirety of the Department of Commerce Military and Veterans Affairs, we just wouldn't do that anymore. Environmental Conservation. Labor. Workforce Development. The Governor's Office.

Department of Revenue, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Fish and Game, whole Department of Law, the entirety of the legislature, all of the Department of Administration. And probably about half the judicial branch to get to that level. That's $700 million. See how they're pitting the PFD against basic government services. Those are the lowest departments.

That's what he did. He started at the departments with the smallest budget. He never looked at the big picture stuff, education, Medicaid, those kind of things, where we could find big chunks of money cut out of it. But again... This is, again, the reducto ridiculous right there. Thank you for that reality check, Senator. Oh, it's a reality check. Oh, thank you for that reality. Thank you for that reality check, Senator. Yes, please. No. Yes, go ahead.

This is when Jeff Landfield asks a question. And you can see the look on Stephen's face, and he's like, okay, yes, telling his guy who's the next guy. And then he sees Jeff Landfield, and he's like, no! I've got to be honest, I kind of like Landfield's style. I really do. Anyway, here it is. Yes, please. No, yes, go ahead, please. Am I restricted?

i want to ask about the fy25 deficit and unless i'm mistaken there's no mechanism right now and i think it's about 190 or 200 million dollars so however How are you going to fund that? Is that a CBR thing? He's talking about the deficit. He's talking about the supplemental budget. The $200 million in supplemental budget. Horror. How are you going to fund that? Is that a CBR thing? And I know the house is going to work. difficult with the threshold for the what's required to do that. Thank you.

The supplementary budget, which is, for those watching, is the budget adjustments for this current fiscal year that ends the end of June. Ballpark is around $200 million. Those items were delivered to us from the administration, from the governor. I think we added four or five million, maybe five million for fire in the Senate.

It's being split. There's a capital budget and the operating budget, of course. So the supplementary budget we split in half. We took the capital to the capital budget for FY27. as a vehicle to carry it all right i i just realized that i got so wrapped up in this that i'm running late so we're gonna pick this up on the other side don't go don't go anywhere

Sorry. Sorry about that, man. I'm getting so wrapped up in this whole thing. I got distracted. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to be back with more. Don't go anywhere. Michael Duke Show. Common Sense. Your mental suppository. The Michael Duke Show. I was like six minutes late. I just realized I got so wrapped up in this. I'm like, holy cow, I gotta go. Anyway, guys, guys, guys, guys.

I mean, come on. Kathy Giesel, the thinly veiled attack on the permanent fund itself and on the PFD. This is where they're... Can you see it? I mean, can you... Oh, they're rubbing their... Oh, I can't wait. They're rubbing their hand. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Look at that big, big juicy pot of money. I don't... Oh, yeah. Right? They just can't wait to get their hands on that money. They just can't wait. Say please. I mean, they are really ready to get their hands.

on that big pot of money, and that's what they're pushing for next, because they've exhausted pretty much all of the other avenues. That is the last gasp. if they get access, if they combine the funds, if they are able to shove the ERA and modernize it, if they're able to shove the ERA into the corpus, they're going to have smooth sailing for 10 years. Smooth sailing for 10 years. They'll just keep drawing down the fun balance.

Until the point to where it's diminishing returns and then that just, you know. And by that time, they won't care. By that time, I asked a question of somebody in Juneau the other day because I told him, I said, I'm a little frustrated. I'm a little depressed about what's going on. I'm a little, you know, it's just like, how do we, how do we do, you know? And I said, how can these folks not see what's coming and what's on the horizon?

and the genuine reaction from this person who's, you know, in Juneau, behind the scenes, You know, fly on the wall watching all this stuff-wise. They don't care. They live on the gravy train and don't know how to make a living or get re-elected without all the government dough. So they'll ride this plane all the way into the ground and then bail completely to another state.

they just don't that you know what that's the only answer that makes sense is that they really don't care because in the end they've got a parachute and a ripcord and they can pull it and go somewhere else They're going to ride the gravy train, the power train, all the way out to the end. 아멘 Wow! Alright, but it's... Yeah, Michael says modernize it, LMAO. It's the code for a feel-good word for stealing more from anywhere they can and sticking you with the bill. I mean, that's...

That's what's going on. And yeah, Brian said, that's a pretty sad commentary. You're right. It is a sad commentary from somebody who's been in Juno for years and who understands who's watching it. I mean, I was just like, tell me, give me some good news. Come on, man. Give me some good news. Tell me what does it look like? And the bottom line is, they just don't care. They're riding the gravy train to power.

Yesterday, Rob Myers tried to, again, just remove $10 million worth of unfilled positions. And they said no. They're willing to cut your PFD. Money that would go into your pocket that would, you know, undoubtedly, without a nobody can debate, would affect the private sector and help Alaskans. And they said no to cutting unfunded positions because those folks in government might need those funds sometime for something else.

Whether it's hiring more employees, and they don't want to have to have them come back and ask permission for more funding, or using it for a slush fund for overtime for their current employees or whatever, they will... No. They're just, no. No. Which again, just proves what my source in Juno is basically saying. It just proves what's going on. They don't...

They live on the gravy train and don't know how to make a living or get re-elected without all the government dough. So they'll ride that plane all the way into the ground, and then they'll bail out completely to another state. or live on the largesse that they've collected by being in the legislature for 30 years and getting that big juicy retirement paycheck that none of the rest of us are getting. Paid for by us. The Michael Duke Show. Not your daddy. Wait, sorry. Not your name.

Stand for a second. We were going down It's amazing how long this takes. Amén. Bitch, it is. I will get through it. I mean... It's a 26 minute presser. And I'm like, oh, we'll get through the rest of this in an hour. And I'm still only 18 minutes into it. Okay. So we're obviously not going to finish everything up this hour. I'm going to pick back up at the top of the hour with the remainder of this, and then we'll do it. We were just talking in the chat room during the break.

and some of the commentary from some of the listeners there kind of triggered me to something that had happened earlier this week. I'd sent out... I, you know, I got people that I know in Juno and, and, uh, you know, I'm asking behind the scenes questions. What's the feel, what's going on? What is it? What does it feel like? Everything else. And, um, and, uh, Hold on a second, Brad. And I said, how does it feel? What's going on down there?

And I told him, I expressed my concern. I expressed my frustration saying, how can we continue this way? How can these folks not see what is coming? And his answer, a guy who's been down in Juneau for years, who's watched behind the scenes, who's seen all this stuff, says, they don't care.

They live on the gravy train and don't know how to make a living or get reelected without all the government dough. So they will ride the plane all the way into the ground and then bail completely to another state.

That, I mean, that... that's it they just they don't that could be the only answer as to why when i say how can these folks not see this coming how can they see you know not see what's going to be happening how can they not see it And he's like, well, it's because they don't care, which means they do see it.

But they're going to milk it out until they absolutely can't milk it out anymore, which makes more sense now with Bert Stedman saying, well, we're going to hold that back for an even rainier day. I mean, rainier. I mean, it's a 4-5 hurricane outside, but an even rainier day, we'll just save it up for that. I mean, folks, you can't make this stuff up. This is the direction that we're going, and I honestly do not know how to stop it.

I mean, I thought by bringing this up and getting people motivated and agitated and irritated and all that kind of stuff, I thought that would... But you just obviously cannot make this... I don't know how to fix it I wish I did. I wish I could wave my magic wand. I'd be a benevolent dictator. I'm just saying. All right, we got more coming up. Hour two is dead ahead. The Michael Duke Show. Common sense, liberty-based, free-thinking radio.

Okay, try it again. Alright, Brett Rottermund is joining us right now. Why? Well, because I forgot that I got so wrapped up in this press conference stuff. I forgot he was coming on. And so this is me. This is my bad show host is part of the problem. So you with us, Brett? Yep, I am here. Okay, good. Alright, so we're going to bring Brett on here and talk about

Damn, I hate changing gears like this. We're going to talk about his run for the borough assembly where he's probably experiencing some of the, for re-election, where he's probably experiencing some of exactly the same things in the local levels that folks are experiencing down in Juneau. But basically, there's just folks there that just don't care. They just want the power.

They just want to get it. They just want to do what they got. It's all about them, the power, and keeping it on track there. Um, so we're going to, uh, uh, we're going to pull here. I'm just looking for, I thought I had a picture of, uh, Brett, uh, here on my deal. Cause he can't apparently, something's wrong with a link for him to get on board. All right, so, Brett, I'll be back to you here in just a second, and don't go anywhere. We're going to be back with...

We're going to figure all this out. Okay. Man, uh... Sorry. There we go. I was looking for the pictures and the images and everything else. Okay. All right. We're going to get Brett. Scored away here. I got his picture now. I got his picture. So we'll put that into the screen so that everybody can see it. Everybody knows who we're talking to. Yada, yada. And then we'll get back to this. Okay. And... Boom. Okay. all right so uh i will also get caught up in the chat room um

I can't stretch this stuff out. Tomorrow's Firearms Friday. I cannot stretch this out into tomorrow, but we'll spend a good two segments with Brett here, and maybe we'll finish up at the end of the hour. with the final stuff for the press conference. So there we go. All right. Taking a look at some of the comments there. There we go. Alright. I'm doing three things, folks. You know how badly I suck at that sometimes. Let's get this squared away. Alright, there we go. Alright.

Alright, got it. Go back to the comments. Um... As Miguel just said, as a private citizen, in your opinion, Brett, right? As a private citizen, because, you know, that's the thing now is that they got everybody down there. They got the freaking, the opinion Nazis down there and are up in Fairbanks.

who are, you know, if you don't absolutely say... if you don't absolutely say this is my own public, my own private opinion, they'll immediately say, well, you're trying to express your opinion for the entire borough assembly because, you know. I mean, you know, okay. It's some of the most ridiculous stuff I've ever seen, but you know, this is how they roll. This is how they roll down there.

All right, so Brett's on the line. We're going to jump in with Brett here in just a minute. Again, we'll take him for a couple segments, and then... we'll go and jump over to our final thoughts on this press conference because there's still some hot stuff in there that I want to get into and we will continue on.

Okay, more comments here. Sorry. Um... Senator Schauer threw two PFD increase amendments out, then pulled them out before the vote so the worms couldn't count votes as rhinos and vote for an increased PFD, knowing it would fail. That's probably a good idea. You guys have been talking about the anti-dragger, anti... Is that the anti-trawler legislation?

Apparently it's been stuck down in committee. Nobody wants to hear it. Kevin says write an email to house.fisheries at akleg.gov and tell them to bring the bill HB 203 up for a hearing. Every bill deserves a hearing. So they're sitting on that as well. Melissa said, it makes me wonder when people will start to vote better. I don't think they're going to. I mean, it's the whole vote harder thing, right? How are you going to vote harder? People aren't even paying attention to what's going on.

I don't know. Like I said, I don't have an answer for you. Whoa, buddy. 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. Entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. Not just me asking.

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 stealing! Cup of freedom. Hallelujah. ¡Vamos! Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. 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. Good morning, my friends.

Welcome back to hour two of the show for Thursday. We were just going through this press conference still. I was going to carry it over. But I forgot, because I'm a bad radio host. I'm bad at my job sometimes. I forgot that I had invited Brett Rottermund. Sorry, Brett Rottermund. I can't remember how he pronounces it. He'll tell me in a second.

Anyway, Bulletproof Brett up onto the show to talk about his candidacy for re-election at the Fairbanks North Star Borough up in Fairbanks. He is an assembly member right now. part of the cadre that's been trying to hold back the size and scope of government in Fairbanks, which has been, well, it was a losing proposition before I left Fairbanks.

I remember when I got on the assembly, it was pretty split, like a 4-5 split, you know, or even a 4-4 with some moderates in the middle. By the time I left, there was only two conservative voices left on the assembly, me and Lance Roberts. And it was going downhill fast from there. So, I mean, I admire folks who jump back on there. They're trying to bring back some balance to the assembly. They fought some tough fights.

and they got more coming up. So without further ado, let's jump on over to him and get a chance to talk to Brett Rottermund here about what's happening at the FNSB in the Assembly. Good morning, Brett. How are you, my friend?

Good morning. Sorry to kind of slow down your thunder there. I don't need a whole lot of time if you want to get back to that because it's pretty... pretty interesting stuff no yeah no that's my fault not your fault brett so i don't don't feel bad about it it was just one of those things where it was kind of jarring where i was like i'm in a role and then oh man i forgot totally what an idiot all right

Get back to that stupid local politics stuff again. Well, you know what? That's the thing. It's not stupid. That's the thing. The local politics... are the things we have control over. You're proof positive of that, right? I mean, you're proof positive of what can happen when people get involved at the local level. I remember when you first wanted to run, you called me and we talked about it.

And, you know, I said the same thing that I've told many people when they call and ask me about running. This is the place where you can make the most difference is in your community. You can make the most difference in your cities, in your boroughs. Then you get to the state, and that's about the extent of our real influence these days. you know, is in state politics. Everything beyond that is kind of out of our control. But where we need to focus is right here in our own communities.

And you've done a pretty hardy job of trying to protect us from what's going on out there. So tell me... Tell me a little bit here about you're coming up. The election is in October. October 7th. October 7th. So tell me, you know, what, you know, as you look back.

Well, first of all, for folks who are in Fairbanks and don't know who Brett Rotterman is, can you give us a little bit of background and then tell us what you've done over the last couple of years? What have the fights been inside the borough? What should we be paying attention to? For those of you who don't know me, I'm going on a 34-year resident of Alaska. I moved here in 1991.

I've been pretty much a business owner my entire time here in Fairbanks. I currently own Bulletproof Trailers. I think we're going on 18 plus years now with that business. Yeah, and then a couple of years ago, I went clinically insane and decided to run for public office. One of my first phone calls was to you.

where you tried to coach me through probably not running but instead i decided to jump in so and so this is a kind of a funny one so you say well what you know what are your big accomplishments what have you done and the honest answer to that is Pretty much nothing other than trying to hold back some of the craziness that's going on you know i remember uh election night the last go around when i won and representative prox was there to congratulate everybody and mike and i were talking and

You know, I remember him saying, he's like, you know, never forget that all politics are local. He said, you got to understand that all this craziness, all the stuff that we deal with in Juneau, it all starts at the local level. It starts there and then it moves its way south to Juneau.

and i really do believe that's true um yeah so and right now our you know our big ticket item right now is the budget and as i was listening to your show You know, earlier, it was really funny because we were really on a rant and I thought to myself, wow, all we have to do is change the names.

and the dollar amounts of what you were ranting about, and you were talking about the Fairbanks North Star Bureau. Yeah, well, absolutely. The only difference was the names and the dollars. That's it. Yeah, well, and look, when you say, you know, I really have accomplished nothing, I would argue that... You know, just because we haven't, I worked, I was in the borough assembly for five, almost six years.

And I look back at it, and I think I may have sponsored one piece of legislation in five or six years. But I held the line as best I could. I was able to, my one thing that I felt good about was able to empower the road service areas. As the RSAC commissioner, I was the chair of the RSAC committee.

I felt like I was able to empower the local road service areas to be able to kind of manifest their own destiny instead of having the borough look over their shoulder. That was my one accomplishment. That and trying to hold the line. Holding the line is doing something. And that's hard, especially in an assembly with the makeup that you guys have had over the last 10 years down there. I mean, the makeup of the assembly is pretty...

is pretty blue, let's just put it that way. It changed a lot from when I was there, and that's got to be a tough gig. yeah i mean my second year it was just me and barbara haney were the only ones to try to hold the line not much you can do with with two votes you know um and yeah oftentimes that's what you feel like you're doing is you're just trying to hold hold things back a little bit um you know in this in this particular budget the proposed budget from the mayor.

was going to institute a $9.5 million draw on our savings account. Now tonight is the big vote. This is the last chance for any amendments the Finance Committee has thrown there. amendments at this thing. I don't think many of them are going to stick. I think they're going to be reverted tonight and we're probably going back to a large draw on our savings account.

in order to balance this thing we'll have to wait and see how things play out um but again it was just so interesting listening to you earlier um It's literally the exact same thing. It's just the dollar figures are different, you know, at the local level we talk about. millions and occasionally tens of millions you know at the state level it's always tens of millions hundreds of millions and now we're into the billions you know right but in the end it's

It's all the same. It's just, it's relative. It's just the size and scope of government. Yeah. And, and, and what is, what's gone on down in Fairbanks and, and, uh, up in Fairbanks is, is, you know, again, a microcosm of what's happening in other areas. You know, I watched this, living in Wasilla and working in Anchorage, I watched the Anchorage budget just balloon up and balloon up and balloon up. And now we're talking about half a billion dollars budget for 270,000 people.

The Fairbanks North Star Boroughs actually lost population, and yet their budget continues to balloon. When I left, I think the budget was at $142 million. What's the annual budget this year, Brett? The proposed budget was right at 207 million. Yeah, 207. And we've trimmed that back. Oh, the finance committee trimmed it back. Two and a half, $3 million. But again, I think some of that tuning is going to go away tonight because we had proposed some...

rather large cuts that are not obviously sitting well with the community. One was the Joy Community Center, which used to be Joy School, which was handed back to us. when the school district was forced to close that school and it was turned into a community center that's really not been utilized in my opinion um then we mary sai who was one of the potential cuts

And then we also discussed cutting the Carlson Center as well. And the interesting thing about the cuts was the cuts were not all brought by the conservative members of the Finance Committee.

Joy was brought forth by Liz Riz Ramos, and Mary Psy was brought forth by Mindy O'Neill. So, you know, it was kind of an across-the-board look at the budget. And, of course, now... we're all evil people you know wanting to get rid of all the stuff and that's not really the case we're just we're looking at some pretty grim numbers here and

Even if we don't cut this stuff, I think we have to have the discussion. I think this community has kind of come to a crossroads. Are we bringing in enough revenue to support the borough? The answer to that, in my opinion, is yes. but we're all the way to the revenue cap. Um. But the deal is, as everybody out there knows,

your money is worth far less than it used to be. So in my opinion, we're bringing in enough money. It just doesn't go very far anymore. My first year on the assembly was amazing. Our staff is pretty good at projecting costs. of projects but they got caught up when everything just started to balloon up and they were telling us well this project will be a half a million dollars and then we get our bids back and the lowest bid might be like 1.2 million dollars So it's taken a while.

to kind of catch up but you can kind of see all these projects that we do have now doubled or in some cases tripled in price well that that kind of pulls away at the amount of money that's coming in and then remember You know, the mayor, any mayor in your first budget or any budget you're doing, you automatically start off your three million bucks in the hole.

And that $3 million comes from our... from our employees from the contract negotiations and wages increases step increases benefit increases automatic automatic escalators that are baked in you have no control over it you're automatic they're automatically going to go up Right. Yeah, you can't. So what you have to do is hope that your revenue follows that. Well, if you look back and even some probably your time on the assembly, I think probably the revenue stream.

followed in a somewhat linear fashion the budget of the assembly. But now what I see is a split. We've got the revenue coming in. The problem is you've got all these dollar bills that are being dumped onto the borough. You know, wheelbarrow loads of dollar bills are being brought in, but they're all worthless. The dollar bills don't have any value anymore.

And so, you know, here we are. Right. And at that point, you've only got two choices. You've either got to downsize or you're going to have to bring in more revenue somehow or another. And that's got its own perils already. Again, the cost of living in the interior is huge. and people are struggling. And if you have to bring in more revenue, that means increased tax assessments and higher taxes and everything else. Maybe it's a sales tax. I don't know what it is.

but if they're looking for more revenue the problem again goes back to like you said it's parallel to what's happening in the state do we have a revenue problem or do we have a spending problem I mean, when you're talking about the increase to the budget of $60-plus million over the course of 10 years, 12 years that I've been gone, and the population's even lower than when I left.

you've got some issues, right? I mean, this is a big deal. I want to talk, we're coming up on the break here, but I mean, there are some other, there's some big projects in there that... not necessarily necessary. And I'm talking, I'm looking at this $33 million fee for this, for the puppy palace, right? The new animal shelter that they're talking about.

I guess that's still on the table. That's still being funded, but we're in the hole. We can't maintain the buildings that you've got right now in the interior. So think about that. I'm going to take the break, but think about that and we'll return with that question in just a minute.

Brett Rottermund is our guest. He's a Fairbanks-North Starborough Assembly member running for re-election. Of course, all the opinions expressed by Brett are his and his alone. They do not reflect the will of the Assembly. We have to make sure that we say that. he doesn't face some kind of ethics violation as well. Alright, we'll be back with more. Don't go anywhere. If you missed the shot Listen to it on your time with Dukes On Demand. Oh, and it's freight. Like America used to be.

Streaming live every weekly morning on Facebook. All right, Brett Rottermont is our guest here on the program talking about this local government stuff. I mean, I always found it... you know, one of the things that I found irritating and we're about to get into the whole deferred maintenance thing and everything else, Brett, but

When I was on the assembly, they just treated that like it was a nothing burger. And I kept going on and on about this. And I remember we finally got the... school board that they have a deferred maintenance fund. that they were just kind of stashing money in, but they weren't using it. And they kept coming back to the borough and saying, hey, we need more money for our facility. And I had worked with the attorney at the time who was amazing, Renee Broker. You guys wish you still had her there.

And she, you know, they pulled through it and they found the thing and they're like, well, this fund could be used. And it was just like shocking that they were like, well, wait, you want us to use the fund that's specifically set up for maintenance fund to actually fund maintenance? We want, that's our rainy day account, right? I mean, that was kind of the reaction to what was going on.

And it's just, it's so infuriating to see all these different buckets of money out there that are being used, not necessarily for the intended purpose. And that's been frustrating to watch. Yeah, now, of course, when you were on the assembly, we didn't have a current... KIPP program, our capital improvement program. And so now I think we have a much better avenue for capital projects. But in my opinion, that has been...

It's gotten out of hand. It's gotten to this pie-in-the-sky projects, and it's not being used. for our deferred maintenance. Now it's being used for new stuff. Well, why are we building new stuff? when we can't even maintain or afford our old stuff you know and our old stuff you know if you look you know and i i don't think fairbanks is unique and i've never lived any place else in the state so i don't know but

You know, because you have ties to Fairbanks. If you look at all of our infrastructure here, stuff was all built mostly back in the 80s uh the 90s some of it goes way back you know but it was built when the money situation was much different especially during the pipeline days when money was no object so we built all this stuff we're never a typical government they build it but never have a plan to

maintain it. And so here we are. We have all these aging buildings now that have a lot of maintenance issues. And again, we're kind of at the point where we've got too much a month at the end of the money, you know? Yeah, well, and one of the most... One of the most satisfying things to me after I left was that I later on had a conversation. with then-Mayor Carl Castle, who'd been on the assembly with me.

And he basically had told me in not to, you know, not the same paraphrasing. He basically said, you know, you're right, because he was the one that ended up doing the deep dive and found that there was 270. million dollars in deferred maintenance in the borough. That if they wanted to bring everything up to code and spec and do everything and do what they'd been putting off, that they had a quarter of a billion dollars in deferred maintenance for a community of less than 100,000 people.

he was just shocked he was just shocked because i was like this is gonna bite us this is gonna bite us And everybody just kind of nodding like, oh, it's just Dukes going off and being Dukes again. But he was like, he's like, yeah, he goes, you were right. Quarter of a billion dollars in deferred maintenance for things that we supposedly had paid for. but weren't paying on keeping up. And how are we supposed to add more when we can't keep up with what we have right now?

Yeah, well, I'll paint an even grammar picture. Recently it came out in some of our... that just our school district, just the school district buildings that, remember, we own, the borough owns, They are projecting $367 million in deferred maintenance just on the school buildings alone.

Not the rest of the borough buildings, just the school district buildings. Hold the line. Hold the line. My head is about to explode. Just don't go anywhere. We're going to continue here in just a second. Brett Rottermont is our guest. The Michael Duke Show, common sense, liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Seriously humorous with a pinch of intellect. Pinch of intellect. Sorry. That is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes!

We're continuing now with Brett Brodermund, who's a Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly member here, talking about his re-election campaign. and we're going to get to that here in just a second, but we're kind of recapping some of the big things that have changed since I was on the assembly, which wasn't that long ago, only 10 years ago. One of the biggest pet peeves that I had.

During my entire time on the assembly was this continued discussion of deferred maintenance of which I would completely, you know, I'd lose my mind. tell people this is going to eat us alive, you know, we shouldn't do this, this is wrong. And I was just mentioning that after I left, I did have a conversation with then-Mayor Carl Castle, who was like,

You are right. He'd done a deep dive and found that there was $270 million worth of deferred maintenance in the borough that was necessary. So that would have been almost 10 years ago now that he and I had that conversation because it was just a couple of years after I left. And he's like, this is going to eat us alive. And now Brett is telling me it's getting even worse. They've got a new program called KIPP, which is a capital improvement.

program, which was ostensibly, was that supposed to be used for deferred maintenance and other things, Brett, and now it's being misused? Well, in my opinion, and I guess I should actually state this, you know, these opinions are mine. Mine alone do not represent the Fairbanks North Star Borough, nor the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly there.

Now we're legal. I didn't want you to have to do that for me. So, but yeah, so the KIP program was, you know, I believe the spirit of the KIP was to start to chip away at some of this deferred maintenance stuff. But instead it's kind of turned into, well, let's build a bunch of new stuff. and you know my opinion is Why are we building new stuff if we can't maintain our old stuff? We've got a proven track record of not being able to take care of our current facilities.

why do we need to build new stuff, especially when we're starting to dip into our savings account in order to balance the budget, you know, and to kind of put it in perspective here. Our current fund balance, I believe, is sitting at around $47 million. That's our savings account. But we have a target reserve by code. A certain percentage of that must remain as a target reserve. That current number sits at around $27 million.

Okay, so if we draw tonight, let's just say things actually get bumped up a little bit. Let's round off. So if we draw tonight $10 million from savings, Now we've drawn it down to $37 million. What do you think is going to happen next year? Everything's probably going to remain pretty flat. There's no really big things on the horizon for Fairbanks. You know, I think we're closer to an in-state gas line than we've ever been, but we're not there.

So we don't see any big buildup. So our revenue is probably going to remain flat for the most part. So next year, guess what? You're going to be facing a similar budget. So if you draw $10 million next year, guess where you're at?

27 million well 27 million by code is supposed to be zero that's when you've ran out of money that's your target reserve you're not supposed to go below that so um you know here we are we can kick and this is this is what i'm trying to get through to the community and to the people it's like guys

The state's been kicking this can down the road for decades. Everything's kind of come to a head here in the interior. The way we're at right now, you can only kick this can down the road two or three years, and then you're done. you're out of money you know so But yes, I just think this capital improvement program should be used

for other things rather than these pie-in-the-sky projects. You know, the most famous one, obviously, is the Animal Control Shelter, you know, and that has a projected price tag of $33 million. Now, remember, that's $33 million today. If this doesn't happen, if it doesn't happen and we drag this down, remember when this started 10 years ago, the projected cost was $17 million and everybody was flipping out.

Right. Now we're at $33 million and everybody's flipping out. Where are we going to be in five years? Right. I guarantee it's not going to be $33 million. Well, and then you pointed out during the break, you pointed out that, you know, not to poo-poo my $270 million in deferred maintenance money number.

But you said, well, that you guys just uncovered in one of the committee meetings that the... deferred maintenance on the school buildings alone, which are all owned by the borough, but they're part of the borough infrastructure. There's a new number there, and it's much, what is it, 300 and what? It's $367 million. is what was reported. 306 in deferred maintenance on buildings that we already own.

Right. Yeah, and some of this has almost, almost bit us in the butt. We recently had to do an emergency appropriation to get the boilers replaced at the North Pole High School because... They were literally failing. The other interesting thing that I've learned and starting to ask around and, you know, I start to ask questions, you know, our borough staff is not. going into the school buildings to do regular Inspections.

to try to figure out where we're at we entrust that to the school district which is fine i have no problem with that they have their people that can take care of this and you know they're working on their improvements that are supposed to come to us and provide us input and where we need to be with these buildings, but our folks are not going behind them. and verifying the information that we're getting.

I see that as a problem. I mean, we own the buildings. We're the landlords. If you're the landlords, you're probably going to go in and inspect your property at least once a year and make sure that you're our tenants, in air quotes. you know, are doing what they're supposed to be doing or the information we're getting is correct. You know, and this stuff has a habit of it can kind of spin out of control. The North Pole Boiler Project was one of them that had been proposed.

in the capital improvement program, but it had been lumped into this bigger project that was like $10 million. Well, $10 million, we put in about $11 or $12 million into the KIP every year. So one $10 million project sort of wipes us out. You see what I'm saying? Right, right. What we did recently, and it was kind of an accidental group effort between me and Barbara Haney, was we modified our kit. process so that the school district has a seat at the table during the KIPP process.

And then the other big one is we change the language so that you don't have to take these giant projects as a whole. The administration, the staff, the school district can cherry pick. out of these projects. So the North Pole project was a classic example, $10 million to completely upgrade the mechanical room. But the deal was the boilers were failing.

the rest of the stuff is old and they're jury rigging it to make it work but they can make it work but here's the gig if the boilers go down and it's 40 below zero it doesn't matter all the air handling equipment it doesn't matter your building's still frozen so If we had the process we have now,

you could have gone in there and said okay what in the mechanical room what's the critical thing here and it could have been brought out saying well the boilers are they're dying we're going to lose them here pretty quick we could have appropriated that money out of the KIPP. Instead, we had to do an emergency appropriation in order to replace these boilers before we lost them.

Well, yeah, I mean, this is an ongoing problem, and it's the short-sightedness, I think, of the bureaucracies and the bodies like the Assembly that has contributed to a lot of this. I know you guys are fighting back against that. Brett, why do you want to continue with this madness? I mean, why run for reelection? Just give me the short version here. So the short version is, believe it or not, with all the trials and tribulations and the ups and downs,

For some reason, and I can't explain it, I actually enjoy this. I really do. I really do enjoy being part of the process. I like to have a voice. I think, I hope I've been a voice. of common sense and reason on this body, trying to keep people grounded, trying to keep people in the community engaged and hopefully encouraging them to get involved.

Believe it or not, I really do like being part of the process. It's a huge learning curve. I'm still learning. I think you'll always be learning. It's just a huge thing to undertake. Long and short of it is. I do enjoy this, and I'd love another shot at it. And, you know, I'm... I'm not really looking forward to campaigning, I'll be honest. I don't enjoy that part of the process. I really don't. but I'm willing to do it, you know, if the folks are willing to give me

another shot at this thing. Well, Brett, I hope that we need people in there who will stand in the gap, who will be the stumbling block to the inexorable growth of government. Is there a chance tonight, is there a chance for public testimony before the final bill tonight, or what's the, is this just a, tell me what's going on? No, so the public testimony was last Thursday. That was her chance.

If you look at our agenda, there's pretty much the only thing on there is the budget. This is the assembly member's final chance for the final amendments and the final push. At the end, hopefully, we get through it tonight. At the end, you know, we vote on the budget and then... That's it. The process. We move on. We move on from there. And this $33 million, that's already locked in stone. There's no way to pull back on that. Is that already in the planning?

Yeah, it is in the KIPP. It's been allocated. It has been basically pushed out. The project has been pushed out because You know, we knew there was no way we don't have the 33 million. We set aside 16 million, basically half of it. And then we were going to ask the legislature for help on that. Well, everybody knows where that's going to go. That's just, you know, the legislature doesn't have a capital budget either. So there's no money there. So basically that project has been put on hold.

If you will. And of course, when you put these projects on hold, what happens to the costs? They just continue to rise. I guess the bigger question is, is it something that we really need? Is it nice to have or is it a must have? Right. I mean, that's kind of the big.

That's kind of the big question here in the long run. Is it nice to have or is it a must-have? Brett, if folks want to support you, if they want to, are you doing a fundraiser? Are you taking donations? Volunteers, what are you doing? Yeah, we got a big kickoff fundraiser this next week, the 17th, from 3 to 5. It's going to be at Jeans Chrysler. So that's sort of the kickoff to the campaign. We sent out a couple hundred. letters for this, but we're inviting people on Facebook.

I do have a website. It's brettforassembly.com. You can also follow me on Facebook. Yes, I'm back on social media. That was another part of the campaign thing I don't like. 15 years I was banned from the Zuck. I'm back. I'm back with Zuckerberg again. And I cringe every time I get on there. And I've certainly commented on... on that. I despise social media, but I am unfortunately back on there. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, right? You gotta do what you gotta do.

And Miguel and Audrey in the chat room are saying both District 31 and District 33 are endorsing you for re-election, so that's some good news. Hopefully we can keep a good conservative voice on the assembly. We need more balance. We need more balance on the assembly to be able to try and hold back because otherwise it's just going to keep growing. I mean, $207 million.

It's mind-boggling compared to where we were at when I left. And I'm still a borough taxpayer. I still own property in the borough, so I'm still paying the bill for part of that stuff, and I don't. I hope we can keep the costs down. Brett, final thoughts here before I let you go. um just thank you for the time really really appreciate it and um Yeah, hopefully tonight will go well. We'll get through this budget thing and we'll just move forward.

keep up the fight and hopefully you know barbara and i can get re-elected we've got a third seat that's open it's gonna be wide open we've got a member that's turning out so You know, if anybody's interested in running, certainly. Give me a call, and I'm happy to talk to you if you're interested in running. We'd love to fill that seat with another conservative voice. Yeah, that would help bring balance back to the Assembly, for sure, if you have that conservative, if you have that voice.

That's what we need to do is bring that balance back. to where it was before. That's the only way to kind of hold the line as it goes. So Brett, thank you so much for coming on board, my friend. I appreciate it. Thank you for being part of it today. And good luck. Let us know as you get closer. We'll have you back on and we'll talk more about it. I appreciate that. Thank you, Michael. All right. Thanks for coming on board. Hold the line for a second, Brett. All right, folks, we are out of time.

One more segment coming up. I'm going to go ahead and open up the phone lines in the next segment. Somebody was asking in the chat room, so I'll open up the phone lines. And we'll... Sunmate with some final thoughts today. We'll be back. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. Back with more after this. We're broadcasting live to

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 weekly morning on Facebook Live and Michael Duke's show. Okay, final bite at the apple for Brett. Brett, any final thoughts here before we let you go for folks? Any final appeals, etc., etc.?

no just uh you know if uh folks aren't doing anything on the 17th uh between three and five love to see it down at jeans chrysler you know um good chance to do some meet and greet stuff and uh And I'll get to Harris. always good to hear folks concerns you know and uh you know i think one of my favorite parts of this job is trying to keep people informed and engaged because you get so much of this information that's flying around and a lot of times what i've discovered is

And you probably experienced this when you were on the assembly. It's like a half truth, you know, they're getting some of the information, but not all. I really enjoy trying to keep people.

informed us of what's really going on because i think if you just communicate with people some of this information it just dispels a lot of the myths right or you know going on with us so well i appreciate it brett thank you for coming on and good luck my friend like i said don't hesitate to give me a call if something else comes up or we'll get you back on before the october 7th election

Brett Rotterman running for re-election at the FNSB in Fairbanks. But Tim just said, Mike, you don't live here. Just keep paying your taxes and shut up. That's what they want. They want us to just keep paying our taxes and shut up. That's what they want. All right. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you coming on board this morning. Thank you, sir. All right. Appreciate it. Brett Rottermund, our guest here on the program this morning as we get ready to go and continue on. All right.

So phone lines are open. I'm going to go ahead and throw those wide right now. So if you folks want to, if anybody wants to call in. Somebody had asked a few minutes ago if the phone lines were open and ready to go. Tim was asking. So, Tim, yep, you're welcome to call in. If you want to call in, now's the time to do it. The number to call for those of you who are wondering, 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864.

I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. $360 million in deferred maintenance for the schools alone in Fairbanks. Amen. The population of the borough is now, what, 90,000? is that what it is something like that night it's it dropped was closer to 100 000 when i was there but i think now it's down in the low 90s um but if we did 360. million divided by 95,000 people. Don't worry, it's only $4,000 a person. It's only $4,000 a person that you're on the hook for just in the school district.

Just in the school district. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. It'll all work out in the end, I'm sure, because we're too big to fail, and it won't matter. We'll just keep taking money out of the savings until there's nothing. That's the thing. It's monkey see, monkey do, right?

We've got the national level where the government just spends more than they take in. So the state just thinks, oh, we can just keep doing that until obviously you can't. And now the borough is like, oh, we'll just keep balancing the budget out of savings until... We, you know, never addressing the fact that the problem is the spend. The problem is the spend. Polly's just like, tax me harder, daddy! Yes, that's what we're talking about. Tax me harder, daddy.

Yeah, $360 million, says Miguel, and they keep voting no for deferred maintenance. I mean... okay. Okay. That, that, cause that makes real sense. You know? That's the problem. All right. Harold, he's been on this anti-Trump tirade all morning. Just like, I mean, he's not reading the room. He's not really listening to the program. He's just using it as a leap board to...

Although, I'm just wondering if you thought Harris would be doing anything different. But, you know, that's one of those things. Whiz, bang, boom, my head just exploded, says Tim. Also, I wasn't too wrong. $95,000. But again, $360 million. I just made them flat numbers. But it's about $4,000.

that's what it would cost to take up the deferred maintenance would be four thousand dollars for every man woman and child in the borough so if it's mom and dad and they're 2.1 kids Don't worry, it would only take $20,000 of their money to square up the borough buildings in the school district alone. That's not talking about the other stuff. That's, you know.

Maybe they want to tear down the buildings with the most deferred maintenance and build new ones. Well, I wouldn't say that that's not part of their plan. 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 pin in the Michael Duke Show. $367 million in deferred maintenance for school buildings alone in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. We just did the math during the break.

Don't worry. It's only $4,000 for every man, woman, and child in the borough. That would be there if they had to write a check today to take care of that deferred maintenance. That's all it is. Don't worry about it. That's only $20,000 if it's a mom and pop and two kids. That's only $20,000 or, I'm sorry, $16,000 out of your household budget that you'd have to pay just to be able to maintain the buildings in the school alone. But don't worry about it. It'll be good. It'll be fine.

And Chris asks, maybe they want to tear down the buildings with the most deferred maintenance and build new. That might be part of the thing. They'd rather let the buildings fall down and then say, look, our building's broken. We need to tear it down and build a new one. This is all going to come down to you, the people.

You, the people, are going to have to pay for all this, and whether it's at the borough level or at the state level, you're going to be running around, and they're going to start talking about how you're going to get taxed. You've got to get taxed harder. Tax me harder, Daddy! That's what we're talking about.

All right. We were talking about the press conference here with the Senate, which we got about 10 minutes here we can get through. But I've also opened up the phone line. So if anything today has triggered you. First of all, welcome to the party, pal. Second of all, if you want to sound off, now is the time to do it. 319. 527.

We'll take some phone calls and see what you guys have to say as well before we jump back into this presser. I see that we've got Bill on the line. Let's go over here first, and we'll take Bill's call, see what he has to say. Good morning, Bill. What's on your mind? Well, totally off your current subject and something, I guess, maybe a little bit positive, and that is...

I've got a very simple method of tapping birch trees because all I do is I use a you know for a container i use a uh you know a water jug you know like a one dollar water jug you buy shopping and I use a about a foot foot and a half of the tubing like you'll see in a

espresso shop. It's got clear tubing. It has kind of like a web of uh threads you know kind of uh going on diagonal from each other right it kind of strengthens the tube right okay and uh what i do is i take a a foot and a half of that uh or or you know you have to just just see your own situation but i i run that to a hole in the lid of the water jug there, okay? And I messed that up.

water jug on the ground at the base of the tree and I run the tube up to, you know, the point in the tree usually about, you know, like a foot and a half or so up. from the ground. You have to adjust because that's... you know that where the tree is a little bit you know it's uh uh arching out with its uh root system and so on and anyway uh then to drill the hole what i use is a battery operated drill motor with a I prefer to use it after years of doing this.

a one inch forstner bit and I run that into the tree at a horizontal to the tree. So what I do is I basically just bend that tubing from the jug to the hole in the tree. You want to go below bark. And I think usually a lot of going in about. a quarter inch or so past uh bark is uh all you needed to do I don't think you need to go any deeper than that. And the forester bit will give you a clean cut.

You know, you want to check to make sure that you got, you know, kind of a pretty nice square cut on your tubing. It's a little bit difficult to cut with a utility knife or a pocket knife or whatever, but you can get it perfectly. uh you know straight but uh you want to have a nice clean cut uh on on that end that you put into the tree and if you're uh in the

you know, in the seasons for the sap to be rising, which is going on now in the interior, then pretty soon you'll be hearing a drip, drip, drip in the air. Water jugs. And I recommend a tree that's about eight inches in diameter, as loggers would say, for rest time. In other words, you're standing up near the tree. You want a tree that's about eight inches in diameter at the height of your chest. Right. Okay. And then you take it all out and you go make birch syrup with it.

And then you take it out and make birch syrup with it? No, I just use it for drinking water. I make my herb tea and my coffee with that. If I want some water for a water bottle, you know, for a drink while you're doing that. sports activity then uh this stuff is great too okay you don't have to worry about you know having bad tasting tap water right right okay Well, it's a mild sweetness, so it's like if you put about a teaspoon of...

sugar in a cup of water, so it's not overwhelming at all. It's just mildly sweet. Well, that was a complete departure from what I was expecting, Bill, but I appreciate you giving folks the rundown on that. Thanks for sounding off this morning. Appreciate it. Thank you. I mean, it wasn't what I was expecting at all, but, you know, I guess we need to finish up the day with some good news. I don't know if there's...

Any good news? All right, so let's, I guess we'll recap for today because we don't have enough time to get much further into this. Although I will say that later on in this press conference, Kathy Giesel does come back on to talk about more about SJR 14 and how it needs to pass, which of course is the money grab from the corpus of the fund. Um, and there's some other little bits and bobs in there, which I would love to get into, but you know, the bottom line folks is this.

I don't know how to fix this because you have to have people who truly care about the long-term growth and stability of the state. And when I asked that question again to some of the folks that I talked to in Juneau, and the reaction came back of basically saying, They don't care. They live on the gravy train and don't know how to make a living or get re-elected without all the government's dough. So they'll ride the plane all the way into the ground and then bail to another state.

That just showed me that this is not something that you can rationalize or... you can fact your way out of, right? You can show them all the facts that they want, but if they just don't care, then facts doesn't matter. Facts don't count. And so that's a problem where I just... I just don't know how to fix it. I don't know how to fix that. And I wish I had a solution.

Other than what we've talked about before, which is changing the players, which we've done a good job of in this state. We've changed a lot of legislators out. The problem is we haven't changed out the ones who are actually driving the bus. We haven't changed out the ones that have been there for 30 or 40 years who have been, you know, Gary Stevens was bragging early on at one point in this press conference. He talks about, I've been here 25 years.

And I know Lyman Hoffman is, what, almost 40 years now. Bert Stedman's been in there for a couple decades. There's a lot of folks in there, especially the ones who are in control. who have been there for decades. So maybe changing out the players, more players, is what needs to happen. But again, I don't know how you do that.

in places where the constituency is just fat, dumb, and happy. They just keep re-electing Burt Steadman. They just keep re-electing Louise Stutes. They just keep re-electing Lyman Hoffman. I don't... What the... to that is. So, I mean, I wish I could just say, this is how you do it. This is how you fix it. I guess the answer is you get people who actually care about the future of the state. in the long term. or willing to acknowledge that we've got hard choices to make.

for the future prosperity of the state. All right, folks, we gotta go. We'll see you guys tomorrow for Firearms Friday. Your facts, just your facts don't matter. Exactly. I'm sure you could have done a biscuit recipe I mean, You could have done it. Birch syrup. I mean, I'm all about, I'm all about birch syrup. I love me some birch syrup. yeah that's four thousand dollars per person we were talking about earlier on top of your current taxes There you go.

So there you go. That's what it's all about. Alright, my friends. Well... It's... I'm out of gas for today. Have a good I love one another. Say please. And now we are Slimy Lizard Internet People. It's the Michael Dukes.