Module IX the end is near

Alaska Permanent Fund - $41+ billion. It is our "rainy day account". So, is it "raining" yet?  How hard is it raining?  Is it time to spend some of the earnings of the AK Permanent Fund to provide for state services?  What arguments would you present to legislators reluctant to confront this issue?

Great Article on the issue. Alaska Dispatch

As a new person to Alaska I tread into this subject carefully due to its sensitive nature and because of the PFD dividend each year everyone has an opinion on the subject.  I think the Alaska Permanent Fund is a great idea and one that I wish every state had.  Oregon (my home state) has been struggling with implementing this “rainy day fund” for years and not that it has been put in place everyone wants to use it.  This is the same feeling I am getting about the Alaska fund.  There is never enough money to go around and since all of us are in education it is never more obvious. The reports out of Juno this year are not good for funding levels and my district has had to layoff teachers including one of our staff of 3.  With all of that said I sill don’t agree that we should be tapping the fund, yet.  

Alaskan Oil Production Levels; Past and Future The Standard

As was stated in the readings Alaska was one of the poorest states prior to the discovery of oil. Since that discovery many necessary things have been paid for with oil money but this time of abundance may be coming to an end.  The decrease in production has been steady over the past 20 years.  Propped up by higher oil prices the state has not had to confront this issue for the most part.  Now I know that the price fluctuate but with the dramatic demand of oil increasing all around the world from countries such as China, India and Brazil it will not return it to the low prices of the 1990’s.  This will help the state continue to put off the issue but the levels will never return to the highs after the North Slope discoveries.

Stock up on camping gear.

         I would like to see the money sill held for that emergency moment when Alaska is faced with a new challenge.  What could be done in the mean time to help fill some of the gaps in state services is to reduce the dividend and place that money in to needed areas.  While I know that this is only an observation the money I see come from the PFD is used as a gift and spend that way.  Many new “toys” appear and the people that are doing could use the money for bills.  I know that the argument is made that it helps make up for the higher cost of living up here but I have yet to see that happening.  That money invested in schools would have a much higher impact on the health of the state than in the pockets of individuals.  I look forward to comments on this. 

  Identify the Alaska Senate and House Districts in which you live (Use current, not pending, letter and number.) Identify the name and political party of your state senator and representative.  Identify the type of local government you have (city? borough? what class?)  Identify the tribal government, if any, in your area, and if possible find out if it is an IRA or traditional council.  

Oregon State Seal

I am new to the sate and had been very active in Oregon politically.  I even worked for two legislative sessions as a chief of staff for an Oregon State Senator.  So one of the first things I did when I got up here was register to vote.  Sadly that was 9 months ago and I have not thought of politics since then.  So when this class question came up about identifying your political district and representatives I thought it would be a good project.   

Albert Kookesh

William "Bill" Thomas Jr. (R)

First off I was surprised how difficult it was to locate the information.  Now I live in a small small village and so it never pops up on the list of towns someone represents.  I started my search by looking for who represents Valdez and Cordova making the assumption that would cover my town.  It looks like I am in Senate District C represented by Senator Albert Kookesh and House District 5 represented by William "Bill" Thomas Jr..  Kookesh is a Democrat and Thomas is a Republican.  That is the entire limit of my representation. 

The village of Tatitlek is led by a village president David Totemoff and a village IRA council that is only open up to tribal members.  Due to some very difficult village politics and a dramatically shrinking population the council has not met in several years and seems to be on cruse control. 

Extend: How might you use content from this module in your professional practice? 
      Next year I will be teaching government to my students to correspond to the Presidential election but that is national politics and will have far less impact on their lives compared to local issues.  The resources from this module have giving me a great start on how to cover the local issues especially being new to the state.  I have been saving a bunch of links from other peoples bolgs so that I will have more than enough information when I plan this summer.

Other Blogs

Heather's Alaskan Exploration:  Wow was I impressed by her format and links to some great information.  I am still not sure how to get my format to look as good as hers.


Crossing Alaska: good information on World War two.  I am not sure what happened to some of the images but the content was good.

Learn Alaska or Bust:  Again a good summary of World War two.  His content has been spot on every week and an interesting read.  I thought is tie in with Palin a good connection because that is how the rest of America sees on the map, right next to Russia.

Evaluation

This was a lot of information to digest this week but all very much needed.  I like to think of it as the new Alaskan quick start kit.  If more time was possible for the class this may have been broken up into two weeks to allow for  more of it to settle in but for now it whetted my appetite.  I am looking forward to the final project and we will see how all that connecting goes.