Wednesday 3/26/25 | Headlines, events | Representative Mia Costello

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.

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, and welcome to the program. It is the Michael Duke Show for Hump Day. Middle of the week, downhill slide. Firearms Friday can be seen from here. We are ready to go. Are you ready already? It's just time to do our thing here, to get jiggy with it, so to speak.

I don't know where that came from. I really don't. Anyway, welcome to the program for Wednesday, and we are ready to go. In hour one this morning, we're going to cover some of the headlines and talk about some of the falderall, some of the stuff that's going on out there in the world of politics.

Well, just some of the stuff that's happening out there. We're going to go over that here this morning. And we'll talk about some of the events that are going on as well, including a big event this weekend. We're going to cover that in Hour 2. We'll be joined by State Representative Mia Costello from House District 15.

She'll be coming on board to talk with us and to comment about some of the things that I'm sure that we've been diving into as well here this morning. And we'll have a full boat with her tomorrow on the program. We're going to talk with Chris and Jim from the Fair Association, Chris Miller, Jim Sirs, from the fairgrounds, the Kenai. peninsula fair board has got a big event going on which i want to talk about as well because uh well i'm gonna be the i'm gonna be the mc for their big event

Uh, and it should be a, uh, should be a fun time, uh, this weekend, uh, up in, uh, Nikiski. So if you are, excuse me, in Ninilchik, one of the N words, one of the N towns, Ninilchik, Nikiski. nick of lesks it's they're all the same right no uh in the nail chick this weekend uh we're gonna uh we're gonna be jumping in on that and talking about it uh this for this weekend uh it's a big uh

Big four course gala dinner. We're going to talk about that here in a second as well. So tomorrow, Jim and Chris will be with us. And then in hour two, we're going to talk to Sal Mercogliano. who is, uh, who runs the YouTube channel, um, that is, uh, all about shipping today in shipping. Oh my gosh. I totally forgot the, the real, it talks about shipping. And it talks about boats and it talks about the shipping industry and trade and so much more. And Sal has got kind of the.

Sal has got kind of the whole rundown about what's going on with the Jones Act and so much more. So we're going to talk with him tomorrow. And we're going to be all over that and get a full rundown from him and his take. on uh on everything that's happening it's called what's going on with shipping and that's the name of his uh that's the name of his uh um that's the name of his company or his uh youtube channel

And we're going to dive into it. And he's got a brand new video that came out just a few days ago, which hopefully we'll have a discussion on. And that is his latest video. Or one of his latest videos says the U.S. has gas. They now have a liquefied natural gas tanker in its fleet. It's called the MV American Energy. And so I'm sure we'll talk about that as well. And it is the latest and greatest new LNG tanker built for America. So.

Uh, we'll talk about that and all the Jones act stuff and more. So it should be a fun conversation to talk with Sal tomorrow in the seven o'clock hour. Again, he's the, what's going on with shipping guy. And then Friday, of course, is Firearms Friday. So that's what's going on. There you go. What's going on with shipping? All right. So what do we want to dive into this morning? Well, I guess first things first, we'll take care. Let's let's.

Let's talk about the fun stuff first, shall we? I guess we'll do that first. First things first. So we've got the Kenai Peninsula Fair Board.

is inviting you out to the Golden Gatsby Gala. It's a four-course dinner fundraiser taking place in Ninilchik. It's going on... um this this saturday from 6 to 9 p.m there's going to be live music it's going to be a speakeasy going to be a four-course dinner provided by the cannery the green can down here And it's going to have a live and silent auction, and all proceeds are going to benefit the Kenai Peninsula Fair.

And they're going to be honoring Laura McGinnis for her 20 years of deep commitment and relentless effort to the fair and the community. She's going to be taking a leave of absence here. Uh, and so they want to honor her. She's going to be the, uh, uh, if she will be there as well. And it's going to be fun. The theme is a roaring twenties, the roaring twenties.

So if you've got a flapper dress hanging in the closet or a tuxedo or a monocle and a top hat, I'm just trying to think of things that are the Golden Gatsby era. kind of attire. I don't have any of those things, especially the flapper dress, but I don't have any of those things. But dressing up is encouraged. It's not required. But it should be fun. And I'm going to be the emcee and the auctioneer for the auctions for the Gatsby Gala.

And if you would like to get some tickets, you can go over to Eventbrite and just type in the Golden Gatsby Gala or... Um, you can, um, um, or you can, if you're watching on video, you can scan the code on the screen because I've got the code up on the screen there. It's a little QR code. Use your camera and buy yourself some tickets.

And, um, if you, uh, if you want to, to do that, um, and you could probably sit at the table with Terry and I, as we, uh, cause we're going to be there eating dinner and we can hang out. It would be, uh, You know, it would be a fun time to do it. And no, Brian, I would never admit on the radio to owning a flapper dress. I mean, first of all, weird, but you know. Anyway, so go check it out. Again, you can go to the Kenai Peninsula, Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds.

Facebook page, and you can get your tickets there as well. I'll drop a link in the chat room for those who may want to go do that. This is going to be a fun time, and I hope to see some of you out there. Um, you know, come out, say hi to me. Uh, but also of course help support, um, uh, help support, uh, you know, one of the big local events in the local, uh, community, uh, functions there.

at the Kenai Peninsula Fair up in Ilchick. So again, this Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m., 50 bucks per person. And go out there and go out there and enjoy it. It'll be a fun time will be had by all is what I'm saying. Guaranteed. So be part of it this weekend. All right. What are the headlines? Well, I mean, okay, big, big kudos for now. to Sean McGuire over at the ADN. He has written a lengthy piece about the deficit.

that is faced here in the uh in the state of alaska and um i mean to which i'm happy to say welcome to the party pal i mean we've been talking about this we've been talking about this for a long time and all of a sudden here we are two months into the session and it's just like all of a sudden they've realized oh my gosh

There's a deficit. Oh, my God. Did you did you know did you see this coming? Did you know that this is what's going to happen? And then this new revenue projection from the the spring revenue forecast, of course. cut even deeper into the deficit that we knew was coming but all of a sudden seems to be like did you did you know that this was i'm shocked shocked i tell you That there was a possible deficit. I'm shocked. And by the way, it seems like they're truly soft selling. The.

Truly soft-selling the amount of the deficit. They're talking about only $200 million in deficit this year with another $500 million. Uh, next year. So about 680 million, 700 million in deficit is all that they're talking about. But if you look at the true numbers. If you look at what has been spent, if you look at what the spending plan is for right now and the different priorities that they're laying out there.

This is over a billion dollars. It's over a billion dollars over the next two fiscal years. And in fact, it's... I mean, I think if they got everything that they wanted, we're talking about somewhere closer to one point three, one point four billion dollars. And they're just they just don't know what to do.

Just don't know what to do. They're facing tough budget choices this year, is what the article says. The annual PFD is competing against widespread calls to substantially increase school funding. Now, there's two trains of thought here. On the Senate side, they're looking for new revenue measures, so i.e. taxes. They've got a bill that would increase oil taxes.

They've got this bill that would tax some of the out-of-state businesses that are online businesses. Again, I agree with Rob Myers' analysis of this is that all of these taxes that they're talking about. are kind of hidden from the public because they don't hit the people specifically, right? It's mostly, you know, outside businesses, online businesses, etc., etc. But on the other side...

Sean is saying that the Alaska House is not a fan. They just want the PFD. That's what it comes down to. And here's what I love.

about about this because they are taking advantage of well the house the house majority and i'm looking at chuck cop's name here in the article to begin with is taking advantage of both sides of the aisle at this point, or both sides of the minority-majority divide, because The 16 House members penned an opinion piece in the Daily News here recently that opposed any tax hikes in the state of Alaska.

Mia, Jeremy, Pop Bynum, Julie Cologne, Bill Elam, Delaina Johnson, Alexi Moore, David Nelson, Prax, Rauscher, Ruffridge, Sadler, Schwanke, Tomaszewski, Jubilee Underwood, and our own Sarah Vance. We don't want new taxes. That's what they're saying. And Chuck Kopp, he joined the minority in opposing those tax measures and signed on to this letter.

But then in an interview, he says the legislature should prioritize core spending, but shouldn't. He said, I'm not personally, I'm not committed to raising revenue to pay a dividend. See what he did there? He went in there. And he leveraged what the minority was doing and then used it to make this false equivocation argument of I'm not raising revenue to pay a dividend. See, that's not what it is.

What you're doing is you're overspending and you're spending the dividend. Any revenues raised would go to pay these other services that you should have. Oh, see. See what they're doing there? Can you see that he's staking out both? I mean, he's having his cake and eating it too? I mean, politically, it's genius.

Because he's allying himself with the minority in this case, leveraging that power for the conservative side and then saying, I'm not committed to raising revenue to pay a dividend. Never. never knowing that folks never arguing back that well we should live within our means and the dividend should be part of that which means if you're raising new revenue you're using it to pay for new spending not the not the pfd but that but but but

All right, we're going to continue in a moment. The Michael Duke Show. CoventSense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. 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 weekly morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com Okay. I just... I just don't know. I just don't know what to say at this point. Oh.

I did not watch the Kevin just said. By the way, I hope some of you come out and I hope some of you come out and see me this weekend. I hope you come out and support a good cause. I mean, it's not often you're going to get a four course dinner and entertainment and more for 50 bucks. So I hope you come out and do that. You could scan the QR code.

uh, on the screen there, or you could follow the link that I posted earlier to their Facebook page and go to event bride and get you some tickets. That'd be fun. We're going to talk with them on tomorrow about that anyway. All right. Kevin said, where did it think? Hopefully you all watched the BS in house finance yesterday. Staff was on fire. I did not. And, you know, this is the problem here. Here's can I can I can I bitch a little bit for a minute? This is part of the problem with.

If there's any minor problem with the system of governance we have, it's the fact that we just, you know, who's got time to sit around and watch the legislature debate all day while they're trying to get work done, right? We get the highlights. It's one of the reasons why we rely on the news media, and it's why the news media has such oversized power in these discussions.

is because they shape the narrative on what we're actually learning, because most of us don't have time to sit around and watch these things happen all day. So frustrating. Kevin said that was actually the reason that he took his name off of that opinion piece because of Chuck Hopp's position to try and position it as trading tax revenue for the PFD. Good for you, Kevin.

Good for you. I mean, it's obviously. I mean, it's like I said, it's a brilliant piece of maneuvering on Chuck's Chuck's part. Anyway. Um, maybe Kevin, if you want to call in and give us a rundown of what happened here, um, this morning, uh, you can feel, actually, I guess I'll have to, let me, let me turn my stuff on here. Uh, let me turn my.

i i was gonna connect the phones and i didn't i had to bunch it i had to reboot like four times this morning something was going on and it was not loving me so let me see if i can get get my phone connected here to the system and uh we'll get it uh we'll get it we'll get it going on oh he just dropped me a he just dropped me a link uh in the chat room okay All right. Sorry, I'm just, I'm going through my, going through my, going through my, my phone stuff here. Okay.

If, yeah, Kevin, if you want to call in and give us a... Give us a rundown on this. I'd love to hear what happened. I was not watching. I'll be honest. I was not watching because, I mean, I have a day job. I guess that's the bottom line there. But I would love to hear what was going on. Chris said he watched it. He said it was very entertaining. Very entertaining. We'll see what's going on.

Okay. Dang, we already got through the commercial break. How did that happen? All right, well, let's get back to it. Here we go. It would be easy if they had a YouTube channel like everyone else's, Joel. I still don't think I would spend my day watching it. Do you? Even if it was on YouTube? I mean, you know, I know how to get there. Do I need YouTube to do it? Probably not.

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. Okay. Welcome back. Thanks for coming in and joining us. The Michael Duke show, common sense, Liberty based free thinking radio. Mia Costello is going to be joining us in our two representative from district 15.

We'll see what she has to say about all the madness that's going on out there. Oh, there we go. Sorry about that. I just missed that. Okay. I just had... I just had Kevin McCabe, Kevin McCabe is calling in. So we're going to get to him here in just a second. Hold the line. Hold the line for a sec, Kevin. All right. So we were talking about the Alaska legislature and the fact that they are.

Underwater, underwater by a significant amount. And what does it mean for us here in the future? And what is the different tax that they're taking on this? Well, the Senate is bound to determine that we're probably going to have a tax. That's pretty much the way things are probably going to go. Now, will it be this year? I don't know.

The long and the short of it is at the end of the article, they talk about Gary Stevens had said that the Senate majority adamantly opposed using the CBR to balance the budget. But yesterday he suggested that now appears inevitable for the current fiscal year. Which to me is if that's what has to happen, that's not a bad thing because it means that the minority will have to have some kind of seat at the table.

And they might be able to make some headway on the size and scope of the budget. But we're going to have to see. We're going to have to see. But Kevin McCabe asked me in the chat room this morning if I had seen what happened in finance, house finance yesterday, because apparently. Representative Will Stapp was on fire, and we'll see what he has to say. Kevin's going to give us an update on it. Good morning, Kevin. How are you?

All right, let me try this again. Apparently, my chizz is not working. Can you hear me, Kevin? I can hear you now. Okay, hold on a second here. I'm going to call you right back. Apparently, my system was not connected here. you know this is the best part of uh best part of flying by the seat of your pants is when all that stuff uh goes on like that let's uh let's get kevin mckay back on the phone see if we can get him to get it to actually work as intended here this morning

Hey, there we go. Okay, we'll do that. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Sorry about that. All right. So you asked me if I had seen yesterday's house finance debate because you said it was fire. Hopefully in the good way. Give us a rundown of what was happening. No, I mean, I don't think most of us, probably 90% of us, 99% of us maybe, were busy working and didn't watch the House Finance Committee meeting. So tell us what's going on.

Yeah, so, you know, we're doing the same thing. I mean, I have committees going on and there's a committee that I, two committees I have actually while House Finance is going on. So we watch it as we can. Our staffers typically have it on in the office. continually watching the other committees, including finance.

I kind of came in on the part of this and the last part of it, and I've seen the clip, and I actually watched it on the TV in the office when it was going on, and they're discussing a budget. And I can't remember, frankly, if it was the CS1 for the 26 budget or the supplemental budget, but at some point there was a discussion. In the original budget before it got this, you know, the CS and so they must have been talking about the supplemental budget because.

At one point, there was a discussion in the budget about going into the CBR, just like you said, which would take a larger vote and would involve the minority, and it was taken out of the budget. Then yesterday, Andy Josephson was trying to put it back in, which, of course, takes the entire finance committee to vote on. Right. And Will said.

I have to ask you this question, Mr. Chairman. This was taken out of the last budget. You took it out. You took this out of the CS because that's what happens is the committee chair. And his staff design a CS and then they all vote to accept it or not to accept it. And he said, you took this out of there, Mr. Chair, and now you want us to put it back in? Why is that? And Josephson couldn't answer.

And at the end of the day, he refused to answer. He said, I don't want to go down that path of my discussions that I've had with the Senate majority. And then at the same... time yesterday afternoon actually before that there was a senate majority press conference where bill wolakowski and gary stevens are talking about exactly what you just said is going into the cbr for a CBR draw to pay off fiscal year 25, essentially.

It'll be interesting to see what they think. And they're just acting like the House minority is going to go along with it. Frankly, they're acting like the Senate minority is going to go along with it, too. And I don't know that that's true. I mean, this is a golden opportunity, Kevin. I mean, if they do try to use the CBR for a draw, it gives the minorities in both chambers some leverage.

To make some changes. Now, do you have a do you have a hit list of things you'd like to see changed or things that might possibly be looked at if they come to you hat in hand to say we need a vote from the CBR to make this work? Yeah, well, I personally do, and I've been very vocal about this with my caucus. I personally have a hit list. Cut the freaking budget. No, no, no, no. They're convinced. Sean McGuire.

Says very clearly, we just couldn't possibly cut our way to balancing the budget. Now, there's no comment about... cutting some of it to help balance the budget. There's just no way that we could cut deep enough to balance the budget. So that means forget about cutting. I mean, that's the implication here. Since we couldn't possibly cut our way to it, then we should just not cut it all.

They say that out of one side of their mouth, and on the other side, they have put in $41 million worth of ads. So cut those first. All those ads that you just put in there, cut those. Cut those. And the BSA, the $1,000 BSA, sorry, that has to go. You know, I mean, major school maintenance, that's important. So maybe we need to look at that. But there are so many things that they have put in that budget.

that's a start. I mean, that's a, that's an absolute start. Cut the budget. And, uh, I don't know. It's just, it's so frustrating to watch this Kabuki dance. And then, and then, uh, Chuck Kopp gets on our op-ed somehow. It'd be an interesting question to ask how that happened to your next guest. As soon as he was on there, I was off. I told them immediately, take my name off. In fact, I wrote the initial essay I wrote.

And then they modified it after they took me off. And I suspect, and I don't know for sure, but I suspect that that's why there are others that are not on there. Right, because this was him being able to play both sides. This was him being able to have his cake and eat it too, and saying he stands with the minority on this, yada, yada, yada. But then to frame the argument as he doesn't want to trade. taxes for PFD, which is not what happened. That's not how it really works, right?

Yeah, and there's no possible way that, you know, I didn't even really read that part. In fact, I was so frustrated, I just kind of glanced at the op-ed when it came out in ADN and didn't even bother. I just wouldn't. I just wouldn't be on there. Why would we allow Chuck Kopp to reestablish his Republican bones by putting him on an op-ed with us? I just disagree with that.

Well, and just to be clear, that wasn't something he said in the op-ed. That was something he said in this article later on that in this article about from Sean McGuire, he was quoted here saying he didn't believe it. But, you know, again, this has been the whole problem the whole time. sentence right here kevin encapsulates the whole problem with what's going on and and why this i agree with you this is more like political kabuki theater

Lawmakers broadly say deep spending cuts are simply not possible after years of flat budgets. They keep saying things like that, like flat budgets and. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. I mean, the budget has continually grown. How could you possibly make the argument that it's a flat? I don't understand. How could you possibly make an argument?

that it's a flat budget every year. And even if it was true, does that preclude Even though they say deep spending cuts are simply not, does that mean that we just stop looking at cuts inefficiencies? Right. I mean, do you remember when I first ran and there was a whole, the whole Walker and the legislature, you know, we cut the budget and Natasha, we cut the budget 44%.

You know, I mean, it's like, I just, I don't, I don't understand how they can do that. Has the budget been flat? The governor will tell you it's been one to 2% over his tenure as a governor increase. And maybe certain parts of it have, and maybe we're talking operating versus capital. And, you know, you could be talking UGF versus DGF. I mean, there's 100 different ways to put it together. But at the end of the day.

10 years ago, we had $17 billion in our CBR. Right now we have three, and they're talking about half of it. They're talking about taking half of it, about $3 billion that we have right now.

It's actually 2.8, and they're talking about going after 1.4 billion. I will tell you, we looked at the budget yesterday. My office did. I happen to have just a fabulous... person working for me that was a finance staffer years ago she said we're 1.9 billion dollars 1.9 billion dollars upside down in the budget that they looked at yesterday

1.9 billion. Yeah, that's what I was saying. They're soft selling it when they're saying, oh, it's only going to be 200 million this year and another 500. So it's only 680 million. It's not really that. It's a billion dollars. Come on. Stop blowing smoke up my skirt and telling me that it's, you know, I mean, it's a billion dollars.

And it's insanity. And you're right. That's how they do it. They parse it out to say, well, what I meant was it was DGF spending. Or maybe it was UGF. Or maybe it was just capital. I just want to know, what was the... total spend? What was it the year before? What was it five years ago? You're telling me that it's been flat funded for years. You and I both know that that is total pushwa at this point.

That that is complete and total crap. But that's but that's the argument. And that's the reason why they say we just can't possibly cut. Yeah. And if you really want to look at. where they're going with this. You need to look at the Senate press availability yesterday. I think it started at 1 o'clock-ish or just before 1 and went to 1.30. It should be on KTOO.

It was videotaped. I watched it in my office, and I couldn't believe some of the things that the Senate president, and I like Gary Stevens. He's a nice guy. He used to be one of my professors in Kodiak for English history. But he and Wilkowski and Senator Tobin, they're all talking about taxes, taxing the oil company, per barrel tax credits. And they believe.

that Alaskans are going to be okay with some sort of income tax, sales tax, some sort of tax on the people. And if they want to continue to spend like this, I don't see a path forward. um without that i i just don't Kevin, we're up against the break, and I can hold you over if you have time, or we can let you go, but I'll give you a chance here to give me any final thoughts for this segment, one way or the other.

Well, it all goes back to the fiscal policy working group. I mean, if you want to get Republicans on board, as Carpenter and I said, and Mike Schauer said, and Shelley Hughes said, if you want to get Republicans on board, there has to be key components. to resolve in our fiscal crisis and they include a constitutional spending cap, constitutionalize the PFD.

um they include possibly revenue measures i get that we may we may have to the bind we're in right now we may have to go down there but it also has to include budget cuts there has to be budget cuts and you can't be talking about a 41 million dollar add to the budget out of one side of your mouth and then talking out of the other side of your mouth about going into the CBR and drawing out savings. You just can't.

And I don't think either minority will put up with it. Just my opinion, not speaking for everybody else, but it's going to be a struggle one way or the other. And we need to hold the line, frankly. Kevin McCabe has called in for us this morning, our guest. We're going to continue here in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke show continues. We've got Rep Mia Costello coming up here at the top of the hour.

And we'll be back. The Michael Duke Show. Comic Sense. Liberty-based. Free-thinking radio. Back with more. Right after this. 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. All right. Kevin, I don't know if you want to hang out with us or not. I just wanted to give you a chance to escape if you needed to. Otherwise, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, you know, I actually have a 730 meeting, so I'm going to have to scram out of here. That's fine. Valley delegation meeting. But, you know, here's the deal. You said something a little bit earlier, Michael, about... you know, working stiffs can't continually watch. And I mean, that's why you pay us. That's why you vote us to go down there to represent you. But I will tell you, there was a big kerfuffle with the...

that House resolution that we signed on to the other day that talked about Canada. And people don't understand the strategy. There was a strategy. We did that intentionally. And, you know, whether we did the right thing or we did the wrong thing, I put an amendment in there that tried, maybe wasn't strong enough, but it tried to take Alaska off the table as a bargaining chip for Trump.

It tried to tell Canada, hey, look, don't use us as a pawn because, you know, we're not a pawn. You actually owe us a great deal, Canada. Alaska has put more into our relationship than Canada has, and you owe us a great deal. And if you're going to try to use us as a pawn and shut down our borders, maybe you ought to rethink that. That's what we try to do. And of course...

One of our members got on social media and said, we're all un-American because we did that, which was frustrating. And it blew up in Must Read. And of course, all the keyboard warriors get onto the keyboard and they start hammering us. And I get that. But, you know, if you have a question about it, if you have a question about the strategy and the strategy was deeper than that, it involved protecting some of our members that were signed on to it and that sort of thing.

If you have a question about the strategy, then call us. Call me. My number is all over the place. I'm happy to talk to anybody at any time about the strategy. I get that you don't always know it. Getting on social media and just hammering your warriors when we're down here working for you, I think is, frankly, it's why Republicans are in this situation, is because trying to hold us accountable on social media.

You never see the Democrats do that to each other. And so it's a bit frustrating and I'm a bit beat up. Well, and I definitely can understand that. I mean, I saw what you were trying to do with your amendment and everything else. I guess my main question to you is if you know, you got the amendment passed.

Did you vote yes for it after the amendment was passed simply because you had the amendment or were you trying to offer political cover for something? I mean, what was it? Because I've had things where I've done the same thing. I've moved an amendment on an ordinance or whatever. assembly, and then voted against the main bill, even though the amendment that I put forward had passed, simply because I still disagreed with, I mean, I made it lesser of the lesser, you know, less, less bad.

but i still voted against it was there a reason why you voted for it even after amending it sure and that and that is the question so i felt like i put the amendment in and and maybe i drug some of my caucus along with me because of that amendment And yes, we ask that question all the time. Should we be making a bad bill better? But in this case, I felt like there was a way to take Alaska off of the playing board, to take Alaska off as a chess piece off of the chess board.

with that amendment so um and like i say i i don't know if it's strong enough i suspect that the resolution is going to go nowhere i don't think the senate is going to take it up um so um and frankly i heard a little whisper going around the house that josephson was going to object to it because of my amendment and he was told not to to remove his objection because they would see that my amendment was taken out of

the bill in the Senate. And to a certain extent, I voted for it because I said, really, okay, go for it. Let's watch how that happens. Right. Right. So, yes, I voted for it because my amendment was in there, and I know I didn't have to do that, and maybe some others, maybe that was the wrong way to go, but it was going to pass anyways. There was no two ways about it. Right, right.

So what do you do? Do you vote for your amendment? I guess I felt strongly enough about what I did that I felt it was enough that I voted for it. And time will tell. Well, and I mean, I don't disagree with Frank, you know, as far as, you know, people calling each other out on socials and not having conversations or whatever. It's the attack, attack, attack.

And he says, that's because you like to eat your own. You're the Lynx party. And this is the problem with the Republicans for years. I've often said they circle the wagons and shoot inward, you know, at each other. They've been infected by the libertarian disease of you're not libertarian enough. You know, you're not Republican enough. You're not conservative enough instead of finding the positives and moving on from there. But, well. Right. It's frustrating. It can be.

You know, I mean, you have to grow thick skin pretty fast down here and just shrug it off. Yeah. All right. Well, Kevin, thank you for calling in. I appreciate you being part of it today. Appreciate you calling in and joining us today. Thank you. You bet, Michael. Talk to you later. Appreciate it. Kevin McCabe, our guest here on the program.

as we get ready to jump back into it. Okay, here we go. We're going back. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell. Let's do it. The Michael Duke Show. Seriously humorous with a pinch of intellect. Pinch of intellect. Sorry. That is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes. Okay, we're back.

Welcome back to the program. We've been talking about this article in the ADN where they're talking about just, you know, it's just not enough money. Just not enough money. It's shocking. We just discovered that we're short of money.

which anybody who's been a student of this history in this legislature has known for many years that this is what's going on. The highlights of the article, to me, are this uh there's a couple different sentences one was that um leading members of the senate majority have signaled support for both appropriations this year both appropriations being

the uh school funding and the dividend and they have also support they've also signaled that they are all about taxes um Hoffman has said, Lyman Hoffman is quoted as saying that new revenue measures are among the majority's top three priorities. And he said the House may oppose new taxes, but he asked, if not that, then what's their solution?

What's their solution? Now, nowhere in here, because later on it goes on to say, don't forget, lawmakers broadly say deep spending cuts are simply not possible after years of flat budgets.

i mean how they can how they can come up with the whole idea that the budget has been flat and then you know when they say notice how it's notice how it's worded i just want you to pause for a second here and stop what you're doing and listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth lawmakers broadly say deep spending cuts are simply not possible after years of flat funding

The implication there is that that precludes any cuts at this point, because why bother? Because deep cuts would be what would be necessary to bring the whole thing in line, but they're simply not possible, so... Why bother? I mean, there's not even incrementalism in play here. They're not even going to cut a little bit. So they immediately look to the revenue side of it.

Now, whether that's revenue through new taxation or whether that's revenue through taking the PFD, it don't matter. They're going to spend it all. They're going to spend it all. They want to take the dividend down. Now, the House is not stupid enough to zero out the dividend. If they eliminated the entire shortfall, they'd have to shrink the dividend down to about $570.

Josephson said there's virtually no support in the house for a $570 dividend. He said, instead, we think $1,000 is fair for your supersized PFT. $1,000. That would still leave a hole, by the way. That would still leave a $150 million hole by their reckoning. And that doesn't include defined benefits or anything else. That's just the school funding. $150 million deficit. How are they going to fill it? How are they going to fill it? And speaking of schools.

I wanted to get into this earlier, but I just didn't have a chance. There's a new group called the 907 Initiative. It's a newer group. It's been around for a while. Aubrey Weber is the executive director, and he's been getting a lot of ink lately, a lot of press. He was the one that helped organize that 600-person.

you know, town hall that wasn't a town hall, that was more of a protest, that had the empty chairs for Nick and Dan, they've got a new commercial out. And the new commercial targets specifically a couple House minority members. specifically for their position on school funding. And the verbiage on this is amazing. I'm going to play it for you. So here's the ad that's now being aired in the Anchorage area.

for the 907 initiative. We're going to take this apart a little bit. Here you go. Notice to Anchorage parents. Without state action, the following programs will be cut from Anchorage schools next year. All middle school sports, high school hockey, swimming, diving, and gymnastics, and Ignite.

Hundreds of teachers will be laid off and class sizes will increase. Republican and Democrat legislators have come together to reverse these cuts. But just two Anchorage House members, David Nelson and Mia Costello, voted against our schools. Tell Rep. Nelson and Rep. Costello to stop playing politics. Stop playing politics with our schools. You first.

I mean, I love how they go through all the programs that are being cut, all of which, by the way, all of those decisions are part of the Anchorage School Board are the ones that decided which programs to cut. So, you know that they were the highest. visibility programs, et cetera, et cetera. And, oh, hundreds of teachers are going to lose their job. You realize that when they talked about this, and they actually snuck this into a couple articles.

that there are a bunch of unfilled positions, and that was the majority, the lion's share of the 300 positions that they were talking about, or 350 positions. Almost 300 of them were empty already. So who who's really telling the truth here? Who's really telling that? And they they voted to they voted to cut that. You got your thousand dollar spending. I mean, what what more do you want?

How is how are Mia Costello and David Nelson a threat now that you've passed your bill and it's in the Senate? How are they a threat to you? This is just straight up an attack. on two of the more conservative members of the minority in Anchorage. And they're using the argument that it's school funding to get the job done. They're lying to you folks. Come on. Are you not seeing it? Are you not feeling what's going on? Are you not seeing the overall picture here? I mean, the overall picture of.

We're going to be doing, you know, we're going to be looking at new revenue measures. If that's not their solution, then what is their solution? We're looking at, you know, we just, we couldn't, you know, deep cuts are simply not possible. I just love this whole thing about flat budgets. I mean, all these things that they're talking about, they are lying to you.

And I would love to see the math on how they figure that the budgets have been flat. I mean, I would love to see that math. How did you guys get there to that position? But this is the setup, folks. This is what's been coming. This is why on this program for years, we've been talking about taxes, not because we want taxes.

but that it was almost inevitable. And if we didn't have a discussion to try and figure out what the best form of tax was, they were going to force the worst form of tax down our throat. We've been talking on this program for years about cuts, cutting the government. And nothing has happened. There is no political will to cut the... I mean, deep spending cuts are simply not possible after years of flat budgets. Therefore, i.e., we're not going to try and cut anything because what's the point?

We might as well just get more money. That's the direction they're going. And then these groups out there that are like, oh, these two people are the reason why everything's happening. Oh, my God. I mean, this whole thing is just such a farce at this point. and i can see it already now if they do go to the cbr what is the republican minority going to do what are their priorities going to be i have some questions i have some questions to see what they might be

tackling on this. We're going to see if we can get some answers on this coming up next. Representative Mia Costello is our guest. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio. Okay. And Melissa makes a, you know, Melissa makes a valid point. Because the beginning of that thing, the beginning of that spot, they're talking about what's going to be cut. And, of course, the first thing that they talk about, of course, is the school sports, right? Notice to Anchorage parents without state action.

The following programs will be cut from Anchorage schools next year. All middle school sports, high school hockey, swimming, diving and gymnastics and Ignite. Hundreds of teachers will be laid. I mean, that's the thing. And Melissa says they act like schools won't keep the sports under their banners. That's so annoying. Hockey funding will be cut, not the sport itself.

It goes to pay to play for parents who can afford it and who've been doing it for years. That's what they did in Fairbanks. They cut the funding to the programs, but the parents kept them going. David Boyle says, per board president Andy Holloman at the Anchorage School District, there are 200 vacant funded teacher positions. They may have to cut 195 of those, so no teachers will be fired. But that's not what they...

That's not how it's phrased. That's not how it's phrased. Bourgeois! That's what it is, right there.

Flat spending. You keep using those words. I don't think it means what you think it means. I mean, what? What? I mean, this is... bill says i think we need a study well i think we need a study who's paying for these ads says david boyle is it the school districts no it's the 907 initiative which is essentially a progressive arm of the democrats and the special interest the 907 initiative by the way they don't tell you they they don't they don't reveal who funds their efforts they

That was actually mentioned in the article the other day when they were talking about the 907 initiative. They will not release a list of donors. It's just astonishing. It's just astonishing, my friends. That's where we're at right now. All right, let me... How much time we got here? We got a minute here before we do anything else. If the BSA large increase goes into effect, said David, only those employed by the school districts will be inflation proofed. Yeah. Oh, man.

Like Ron said, you said it earlier, most of us are working, don't have time to watch the committee meetings or even know what the committee or what committees to watch. Those that have time, those on the government dole, usually are not involved and really don't care. Well, I think that's it. I mean, that's part of the part. Part of the problem is that we're so removed physically.

From the whole process, because it's down in Juneau, even those that may want to go and attend and wave, shake their fist or they can't. So they have to watch it on gavel or we're just not paying attention. And the news media. is not fulfilling its obligation to keep us fundamentally informed on this. I mean, they've just been writing about this deficit for like the last month.

Before that, nobody even ever had a clue. We've been talking about it for a couple, three years now. Maybe more. I mean, it's, it's. It's madness. Chris says there are many ways to fund sports without public money. ASD already has sports fees paid by families. Right, Chris. And that's what they're doing in Fairbanks. They had already defunded the sports in Fairbanks. It's all paid for by the families.

If you want your kid to do it, that's what you need to do. It's it's it's astounding. All right. Let me let me. Let me make a phone call here. Let's get Rep Mia Costello on the phone here. Hey, Michael. Good morning. How are you this morning? i'm really good how are you you know not too bad i'm a little wound up this morning i'll be honest with you i'm a little wound up about some of the stuff that's going on out there and

I know. I'm going to help with that. You're going to soothe the savage beast? I mean, that's a tall order. I mean, it's a tall thing. I don't know if you've been listening to the program this morning. Uh, but did you just hear it? Okay. I'll, I'll repeat the, uh, we just, we're just playing a nine Oh seven initiative ad. That's apparently playing in Anchorage right now that.

Yeah, someone told me last night about it. Okay, so what does it say? Well, I'll play it for you at the beginning. I want to get your take on it at the beginning of the hour, because I'm just shaking my head. Because they're calling out you and David Nelson, and I'm like... Guys, the bill passed in the House. What do they have to do with anything at this point? It's going to this. I mean, what it's it's.

pure kabuki theater at this point but i want to wait a minute wait a minute wait wait a minute you're you're on fire because of that not because of this um resolution that everyone thinks is anti-drug oh i look i i you know what i did i barely gave that we talked about it yesterday but i barely gave that much thought because hey It's a resolution. It has no effect, right? Well, here's the thing. I'm just going to read something to you.

Okay, well, wait, wait, wait, wait, before, don't get into that yet. We can all, I don't want to repeat because we're about 30 seconds from starting the show here. So, so you hold the line and I'll be right back to you. You'll hear the theme music and then we're going to jump back into this because.

Yeah, this whole thing is a hot, hot mess. So hold the line here. Mia Costello, our guest, The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell, do all that stuff. Here we go. Hour two is right now. Back with more. 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. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Live around the world on the internet at michaeldukeshow.com and across the great state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. Good morning, my friends, and welcome back to the program. Hour two of this hump day edition.

of the show. And we had a whiz bang hour up in hour one, including a surprise call in from representative Kevin McCabe. If you missed it, you can go back and listen to it on the podcast. or on the replay on Facebook or YouTube or wherever you want to go. Some interesting discussions, but all about the theater.

the political theater we're seeing in Juneau right now. To discuss this and more here in Hour 2, we're bringing on the program our guest. It's been a while since we talked to her. Let's bring it on right now. Representative Mia Costello, House District 15, joins us. This morning to discuss all the madness that's happening down in Juneau. Good morning, Representative. How are you?

Good morning, Michael. I'm great. How are you doing? You know, not bad. Not bad at all. Now, you may have thought that when I invited you on yesterday that I was wanting to talk about this resolution, but to me, that's kind of a... It's almost a non-issue. I know some of the people on the right are all spun up about it and everything. So I want to give you a chance first to settle that. To me, again, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, the resolution in the House that...

that called off the trade war between Canada and the U.S. and everything else. I... I really don't care. It's a resolution. It has no force of law. It's going to the Senate where it's probably going to die. To me, this is much ado about nothing. But I know that you guys have been taking some heat on this. So I want to give you a chance to kind of give me your thoughts on that.

I move on to some of the other things well sure Michael thanks for that yeah I really appreciate being on the show I haven't been on for a while so I'm glad to be talking to you this morning but first of all You know, down here in Juneau, we absolutely support what Trump's doing. When Senator Sullivan came to the joint session, we gave him multiple standing ovations. He ripped up the...

70 Biden executive orders that shut down Alaska. And we are out there really cheering on what the president is doing for opening up Alaska. I mean, you have no idea.

just the change uh in landscape because of what the what our president is doing so we absolutely support the president 100 um you know this resolution that we recently passed it's really just you know politics of distortion um really if if what they say it is was supported by all of these all of our republicans uh here in the you know legislature then

then it wouldn't be what they're saying it is. And I just want to tell you, this is a quote directly taken from Representative Kevin McCabe's amendment, you know, and he's a conservative powerhouse, really, really want to thank him for this amendment. And here's just a quick quote from it. The Alaska state legislature is deeply concerned by any threats or actions by Canada to shut down roads in Alaska. Such actions could jeopardize funding commitments.

including those for the Shackwack Road. So, Michael, I mean, right there, you can see that this absolutely is almost really, it's really backing up Trump and what he's trying to do. We have a longstanding positive relationship with Canada. And if you're going to believe what, you know, a liberal, you know, writer from the ADN is going to say about Republicans in Juneau, then, you know, it's just not accurate. Well, and that's the thing. I mean, this this his his amendment basically said, hey.

Fool around and find out. You guys want to jack us around? We'll just cut all this funding that we've committed for this road. I mean, this is part of the problem. I saw that and I was like, okay, that makes sense. That's kind of, as you said, backing up the president. The problem was, Mia, and this is a Republican problem, okay?

You guys continually seem to circle the wagons and shoot inward. Right. So this is the same thing. It wasn't just the liberal ADN writer. It was must read and the commentary and the social medias, you know, chastising all you guys for how dare you. to attack the president and all this kind of I mean it's a resolution folks it has no force of law and if you actually took the time to read it you'd see those things like Mia just talked about I mean people just getting spun up and eating their own

It makes no sense. All we're doing is hurting ourselves. Well, you know, I can't really speak to why those articles were written, but I can say I did have some folks call me and they admitted they hadn't read it. And essentially, in my mind, it's the threats or actions by Canada that we're saying, look, we're not going to be responding positively to that. And it's what people are telling you that it says, and then they're using it to come after Republicans like myself, like Kevin McCabe.

like George Rauscher, like the entire caucus. And it's not, you know, it's not something that we like to see, of course, but we're down here, Michael, and we are trying to do our very best. to mitigate the damage of a very liberal agenda. You know, you've got a budget that they have absolutely no idea how they're going to pay for it. If you really want to be writing about what's happening in Juneau...

Write about what's happening in the House Finance Committee. They are going to take your dividend. Every single dollar of our dividend is going to go into the pockets of the liberal agenda. And that's what we should be writing about. Right. You know, Michael, it's a tough job. It's a great opportunity to stand up for Republican values. And that's what we're doing.

And we're going to keep doing it. You know, Mia, I'm amazed that all of a sudden the news media just suddenly in the last four weeks has all of a sudden discovered that, oh my gosh, we have a deficit. We don't have enough money. I mean, when did this happen? And some of the legislators in their quotes are acting like, wow, we just didn't see this. I've been talking about this for years that this is what was coming. The governor's 10-year forecast.

10-year forecast for the last five years has showed that there's going to be a doubt. Like, how is this a surprise to anyone out there who is intellectually honest? You know, Michael, I really think that when you look at the budget and you look at what the House Republicans were able to do last session. We came in, you know, the governor handed us or handed a budget to the legislature with, you know, a billion, over a billion dollar deficit. And a lot of kudos to Delaina Johnson.

for working with the finance team and passing a funded budget that was balanced and, you know, was really, really a kudos to her. Now we have the liberals in charge.

And if you watched House Finance yesterday, instead of reading a silly resolution, you would have seen that the questions from representative staff simply... were responded to with with dead silence from andy josephson they don't know how to answer simple questions like how are we going to find a budget so one version has a cbr in it and then the next version takes it out and then adds it back in

Is it in? Is it out? You know, you've got a full dividend, which they accidentally put in there and they don't really support. And so, you know, that's their plan to fund their budget. It's simply to take our dividend. And it's not right. Well, and this has been the question. I mean, I will say that Stapp has been doing a yeoman's job and asking this question at every opportunity. How do you pay for it?

And, Mia, you've been talking about the liberal agenda and things like that. I mean, you and I both know, and with all fairness to you, You and I both know that this is not strictly a Democrat problem. We had Republicans in the House for years and the teens who spent billions of dollars out of the CBR and didn't blink at it. We've still got Republicans on the Senate side that are, you know, looking at this.

and saying, well, we just couldn't possibly cut anything. But we're going to come to a choke point here. We're going to come to a crisis moment when there is just not enough money, even if they take all of the PFD. This year, if we fully funded everything that they have on the table right now, not including the defined benefits, the PFD would be $570. Next year, it would be gone.

next year if they did the same thing, there wouldn't be enough to fund everything. So we're going to come to a crisis point where there is no more money. What do we do then? Well, Michael, this is why we are poised to take advantage of what President Trump is talking about from Washington, D.C. That president, our president, is opening up Alaska for resource development. We have some of the best resources in the world.

And our president is right there. One of his first executive orders was to say to the world, Alaska is open for resource development. We've got projects that have come online and because the legislature first. For a little while, we didn't mess with the oil taxes. I mean, we're looking at that now, of course, because we can't help ourselves.

When you let the industry do what they need to do and you don't increase the taxes, we are seeing increased investment. We've got projects that are supposed to come online next year. And it's the production. times the price of oil, and you have got revenue coming into the state. We are poised to be looking at a new Alaska, a new day, a new chapter, and that is how we raise revenue in Alaska. It's not by...

income tax. It's not by taxing the oil companies. It's not by all of these taxes. And I was in the Senate when Governor Walker tried to increase taxes on everything. I mean, every single committee meeting was shutting down a new tax idea. from the democrats and now they're in charge and now we're going to see their plan and another thing michael you know i sit on the energy committee um with representative tilton and um

You know, we have an energy crisis in Alaska, and we have a natural gas situation that we have to deal with. We have not had one bill before the committee. We just hear presentations. You know, I'm concerned about this, but this is the liberal agenda, and this is what we're trying to counteract and offer credible alternatives.

For the most part, we're not involved in the discussion. I think you saw with education, we have a lot of good ideas, and we really weren't at the table. We weren't at the table. Well, let me offer a counterpoint, because I agree with you that the president's executive orders were phenomenal. And opening up Alaska for resource development is key.

Not just to Alaska's growth, but to continued domestic national security and other things. I agree with that 100%. But here's my problem with the whole thing. If I have one problem, here's what it is. Everybody's looking to that like, well, that's our revenue solution. The problem, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, the problem.

is not a revenue problem it is a spending problem we have spent every dollar this this and previous legislatures have spent every dollar possible and they've spent so much that it's become a revenue problem throwing more revenue at the issue is going to do nothing to stymie that hunger to spend every dollar. We have to get the spending problem under control, whether that's through a cap or something else.

We've got to get the spending under control because it doesn't matter. If we opened up a whole state and started pumping another two or three billion dollars in revenue through the state, it wouldn't matter because they'd spend all that as well. Am I wrong? You're right on target. We do need to cut our budget. We need to reduce spending for our bloated budgets. And what comes to mind, actually, Michael, is...

when we had to put billions of dollars paying down our unfunded liability. And what are we talking about now? We're talking about bringing back the defined benefit that's going to increase. our exposure and our unfunded liability. So, yeah, I mean, we do have a lot of challenges here. And I can tell you that when conservatives are in the back of the bus and that bus is being driven by the liberal agenda.

These problems are not going to get better. They're going to get worse. But we do have a measure in the hopper for... a spending cap and we definitely need to be cutting. And I think that what you're going to see in finance and on the floor is, you know, we're going to make attempts to reduce this budget. But it's not our budget, Michael, and it's really difficult to be sitting in the back of the bus.

Mia Costello, Representative Mia Costello is our guest. We're up against a break. We're going to continue here in a moment. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show, common sense, liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We continue with Mia Costello right after this. Running on 100% pure beard power. Oh, also some coffee. We dip our beard in coffee. Ha, nice beard. The Michael Duke Show.

Okay, we're in the break right now with Mia Costello. Mia, and again, I don't want to beat up on you, and I'm not trying to, but you keep going back to the liberals and the Democrats and the thing, but... Again, historically, we can look back and the Republicans held control and not you specifically, but the Republicans held control of the legislature. For many years in the early teens, late, you know, early teens to the mid teens going into the late teens. And yet that's where.

The spending, I mean, we burned through 17 billion dollars in savings and in just a handful of years. And then the governor took the PFD and then that sat around for a couple of years and did nothing before they started taking it. So to me, this is not a Republican versus Democrat thing. This is a big government spend versus what's the smallest government we can get away with.

Kind of thing. That's that's the labels. It shouldn't be Democrats versus because we got Republicans in there who would just love to spend your dividend and put a tax on you and everything else. And we've got liberals that are the same way. I mean, so it's it's not a party problem. This is a politician problem of what is your philosophy? Is it small, limited government? Or is it government should do everything for everyone? Absolutely. I mean, we're all guilty of it. It's very challenging.

I remember when Mike Chennault had a bill to do, and it passed, we had audits of every department on a rotating basis. When you get down here and you're in the finance, and I served on the finance committee in the House before. And the departments come to you and they are asking, always asking for more. And it's very, very challenging to get to the bottom. We need a doge. We need a group of people to go in and start looking.

in-depth in these departments because finding those efficiencies is a very, very challenging, it's an uphill battle because everything's working against you. And I do know, you know, I do know. That's bureaucratic. I mean, that's the bureaucratic entrenchment. That's what we're seeing at the national doge level, where, of course, everybody's against waste, fraud and abuse, just as long as it's not in my department where I might lose my job.

Right. And it's unearthing and finding where those efficiencies can be found. And it's very challenging. And, you know, look at the president, you know. You know, he's finding all kinds of things and you need the information. You need that data. And you essentially don't get it. You know, the process, you know, you're elected for two years and then the bureaucrats are here for decades.

It's very, very challenging. I do think, however, though, I do want to say one thing about capital budgets. I like spending money where we get jobs for Alaskans and revenue generating departments. So, for example. Department of Natural Resources, when you address the permitting backlog and you invest in that department, it's generating money for the state. And then we have departments.

that are not generating money but you know are addressing you know problems in our state and so we need to be making sure those departments are more efficient and that we're supporting the departments especially that are revenue generating. But, you know, it's a tough it's a tough challenge. And I agree with you. You know, we're all we're all part of that and trying to solve it. And I look forward to perhaps that philosophy.

president has about really digging in deep into what's happening into these departments because without that information you're you know What you do and where you cut is very challenging because for every one person who wants to cut a program, there's 100 people who will call in, come down here, lobby.

um for you know for the increase or for not for the you know for keeping the program what uh just to change gears here just a second um i'm hearing and i've heard this from several people who've talked to me working in Juneau, that it looks like that the Senate is now deciding to hold all of its all the funding bills.

and they're going to hold them all together and they're going to keep hold of them to the last minute. Can you give me any credence to that? Are you hearing anything about that? We've got about 30 seconds here. Well, I'm not really privy to that strategy that they have right now. I mean, again, you know, we're in the minority, and you've got Senator Schauer over there and myself here, and we're working together. But, you know, they're...

So definitely, I think the Senate is looking over at the House and thinking, you know, what the heck's going on? I mean, the House Finance Committee is really in disarray. Yeah. All right. Hold the line. We're going to jump back into it. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Like, share, subscribe. Let's do this. 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. all right welcome back to the program michael duke show it's a wednesday edition of the show we're joined right now by representative mia costello

And it's been interesting, Mia, because this whole debate over education funding and everything else has sucked up all the oxygen in the room. You guys got railroaded by the majority. I mean, it's just, you know, there's. The minority has basically just been told to sit in the corner and take it like a man or whatever. Basically, they're going to make the decisions. You guys had a lot of good amendments that went out. They were all riddled full of bullet holes and everything.

else so here we are uh watching this go on but still The left continues to fight. There's a group out there called the 907 Initiative, which is run by Aubrey Weber, who is a former ADN journalist, a writer for the ADN.

been doing a lot of crazy stuff in the last couple years they put on that big 600 person town hall that wasn't a town hall that had empty chairs and everything else they they don't report their funding as to who supports them or who funds them and everything else but they're out there putting commercials out in the anchorage area right now i'm going to play this for you

And I'm going to get your take on it. And then we're going to, we already broke it down a little bit in the last hour, but I'm going to play it again because it specifically talks about you. I want to get your take on it. Here is the latest piece from the 907 initiative that's playing in the Anchorage area. Notice to Anchorage parents.

Without state action, the following programs will be cut from Anchorage schools next year. All middle school sports, high school hockey, swimming, diving, and gymnastics, and Ignite. Hundreds of teachers will be laid off and class sizes will increase. Republican and Democrat legislators have come together.

to reverse these cuts. But just two Anchorage House members, David Nelson and Mia Costello, voted against our schools. Tell Rep. Nelson and Rep. Costello to stop playing politics with our schools and reverse the cuts. Paid for by the 907 Initiative. Aubrey Weber, Executive Director, approved this message. Okay, so this deal is done, right? I mean, so, I mean, first of all, just your initial reaction. I just kind of want to get your initial reaction on this.

Well, you know, I have to laugh because this is actually the first time I've heard it. So thank you for sharing it with me. You know, it's just ridiculous. I am a supporter of education, and I just think it's them coming after me because that's what they want to do. And frankly...

You know, they call themselves the 907 initiative. My question is, how many people who are funding this organization have a 907 area code? I bet you, Michael. Right. And we've kind of tried to look into this before. But, you know, the funders come from all over the country. You know, they're writing checks to groups that are coming after Republicans just because they want to push a liberal agenda. Now, as far as education goes.

I am supportive. I am in support of a BSA increase and the amount that came before us on the floor was just not achievable. But we, you know, in our caucus, Michael. When you look at the experience that we have in education, we have school board presidents. I'm a nationally recognized high school teacher. You know, I went to public school in Anchorage. My kids go there.

But you look at our caucus and the amendments that we put forward, and it was, you know, we had a class size reduction amendment by Representative Cologne. She wanted to reduce class sizes. Anchorage. We have these massive class sizes and the Democrats voted against it. Right. And then their supporters put out stuff like this. Right.

You should just ignore it. You know, when that comes on the radio, turn to something else because it's not true. And, you know, they're trying to just come after people. And it's unfortunate. That's just how it is. Here's the thing. The whole thing is, is the whole thing is a lie.

Right. So the first thing that they talk about is the sports and the this and the that. Of course, the school board decides what gets cut. Not not Mia Costello, not the legislature. The school board's in charge of that. And of course, they cut the most high visibility.

biggest pain points from the beginning then they talk about cutting teachers well even andy holliman the school board president said that like 200 positions are funded but not filled and they're going to have to cut like 195 or 200.

I mean, so there's very there's not going to be teachers that lose their job. They're going to lose. They're going to lose unfilled positions. So, again, that's a lie. And then to come to you say, oh, you voted against the the cuts to or you voted for the cut or whatever it is. It's not a cut to funding. And by the way, it's already out of the House. The House has already passed it. So is this an attack on you because...

They think you're vulnerable and they're taking an early position on the next election. Is it because they want to force you in a veto override to have to think about it? I mean, what. I mean, it's madness. It's just it's kabuki theater at this point.

Well, you know, one of the issues with education funding, and I've spoken to this and there was an amendment that passed, my amendment, which is the timing of the budgets is off. And so the school district puts out their budget and the legislature doesn't come in. Our budget process doesn't end. you know weeks and weeks after that and so they put this out there that this is what they're going to do

And because the funding last year was one-time funding, so now they're looking at a budget that doesn't have the 680 per student one-time funding. So they put out their budget and they say, well, we're going to cut all these things. And it happens every single year. The Anchor School District puts the parents and the students through this and the teachers through this whole process, which is horrible. Right. And then the legislature comes in and we've always funded education.

And, and then everything, you know, goes along and then this whole thing happens, you know, the next year. And so I put in an amendment that said that the governor should introduce a separate education funding early, you know, funding bill, then we would pass it by March 15th.

Now, I don't know if that will stay in the bill, but this is a problem, and every year we go through it. Do you know, Michael, I have never had one school board member talk to me about education funding for the Anchorage School District? And they don't have to call me because as soon as they put out their budget where they say they're going to cut the most, I mean, middle school sports. Michael, they are asking parents to pay for their child's sports. And then.

The coaches oftentimes are volunteers, and then they cut that because they're saying the legislature isn't funding their budget. It doesn't make any sense, and so it's frustrating. That's what Fairbanks is doing already. Fairbanks has already cut all those extracurricular sports and it's all funded by the parents. I mean, that's the thing. That's what they're doing already. And if you think that that funding timing is not intentional.

Because the same thing's happening in Fairbanks, the same thing's happening in the Matsu, the same thing's happening all over the state where they've aligned their budgets for the school boards so that they all are due before the legislature gets through with deliberation. And then all of the contracts for the team.

Teachers and everything else have a requirement that if their position is not fully funded, then you have to issue them a pink slip so that they can wave that around in the front of the public and say, look, we're going to be laid off. And it's all working as intended, Mia. That's all. intentional. And the students are the ones who are the disadvantaged in this situation because I'll give you an example.

my sister-in-law uh her she's a teacher she's a high school teacher she was teaching in a rural community her first year teaching she called me up and she said mia i don't think they like me here and they you know i just got a pink slip i said greta I hate to tell you this, but this is what happens in Alaska. Our budget cycles are off. And then she gets hired by another rural community. And so the students get to know their teacher for one year.

And then all of a sudden the teacher moves to another district and the students are disadvantaged by that because it's important that there's trust in your teacher and that you have that relationship in the school. And so having teachers stay in the schools for as long as possible, that's good for our students. But nobody cares about that. They just care about the maximum impact budget that could get parents and students and teachers panicked.

Michael, I have people coming to visit me and they are panicked over this budget. And I have to say, listen, we support education. We all want to support education with a BSA increase permanent. Now, the number that came across the floor of the House, that was not achievable. And what you're going to see is it's now in the Senate. They'll have those discussions and hopefully keep some of the things that we put in the bill.

And send it back to us. That's the process. And I don't think that some of those cuts were serious. I think that they were doing them for maximum impact.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's pain points. That's the goal. The goal is to make the parents scream and squawk about losing all these things that are high visibility. And my question to you is, when these parents come in and they're all panicky about... the budget and everything else are you asking them do you care about achievement do you care about the scholastic achievement i mean if the budget's there i mean aren't you just as concerned about where the education

falls on the achievement scores when we're 51 out of 53 and we're spending almost more than any other state in the nation on it. I mean, shouldn't that be of concern? Shouldn't the metrics matter in that regard? Oh, no. I saw an opinion piece headline. the other day um it's unfair to talk about performance when we're underfunding the schools wait a second it's not unfair it's part and parcel of the problem it's all it's all holistically it's all part of the same issue

We have to ask ourselves, are we doing it the right way? That's what we should be asking ourselves. Michael, we have dozens of amendments that address... so many issues that would have improved education for our students in classrooms and outcomes, supporting all kinds of options for education. And again, I'm going to go back to the class size amendment, you know, representative Cologne.

introduced an amendment to reduce class size to say that in Alaska, if you're in elementary school or middle school or high school, these are going to be the caps for your class size. And it failed. It failed, Michael, because... Apparently, that's not what the Democrats want. And I'm not sure why it fails, but maybe somebody can explain it to me. But class size, lowering that class size makes it much better for everybody.

I had teachers from Fairbanks come talk to me, a science teacher. She said, Mia, I can't teach a science class because there's too many kids in the class and we are doing some things where, you know, safety now is a consideration. So you have a certified science teacher not teaching science because the class is too large. And, you know, Michael, amendment after amendment went down. I mean, a few did pass, but for the most part.

We're not a part of the discussion, and we have a tremendous amount of experience in our caucus. I'm very proud of that, and our voice was really, really not there at the table, which is unfortunate, very unfortunate. it's uh well it's frustrating because we can see like i said we can see the intentionality of this whole thing and of how they're doing it and and if you pull back the curtain and realize and do the math and realize that this whole thing has basically been organized

to put this kind of undue pressure on the legislature through the public and everything else with the pink slips and the timing of the budgets and everything. It basically, again, continues to obfuscate the real problem, which is. We are not teaching our children well. We've got places like Mississippi that are spending a fraction of what we're spending, and they're seeing much better.

results they're seeing a huge increase in reading in fact they're one of the top in the nation now in fourth grade reading levels and some of these other things but instead of asking the question how could we do better with what we have or what did they do that we can emulate to make it work? The answer is more money.

That's the answer every time. Oh, if we just had more money doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. If you had more money and we're just pouring that money into doing exactly what you're doing now, you'll get exactly what you've got. Why aren't we asking questions about how about changing some fundamental basics in how we're teaching? Well, you're right, Michael. I mean, a teacher, an effective, qualified teacher is really...

very, very important to the outcomes. And, you know, another thing too that I want to bring up is, you know, I, I was a classroom teacher. I've, you know, I've been in the classrooms and I've seen a tremendous, I mean, so many excellent teachers. I mean, really.

We have some excellent teachers in the Anchorage School District, and then we look at our test scores, and our test scores are, you know, they're certainly getting a lot of national attention, right? Well, we also have tests where not all the students are taking the test, okay? So we have a test that's out there, and a small portion of students take the test. We had a discussion about the assessment tools that we're using. There's a test out there, the MAPS test.

Parents like it. Teachers like it. The students, we get results immediately where your child is. It charts the progress, which is what we want. We want to see progress, like wherever you are when you go into that classroom. Let's say you're in third grade and you're at a certain level in reading. We want progress. And that's the outcomes that we're looking for. We did support the Alaska Reads Act and the governor supports that. That was a good thing.

We really need to really look at this entire system and say, you know, how can we do this better? Everyone needs to be at the table, Michael. And right now, you know, we're not. We're not at the table. We do have some really great ideas, ideas that are used in other states that are proven to be effective, were turned down, shot down. I don't know why, but, you know, you have to ask the question.

Why are we not all at the table trying to make improvements for really one of the most important things in our state is, you know, is education. It can change a person's life. If you, you know, three years of a teacher that. doesn't you know where you don't see a progress in those classrooms uh you know students cannot overcome that it's very challenging if a child isn't reading by third grade they spend the rest of their education career

struggling and suffering and really trying to hide that they can't reach. We need to be helping students. We need to put the students first. We need to give parents choice. We need to we really need to look at this seriously. And it was disappointing that those amendments, many of them didn't pass. And it was kind of surprising to me. But, you know, Michael, I'm not sure what the agenda is, but I guess we're going to find out.

Mia Costello is our guest. We've got one final segment dead ahead with her, and we're going to talk with her about the overall state of the budget and more when we return. Don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We'll be back with more and Mia Costello in just a moment. We're broadcasting live through a series of tubes.

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, we're in the break right now. Mia Costello is our guest. Mia, I mean, look, you were a teacher. You understand the classroom, but, you know, the...

the topology of the classroom and working with the students and everything else. If you were queen for a day, what is your answer here? What is, you know, what do you think would make a difference in this? If you could wave your magic wand. How do we fix these abysmal scores? 51 out of 53. We're actually going backwards. We spent more and we're going backwards with this. How?

How do we fix this as a former teacher? You know, somebody who's been there, done that, got the T-shirt. What do we need to do? Okay, well, number one, you have to deal with attendance. You can't expect great scores when the kids aren't in the class, right? I mean, that's really kind of, to me, a common sense thing. So you have to deal with attendance. You have to incentivize.

districts and schools within the building that actually have the kids in the classroom. Then you ask yourself, well, how do you get the kids in the classroom? And I can tell you how you do that. You have engaging hands-on lessons. where students understand the relevance of what they're learning to the real world, okay? So, for example, when I was teaching government class, I did not open up a textbook and say, read chapter one and answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

What I did was I was in Juneau. I brought those kids to the Alaska State Legislature. I designed a unit called Follow That Bill. I gave them a pin that they put on their shirt in case they wondered what they were supposed to be doing. And they followed bills. They testified. We had a house, a mock house finance committee debate live on public television where the students in the class sat at the finance table and they debated the budget.

That was as real world as I could get for those students. And the reason I was able to do that, Michael, is because I was supported in the building by the principal, you know, and we do need to support our teachers who have. innovative ideas. Another way that you do it is you have career and technical education. Students know they're in school because they're going to eventually have jobs, right?

I'm a huge supporter of career and technical education. As far as the rural communities go, if I was clean for a day, I would change the system to instead of semesters, you'd have trimesters. And during one of those trimesters, I would send students to a rural hub. I would pour money into a career and technical hub.

Students would stay there in dorms or whatever, and then for a semester or trimester, they would be there learning welding, learning shop, learning AutoCAD, whatever, you know, technical skills would be, you know, good for them to learn to go back to their communities. And then while they're there, the teacher from Montana who was hired to teach in rural Alaska would go home, have their time back home so that they can adjust. And we're asking.

We're asking a lot, but that's what I would do, and I feel like there are a lot of things we could do, Michael. You know, those are just a few of my ideas, but my caucus is filled with people who have so much experience in education. And if we had a chance to really be listened to and have our ideas supported because they were good ideas, and not just shut down because we're Republicans, and that's frustrating. I've had so many education bills.

I had a constitutional amendment to forward fund education shot down. And, you know, that is a huge problem is the timing of the fund. But again, you know, I have seen firsthand. how talented students are. They are so capable. And if the system were to change to support those students, we would see...

A huge difference. You know, many of my former students are in the building. I, you know, and I see them and they're successful. One of them owns a coffee shop down the street. Another one is, you know, assistant attorney general. The way that we ran this program. The assessment tool was meeting a standard. It was written out. The students knew what was expected. If they didn't get it the first time, they got a chance to do it again because it's not...

how fast you learn, Michael, it's that you learn. And so we were able to pass that assessment tool to the community and train community members how to assess student work. You know, there's a lot of things we can be doing. And I thought, you know, the program I taught in was designed by Fortune 500 companies who said, you know, the education system community isn't producing students who are ready for the job environment. They're not ready for work.

They came up with this model of education, and it's a lot like the middle school model just applied to high school. Team teaching, you know, authentic assessment, as real life as you can get, you know. I hate to say this, but one of the best, the FAA, look at how they run it. When you get in an airplane, you know that pilot has been trained, okay?

And it's authentic assessment. You have to go up and do the seat turns and do the stalls and do the landings. You have to show that you know how to fly that airplane. When we send our kids to school and they show us how they understand, that's when we're going to start turning, I think we're going to start seeing better test results.

Mia Costello is our guest, House Representative for District 15. We're going to get into the overall budget and questions about, you know, how do we pay for it and everything else. That's coming up next. Please like and share the show. Like and follow the show page. page wherever you're watching it right now Facebook YouTube or Rumble you can hit the share button and then like and follow let's get to it here we go right now

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. All right. Continuing now, Representative Mia Costello, our guest, District 15 in Anchorage. And the big question, of course, with everything that we've been talking about, we've been on education quite a bit here this morning.

But the biggest question is, Mia, the size and scope of government, the size and scope of the government that we have right now. And the biggest question that I think Representative Stapp has been doing and McCabe and several others on the House side and shower, et cetera, on the Senate side have been asking the big question. How do we pay for it?

And who pays? I mean, that's the other question is who pays? Is it just lower and middle income Alaskans paying the most because their PFD has been taken? Is it a broad based tax? Is it a cut? What how do we fix? what's coming down the road because the tracks are out the train is hurtling towards the chasm of a fiscal cliff and we could either apply the brakes

Or I guess the other option is to just keep shoveling coal and hope we can jump the gap, which I think is wishful thinking. But what in your mind, how do we pay? Who pays? How do we pay? What do we do? Well, Michael, that really is the question, and I'm just going to tell you my thought process here. That is the question that had to be answered when we became a state.

That is why it took us so long to become a state. And, you know, we've all heard about the efforts, you know, you know, Mike Stepovich, Governor, you know, Wally Hickel, you know. going to D.C., trip after trip after trip to try to become a state. And we did not have the population to tax in order to pay for government. So what were we going to do?

And we looked at what we had. What do you have going for you? I mean, it's like in a job interview. What are you going to highlight that you have going for yourself to make this work for yourself? And the thing that Alaska has going for us is we have...

God-given natural resources in abundance. And we have been thwarted and we have been, you know, prevented from... realizing our true value to our own population and to the country in the world because we have not been able to develop our resources, whether it's permitting that takes so long.

that you can literally raise a family and they can leave the home by the time, and you're still trying to get your permit, right? The frustration is incredible. And we just accept it. We accept it now. Well, that's just how it's going to be. And our president is out there saying, we're not going to accept it anymore. We're not going to accept these.

decades-long permitting processes that really get the same result. We want responsible resource development. I'm not saying we don't want responsible resource development, but we have to have the resource development. Yes, that is the answer that our state pioneers came up with, right? Why aren't we logging?

Why aren't we mining more? Why aren't we developing more? That was the answer that our founders came up with. So that's going to always be my go-to answer, Michael, unfortunately. But right in front of us, without being able to do that, we're waiting. Thank God Trump's in office and can help us with that. It's very exciting, which was why those articles were so disappointing, whatever. But we need the process to work for us, too.

information about you know where all the funding is going where the money is in the in the department that is hard to do when we're not getting you know audits i i really um was happy when to support mike chanel's audit you know bill. We got information. Their audits are expensive and we don't have enough people to do the audit. That's another problem we face, Michael. We're looking at, you know, as far as how things are working in the state, people aren't.

you know, wanting to work or there aren't, you know, there aren't enough people filling these jobs. So we don't have the information that we need to really make the true change. And you're seeing it with President Trump. Other presidents, I'm sure. I know, you know, Bill Clinton wanted to reduce government spending and he tried. So it's not just Republicans who want to do this. We all want to get rid of waste and abuse and fraud.

And it's President Trump who's showing us how to do this. He's showing us what you need to do to do this. And that's what we need. We probably are going to keep going along the same path unless we have that kind of information at our fingertips. And a shout out to the House Republican finance team. You know, they're not given a lot of advance notice when things are coming.

they're not necessarily involved in what's happening at the table and yet they go to the finance table every day and they ask questions and you know they're trying to do the best they can but It's a shift in direction. It's a course correction. Right. And I think that we're going to see, you know, we need a team of people looking in depth into what the departments are doing. That's what we need.

Well, I mean, I would agree that auditing, maybe zero-based budgeting, I mean, there's a lot of different options there that could make these things a lot better and make them happen. But I think, again, the crux of it that I keep going back to, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but...

Even if we did get more revenue, if we develop more, we opened up the whole state, we did all that. The problem lies, and this is a problem that Hammond discovered early on when we got that first royalty payment back in 1969, 1970. It was nearly a billion dollars. The state's budget at the time was like 160 million dollars for the whole state. And they burned through a billion dollars like it was a house of fire. The spending problem started there.

And that's why they instituted the permanent fund and the dividend and everything else was to try and put a cap on that and get the people involved. But we've still got this spending problem. So even if we generate more revenues, unless we address the spending component. We're just going to it's Parkinson's principle. Government will expand to spend all the money in the room. Essentially, we've got to get a handle on that and we've got to cut back.

On some of our spending, we've got we've got to do some reduction. Maybe we can't cut it all. Maybe we can't cut back to to living an equal. But we if we're going to add revenues, there needs to be commensurate cuts. Am I wrong? You're right. You know, we need to live within our means and we need that budget to be something that's not just growing, growing, growing every single every single year. And, you know, it's a math problem. You've got 21 in the House and 11 in the Senate.

And there has to be a desire to make those reductions. We did do the percent of market value, which was. essentially a cap, you know, on spend so that you you're spending less than you earn every year so that you're continuing to grow that nest egg. That that was I think that philosophy is one that I you know, that I I'm glad that.

that we have that philosophy on the books, but essentially it's not enough. Representative McCabe has introduced a cap measure, and we've had spending caps in the past. We have to be able to, you know, to stick to it. Right. Well, I mean, that's what they're trying to shatter the POMV model now by combining the funds. That's the next plan. That's to get the access to the corpus. That's the next that's the next step.

And by shattering that and saying there's just not enough, even with the, I mean, you know, partially because of the $8 billion in ad hoc transfers and other things, they've created this crisis to where, well, now we've got to combine the funds so that if there's not enough, we can draw and it'll come out of the court.

Again, it all goes back to that spending. We got two minutes here, Mia. I want to give you the final bite at the apple and the last word. But I mean, if we don't get this spending under control, my final thoughts, it won't matter how much revenue we generate. because they'll just spend every dime of it anyway. So final thoughts, Mia Costello, Representative District 15.

Well, first of all, I'm really proud to be serving as the leader of the House Republican Caucus. I think the values that we are putting forward and what we believe in is what the majority of Alaskans want. We want a quality education. We want to live within our means.

We want to develop our resources responsibly. And I think, you know, what you're going to see this session is the liberal agenda is not what's best for Alaska. And I appreciate all the support that we're getting here. And we look forward to growing. you know, being in the majority. So I want to thank you, Michael, for having this show and for having me on.

Well, I appreciate it. We need to have you on more often. I know you've got a lot of strategery going on in the background where you're trying to not let too much intel out before big meetings or big floor sessions or anything else, but I think it's important. people get a chance to hear what your thoughts are, especially as a leader and what, you know, what we need to do. So we'd like to invite you to come back to the program, you know, more often.

to share with us because you know without this people are like you said people are kind of in the dark the only information they're getting is what they're getting from the news media which seems to be getting all their information from the press releases from the majorities right it doesn't seem to be a lot of minority Doesn't seem to be a lot of minority press going on into the local media at all.

Absolutely. I mean, this resolution that says we're concerned about threats or actions by Canada to shut down roads, and then we're being told that that is somehow... against the president. It's ridiculous. Michael, you know, again, I appreciate being on and I'm really, really proud to be in this legislature.

All right. Well, Mia Costello, thank you so much. Hold the line for just a second, Mia. Folks, we got more coming up tomorrow. We're going to be talking to Chris and Jim about the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds Fundraiser Gala this weekend. You want to come out and see me there? I'll be emceeing that event. And then we're going to talk with Sal.

Mer Cogliano from What's Up With Shipping on YouTube about the Jones Act and LNG tankers. That's coming up tomorrow. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free, thick, and radio. All right, Mia, I just want to give you, I always like to give the guests one final bite at the apple here after we get off the radio. It's just you, me, and 70 of our closest friends on the internet right now. So any final thoughts here before I let you go?

Oh, well, first of all, I just want to, you know, your listeners are some of the, you know, most steadfast Republicans and conservatives, you know, in Alaska. And I know that it's frustrating to see the, you know, the Republicans and the minority. And we need your help. Anything you can provide, you know, as far as calling in to committees and.

you know, sending an email and pushing back against this liberal agenda. And Michael, just one final thought about this. So we have a natural gas crisis in our state, right? And the House Energy Committee has not had one bill or one solution outside of increasing renewables. That is their vision for Alaska, the solar panels and wind farms.

When we have a gas line that we should be building, I mean, seriously, you're going to see a resolution because that's one of the things we can do. Representative Rauscher and I are introducing a gas line resolution. But this is their agenda. It's to let our state falter when we should be thriving.

and so any support as far as you know uh messaging or calling in or keeping us accountable you know one of the things you know we need to be we need to be accountable to you and so we need to be talking to you and hearing from you so Appreciate that. All right. Well, thank you so much, Mia Costello, for coming on board. And like I said, we'd love to have you on again here soon.

keep us in the loop if you got anything you need to talk about let us know send me a text and we'll uh we'll get you on to talk okay okay thanks michael thanks so much for calling in and being part of it today we appreciate it all right folks That wraps for today. We got more coming up tomorrow. Again, with Sal and with Chris and Jim.

local stuff and national stuff it should be fun i'm looking forward to it please like and share the show if you haven't already man there's only 28 likes and there was like 79 people on Facebook alone Facebook and YouTube alone so please before you leave the show this morning would you like it would you share it would you do all that let's get more people involved be kind love one another live well The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense Radio.

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