Senate Floor Session, 4/21/26, 11am

Will the Senate please come to order. And will members please signify your presence by voting.

Senator Merrick. The roll shows 19 members present. Thank you. With 19 members shown as present, we have a quorum to conduct business. The invocation this morning will be given by Megan Harden, our Senate page.

Members, please rise.

With respect to each person and religion, I pray. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for your goodness to us and your love. Please give these senators wisdom as they review what is before them today. Give them discernment to choose wisely the outcomes for this state and its people.

Give them attitudes of peace and grace towards each other as the session comes to a close. Let their words be ones that honor you and honor each other. Please give them, their staff, and the rest of us energy, good health, and peace in in this last month of session. Thank you that you are the one we can look to for truth and safety. All this I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. Senator Kaufman, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Senator Kaufman. Will the Secretary please certify the journal? I certify as to the correctness of the journal for the 91st legislative day. Thank you, Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the journal be approved as certified by the Senate Secretary.

Thank you. Hearing no objection, the journal has been approved. Senator Hoffman. Good morning, Mr. President. I move and ask unanimous consent That the prayer be spread on the journal.

I see no objection. The prayer has been spread on the journal. Senator Giesel. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that Senator Olson be excused and not subject to a call of the Senate today through Wednesday, April 22nd, evening, plain time, for personal business. Thank you, Senator Giesel.

Without objection, so ordered. Senator Olson will be excused. Additional guests for introduction at this time? Seeing none, Madam Secretary, are there messages from the Governor? A letter dated April 20th, including revised finance plans for the 2025 October West Coast storm, the August storm, and the Juneau flood was received.

The letter and revised finance plans have been copied to the Finance Committee co-chairs. Another letter dated April 20th was received requesting legislative concurrence to increase the funding limitation for the 2024 West Coast storm disaster, additional— accompanied by an updated finance plan as required by AS 2623020. The letter and updated finance plan have been copied to the Finance Committee co-chairs. Those are all the messages from the governor this morning, Mr. President. Well, thank you, Madam Secretary.

Are there messages from the House? I have no messages from the House today. Thank you. Communications? There are no communications today.

Thank you. Are there reports of standing committees? The Labor and Commerce Committee considered Senate Bill 272, Health Information Exchange, previous zero fiscal note, signing no recommendation. Senator Bjorkman, chair. Senators Merrick, Yunt, signing do pass.

Senators Dunbar, Gray, Jackson. The bill has no further referral. It is in the Rules Committee. The Education Committee considered CS for House Bill 28, Finance Amended, Teacher State Employee Student Loan Program, and recommended it be replaced with an Education Senate Committee substitute. New title with SCR 21 forthcoming.

New fiscal note, signing do pass, Senator Tobin, Chair, Senators Yunt, Kiel, Stevens. Signing amend, Senator Bjorkman. The bill has a further referral to the Finance Committee. The Education Committee considered Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 17, Regional Educational Attendance Areas. New zero fiscal note, signing do pass, Senator Tobin, Chair, Senator Kiel.

Signing no recommendation, Senators Yunt, Stevens, Stevens. Senator Stevens. The resolution has no further referral. It is in the Rules Committee. The Education Committee considered House Joint Resolution 39 amended, waive visa fees for teachers.

Previous zero fiscal notes. Signing do pass: Senator Tobin, Chair, Senators Stevens, Keel. Signing no recommendation: Senator Yunt. The resolution has no further referral. It is in the Rules Committee.

Those are all the standing committee reports this morning, Mr. President. Thank you. Madam Secretary, are there reports of special committees? I have no special committee reports today. Are there Senate resolutions for introduction?

I have no Senate resolutions for introduction today. And are there Senate bills for introduction? I have no Senate bills for introduction this morning, Mr. President. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Please read the first item on today's calendar.

Senate Bill Number 21 by Senators Wilkowski, Gray-Jackson. An act establishing the Alaska Work and Save Program, establishing the Alaska Retirement Savings Board, and providing for an effective date. The Labor and Commerce Committee considered the bill and recommended it be replaced with the Labor and Commerce Committee substitute. New indeterminate fiscal notes. Signing no recommendation: Senator Bjorkman, Chair, Senators Merrick, Yunt.

Signing do pass: Senators Dunbar, Gray-Jackson. The Finance Committee considered the bill and recommended it be replaced with the Finance Committee substitute. New fiscal and indeterminate fiscal notes. Signing do pass: Senators Olson, Steadman, Hoffman, Co-chairs, Senator Kiel. Signing no recommendation, Senators Cronk, Merrick.

Signing amend, Senator Kaufman. There are 2 committee substitutes. Thank you. Senator Hoffman. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate Finance Committee substitute for Senate Bill 21 be adopted in lieu of the original bill.

Thank you. Would you explain the changes, please? Yes, Mr. President. The committee substitute for Senate Bill 21 Finance makes includes the following changes. These— all these changes are at the request of the bill sponsor.

It pulls the work safety program entirely under the Department of Revenue instead of being partially under the Department of Labor. Removes fines and penalties for employers not in compliance. It updates the definition of employer to apply to a person or business that has employed more than 5 people for not less than 3 years. And it updates the effective date to January 1st, 2027. The fiscal note changes, the Department of Revenue Division, Treasury Division fiscal note has been updated to reflect an anticipated cost of $808,700 in UGF.

The fiscal note was previously indeterminate. And there are no changes to the permanent fund fiscal note. Thank you, Senator Hoffman. Hearing no objection, the Senate Finance Committee substitute has been adopted and this bill will advance to third reading on our next legislative calendar. Madam Secretary, please read the next item on our calendar.

Senate Bill Number 163 by Senator Kaufman. An act relating to inactive state accounts and funds repealing the Homeownership Assistance Fund, repealing the Operating Loss Reserve Account, repealing the Public Access Fund, repealing the Southeast Energy Fund, repealing the Alaska Gas Line Inducement Act Reimbursement Fund, repealing the Child Care Facility Revolving Loan Fund Foreclosure Expense Account, repealing the Tourism Revolving Fund Foreclosure Expense Account, repealing the Residential Energy Conservation Fund Foreclosure Expense Account, repealing the Historical District Revolving Loan Fund Foreclosure Expense Account, repealing the Alaska Temporary Assistance Program Emergency Account, repealing the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games Reserve Fund, and providing for an effective date. The Labor and Commerce Committee considered the bill and recommended it be replaced with the Labor and Commerce Committee substitute. New zero fiscal note, signing do pass, Senator Bjorkman, Chair Senator Yunt. Signing no recommendation, Senators Dunbar, Gray Jackson.

The Finance Committee considered the bill and recommended the adoption of the previous Labor and Commerce Committee substitute. Previous zero fiscal note, signing do pass, Senators Olson, Steadman, Hoffman, co-chairs Senators Kaufman, Cronk, Merrick, Keele. There is a Labor and Commerce Committee substitute. Thank you. Senator Bjorkman.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. I move and ask unanimous consent that the Labor and Commerce Committee substitute for Senate Bill 163 be considered in lieu of the original bill. Thank you. Would you explain the changes, please? I would love to.

Brief at ease, please. Brief at ease.

To order, please. Senator Bjorkman, explain the changes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. In the Labor and Commerce Committee some time ago, we made changes to clean up and reduce the amount of funds that we were chloroforming in this bill. I appreciate the sponsor's efforts.

Page line 112, we removed AS 18.56.430, the Homeownership Assistance Fund, from the list of repeals. We also removed AS 18.56.450, the Operating Loss Reserve Account, and the Southeast Energy Fund and the Alaska Gas Line Inducement Act Reimbursement Fund. On page 2, line 1, we removed the Foreclosure Expense Account, its revolving loan fund, the Foreclosure Expense Account in its entirety, and the Residential Energy Conservation Fund from that same Foreclosure Expense Account, as well as the Historical District Revolving Loan loan fund in that foreclosure expense account. Page 2, line 3, we updated the effective date from June 30, 2025 to July 1st, 2026. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Bjorkman. Hearing no objection, the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee substitute has been adopted. This bill will advance a third reading in our next legislative calendar. Brief at ease.

I will listen and come back to order, please. Uh, Senator Wielekowski. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent to roll back the calendar to introduction of guests. Without objection, back to the introduction of guests. Senator Wielekowski.

Mr. President, I see we've had a number of people join us. And there is one individual I'd like to recognize, and that's Phoebe Pepper, right behind me, has been an intern in my office, a student at University of Alaska Sitka, where she has served as the president of that campus' student government organization, currently serves as the secretary of the University of Alaska-wide Coalition of Student Leaders. Phoebe was encouraged to do the internship program when the building— while in the building advocating for the university last year and joined the program as a sophomore and will be remaining on for the remainder of this session. Back home in Sitka, Phoebe is a stage manager for a theater collective and spends summers as a server. Phoebe also owns a small business with her girlfriend that raised $3,000 for Sitka's radio station last summer.

Phoebe has plans to next intern in Washington, D.C. before graduating college where she hopes to be back in the building before long. Phoebe has been an amazing, energetic addition to the team this session, always bringing a positive attitude, eagerness to learn, and genuine curiosity. Among many duties, Phoebe is doing outstanding work on the bill we passed yesterday on food dyes. I'm confident we will be seeing and hearing much more from Phoebe in the decades to come, and please help me in welcoming and thanking Phoebe for the tremendous service in the internship program to the Alaska Senate. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Wolkowski. Are there additional guests for introduction? Seeing none, moving back down the calendar to our today's calendar. Madam Secretary, CS for Senate Bill Number 214, Finance, an Act Making Appropriations Including Capital Appropriations, Supplemental Appropriations, and Reappropriations Making appropriations to capitalize funds, amending appropriations, and providing for an effective date before the Senate in third reading on final passage. There is an amendment number 1 by Senator Rauscher on members' desks.

Thank you, Senator Rauscher. Thank you, Mr. President. I ask a move permission from the body to return a second for the purpose of amendments. Thank you, Senator Rauscher. Hearing no objection, Senate Bill 214 is back in second reading and will remain in second reading until all amendments have been considered.

Senator Rauscher. Mr. President, I move Amendment Number 1. Objection. There has been an objection. Senator Rauscher.

Thank you, Mr. President. This amendment adds funding for the UAA Prince William Sound Community College Campus Renewal Project in Valdez. It's targeted as a one-time capital investment of $476,000 to address critical deferred maintenance needs for the campus, specifically upgrades the fire alarm systems, improvement to the heating and structure and infrastructure. These are not optional upgrades, they're essential systems that ensure the campus remains safe for students and staff, operational year-round, and compliance with code requirements. The facilities at the Prince William Sound College were originally constructed in the '70s, currently face a deferred maintenance backlog of approximately $5 million.

This amendment represents a practical focus, a step forward addressing backlog, improves life safety systems, energy efficiency, and overall reliability. Campus operations. Thank you, Senator Rauscher. Is there discussion? Senator Steadman.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, I rise in objection to the amendment. When we put the capital budget together, we, dealing with the university along with K-12 and the courts, followed their list of recommendations for repair. This project is on the list from the Board of Regents. They, for those watching at home, the Board of Regents compiles the list along with a submission from the president of the university to the legislature on operating and capital requests.

And they're prioritized. So this falls quite a bit, quite a ways down the list. In a category right around $35, $36 million in total expenditures to get down to that one. I doubt if— well, we'll see at the end of the budget cycle, because this is only the first half of it. We are recommending, the Finance Committee is recommending we go down the list to $17 million.

Roughly, not down to $36 million. So this would be jumping the list. And for those watching at home, we try to follow the list to take the politics out of it, and sometimes we might get concerned of the rankings, but we have those discussions with either the K— the Board of Education or the DEED— Department of Education, I should say— or the university. Or the courts, but we don't try to jump the list. So, Mr. President, I object to inclusion of this in the budget.

Thank you, Senator Steadman. Is there further discussion? And is the objection maintained? If you're ready for the question, the question being, shall the Senate adopt Amendment Number 1? Senators may proceed to vote.

The Secretary will lock the roll, please. Do any Senators wish to change their vote? The Secretary will announce the vote. 7 Yeas, 12 nays. And so by a vote of 7 yeas to 12 nays, Amendment Number 1 has failed to pass the Senate.

Madam Secretary. There is an Amendment Number 2 by Senator Tilton on members' desks. Thank you, Senator Tilton. Thank you, Mr. President. I move Amendment Number 2.

It has an objection. Senator Tilton to explain. Thank you, Mr. President. We have been talking about nutrition quite a bit here on this floor, and this amendment would provide nutrition via the SNAP program and the WIC program. And what it does is it expands the farmers market It's a match fund for them to have this expansion.

The last time they did this was in 2022. It was for 5 years, and that 5 years is up. There is a document on members' desks that tell a little bit about it, and I know you all can read, but I'm just going to just say a few things. The reason this is really important is because 95% of Alaska's food is imported. And is subject to supply chain disruption.

And only 8% of Alaskans are getting the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. So what's really interesting is it's— this program has proven results, Mr. President. It has a 272% increase in SNAP redemption at Alaska farmers markets, which is amazing, Mr. President, that we are bringing good nutrition to our seniors and our Alaskan citizens. So in— let's see— in 2022, it was only $18,000 and has moved up in 2025 to $67,000 being spent at farmers markets. So the— They would like to not have appropriation from the state and are hoping to not— this to be the last ask.

But I would just sit down and ask if there's any questions. I'm happy to answer. Thank you, Senator Tilton. Senator Steadman. Mr. President, I rise in objection to the amendment.

I think the program is probably well-intended and a good program. Better fitted for the operating budget. It's under programs, so I don't think it's the proper place. Although I do recognize the capital budget has a 5 to 6 year life where the operating budget's 1 year. It looks to me like it's more of an operating budget discussion and object to the inclusion in the capital budget.

Thank you, Senator Stebbins. Is there further discussion? Senator Crown. Um, thank you, Mr. President. This is a I appreciate this amendment coming forward because this is more of a statewide amendment.

This affects all kinds of farmers markets. And I know up in Fairbanks, this was really important. We have lots of very small farms, gardens being grown around the state. And they came to our office and really emphasized this. And I remember growing up in Northway, there was no one in that village that had a garden or greenhouse.

And we ended up having a garden and greenhouse. And we'd bring vegetables to school and these kids didn't even know what they were. So I guess I could look at this amendment as, you know, dispelling the Cheeto as a, you know, as a carrot amendment because this allows, you know, some disadvantaged people, whether it's young kids or seniors, to actually have access to really healthy food, which is a problem in our society because most of our food that we get from stores is not really healthy food. So this is— I'll never say a $750,000 $100,000 is not a lot of money, but it's money that's well spent across our state. I hope we have support for this.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator Krogman. Is there further discussion? Please, Senator Myers. Thank you, Mr. President.

I don't know if I can follow the Cheeto and carrot remark, but one of the things that was emphasized to me when the folks from the farmers market came around in the beginning of the year was, you know, we've been talking a lot about food security. You know, of course, the pandemic brought that into stark relief around the state as we talked about what happens when the Port of Seattle shuts down. And something that the farmers have emphasized to us is, you know, we're, we've kind of, we're at the proof of concept phase for a lot of people in the last decade or so. And now we're at the, at the point where we need to to scale up. And one of the things that this does besides trying to get healthy food into the hands of folks that might be on the lower end of the income scale and might not afford a lot of the healthier stuff out there is it helps these farmers develop a market which can then be self-sustaining moving forward.

So, as the member from from the matsū mentioned, hopefully this is the last time that they come to us because after 10 years they will have developed those markets, developed those habits among the consumers that if we're looking for fresh vegetables that they do exist here in Alaska and you don't just have to go down to the chain grocery store. You can find them from somebody local. They're likely going to be healthier for you as they haven't been sitting on a barge for 2 or 3 weeks. And again, it's, it's not just about, you know, what people can afford, but it's building those habits that build the businesses moving forward, really helping our business climate for our farmers as well, not just how much people can afford to eat. So with that, I ask for support for the amendment.

Thank you. Senator Myers. Senator Dunbar. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate the spirit of this amendment. Myself and the member from Muldoon had the good fortune to help start the Muldoon Farmers Market, and we have seen these programs work well. I share the concerns for the chairman from Sitka. I believe this is more appropriately in the operating rather than capital budget, although I will say there is an opportunity for those concerned with food security to bring a much more significant amount of funds into exactly these kind of programs. Our state government has voluntarily turned down federal assistance for summer EBT for kids that qualify for it when they go on summer break.

There is legislation to address that too. And so I, I hope the folks concerned about, uh, food security here will support efforts from the administration and from this body to expand and receive those millions of dollars of federal funds we are now turning down that could feed kids to the summer EBT program. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Dunbar.

Is there further discussion? Is the objection maintained? Yes. If you are ready for the question, the question being, shall the Senate adopt Amendment Number 2? Senators may proceed to vote.

Senator Gray Jackson, thank you. The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any senators wish to change their vote? The secretary will announce the vote. 6 Yeas, 12 nays.

And so by a vote of 6 yeas to 12 nays, Amendment Number 2 has failed to pass the Senate. Madam Secretary, there is an Amendment Number 3 by Senator Tilton on members' desks. Thank you, Senator Tilton. Thank you, Mr. President. I move Amendment Number 3.

Thank you. There has been an objection. Would you explain the bill or the amendment, please? Yes, thank you, Mr. President. This is a subject that we've heard plenty about and we're going to continue to hear about.

It's the courthouse expansion at Palmer, and the reason I'm bringing this amendment forward, Mr. President, is because the Matsu region is the fastest growing region in our it has— with that comes increased workload. And it is thought that it is at least a 26% gain in population. So this expansion would include space for 3 new courtrooms as well as a hybrid room to do remote hearings. And I feel like this is a little bit more of a statewide issue than it is just a regional issue because what we found, Mr. President, is that people from the Mat-Su, because the courthouse is so backed up, as we all know there was a bill here asking for another judge, is so backed up that people are filing their complaints and going to Anchorage, which is thereby backing up the Anchorage courthouse. So, Mr. President, this Expansion is, to me, more of a— would help on a statewide basis than just on a region basis.

As a matter of fact, I just have a personal story of what is happening here with the citizens. I have a friend who unfortunately her son was passed in an accident. And she— was trying to get his will probated so that she could move forward. And at the time she lived out of state and he had property here in the state. My friend is paying a house payment not only on her own home, she's also paying the house payment on her deceased son's home because it is taking so long for the will to be probated that she doesn't know how much longer she's going to be able to continue to pay the house payment on her deceased son's home.

So that's one of the ways that the courthouse not being expanded and not having the proper amount of judges there is affecting local citizens. So I think that those are cases not just in probate but China cases and all other kinds of cases are being delayed. So this is a very important expansion for our state. Although, Mr. President, I do understand that it is at the top of the judiciary list. And so therefore, Mr. President, I am going to look forward to it being funded next year.

And with that, I will withdraw the amendment. Thank you. Amendment number 3 has been withdrawn. Withdrawn. Madam Secretary.

I have no further amendments. That brings the bill back before the body in third reading on final passage. Thank you, Madam Secretary. So we were back in third reading. Senator Stebbins to carry the bill.

Thank you, Mr. President. We started the capital budget process with a recommendation from the Governor when he submitted it, and it was pretty lean. There was no frills. It was a match-only budget, and the economic projections for our revenue was a little bit lower than it is today. This submission was clear back in December.

It's probably put together through the end of November.

But with the physical reality that we face today, We've got a little bit of an increase in our revenue stream dealing with the issues mainly in the Middle East, but we've got an increase in the projected price of oil. We are in the Senate using a target of $73, nowhere near the $100+ oil is today.

But with the uptick in revenue, we're taking the opportunity to address address some of the backlog of our deferred maintenance across the university, the judiciary, and Department of Education. Over the last several years, we have not funded adequately due to budgetary constraints or deferred maintenance, and frankly, it's getting alarming.

The current deferred maintenance backlog is roughly about $2.4 billion. That's with a B, $2.4 billion. That is significant and we need to take it head on. So the priorities again in putting this budget together was dealing with the deferred maintenance with the university, judiciary, and the Department of Education, all of which those groups submit, as mentioned earlier, today submit a list, ranked list, to the legislature for consideration. We in turn then start at the top of the list and go down and allocate money to a particular list until we run out of funds.

We do not jump the list, and the reason it's set up like this is to keep as much politics out of about who gets and what areas of the state get maintenance funding. So in the event that you have an influential delegation in Juneau, you don't get all the funding, and the areas of the state that have, you know, less functioning representation ends up no funding at all. It's a fairness issue. So I'd like to start with the university a little bit. So this budget adds $17.1 million for the university facilities deferred maintenance.

The university's deferred maintenance list is included in their annual budget request, again adopted by the Board of Regents and then submitted by the university president. We refer to it as the red book just because the color is red on the COVID It's about as scientific as that goes, Mr. President. The funding is spread around the state and addresses The top 9 projects on the university's list. There's 3 projects in the University of Alaska Fairbanks, 3 in the University of Alaska Anchorage, and 3 in the University of Alaska Southeast, which is everybody else. So we pretty much got everybody covered.

And we can expect this number— because this is a part of the capital budget for the year. There's another body that will be adding to these. So the list will continue to grow. So we do fund and address the top of the list. For the judiciary, the third branch of government, there's $3.7 million in the budget for deferred maintenance.

The judiciary creates their annual budget request and we use their list like the other ones, so we're addressing the top 4 projects, all of which are in Anchorage. So that's just the way it worked out on the list. You're either on the list, not on the list, and we go down the ranking. Top 3 are in Anchorage. But as mentioned before by the senator sitting next to me, the capital list and the need for the particular courthouse up north is real.

And we'll be most likely dealing with that next year and the year after or whatever. And it is the top of the list, so she was correct in that. Uh, K-12, kindergarten through 12th grade, that is definitely a priority here for the legislature. We've been working very hard about every aspect we can think of to enhance K-12, um, from multiple directions, one of which, just one of which, is deferred maintenance. There's been lots of stories in the media about deteriorating schools and And we've seen pictures and heard reports and, you know, of the mold and leaky roofs and drafty windows and unusable spaces and fire systems that don't work and leaky fuel tanks.

It goes on and on and on. Embarrassingly so, Mr. President. So the Department of Education and Early Development, they create two lists. The major maintenance list, which we start at the top and go down. School construction list, start at the top and go down.

And I'll stop there just for a second because there is concern on the structure of the list. And we are going to most likely be working on that the next couple of years to improve the fairness of that list, but we are not changing it this year. I think we should look at the formula then, or the formula for the list, and not go retroactive. So we'll work on that going forward. Some projects have been on for many years.

Currently, this budget funds the top 15 projects on the major maintenance priority list, about $45 million. We can all expect the number of projects to increase with more spending added by the other body. I expect that the numbers will probably double, roughly. Hopefully. 3 Additional projects on the major maintenance list are funding— funded a little differently.

And they are leaky fuel tanks.

The deteriorating fuel tanks are in the rural schools and there's $11.8 million for those 3. That funding source is the Spill Prevention Response Fund. They're not the only leaky fuel tanks. Fuel tanks. Now that we're addressing fuel tanks, we're getting a few more letters.

So we'll probably have some leaky tanks next year too. The Senate also includes $17.5 million to begin construction of a new school in Stibbens. That is not Steadman, by the way. I just want to be clear. We're not building a school because I'm chairman of the operating— or the capital budget.

This is Stibbens, way up north.

Their school was destroyed by fire 2024. And Stibbens is the number one project on the school construction list. The next major area in K-12 is dealing with Mount Edgecomb, our state-run boarding school. It's receiving the much-needed attention after years of neglect. The biggest project included in this is the dining hall and kitchen renovation.

These buildings, for those watching at home, were built in World War— actually before World War II, 1939, I think. And they have some cleanliness issues, to say the least, dealing with these old buildings. And so we're addressing those. Other projects include the window replacement in both the girls' and boys' dorms and some new furniture, mattresses, laundry machines. For a total of $13.9 million.

There's 402 mattresses and they didn't have any spares. There's no replacement schedule for them, so we're working on that. So we're going to deal with the mattresses. Laundry machines were— there was a colleague of ours in the other body that was with us when we did a visit. Those laundry machines were the laundry machines she used when she was in high school.

And her son's in high school there now, to give you an age of that. And they're not even commercial machines. So we're dealing with that. So all told, in K-12 deferred maintenance is $88.7 million. There's a— we recognize there's a lot of needs in our cities, in our communities around the state, but we'll have to work on those another day, 'cause we gotta deal with some of the state issues first, I think.

Dealing with vocational education and workforce development, we don't want to leave that behind. We have a lot of young Alaskans that need to be trained up with their skill set so they can have good, livable wage jobs. So included in the capital budget, we have some investments in Vo-Tech education in preparing for the work on the oil patch, maybe a gas line, liquefaction plants, whatever, or just general construction around the state.

So these funds use ADA dividend. There's 4 projects. That's Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority. They produce a dividend for us. Every year from their earnings, Mr. President.

So we're putting $3 million for construction of a commercial driver's license and construction driving training center in Wasilla; $3 million for upgraded— for equipment upgrades and program expansion at the Alaska Vocational Technical Education Center in Seward; $2 million for equipment upgrades at the Fairbanks Kena'a Pipeline Training Center in obviously Fairbanks, and $1.7 million for the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Instructional Service Center. So we're spreading it out around the state, trying to give as many of the young Alaskans opportunity as absolutely possible. Next up, we dealt with the cruise ship vessel head tax. Mr. President, the budget appropriates revenue accrued from the cruise ship passenger head tax. The revenue from this tax is restricted.

Again, it's restricted and must be spent on the port facilities, harbor infrastructure, or other services provided to commercial passenger vessels. So it's not— it's restricted money by the federal government, frankly, not us.

So the first tranche of the spending is from the Ocean Ranger account. To fund port electrification so cruise ships can plug in and turn off their generators. We've been working on that for several years, and there's $15.3 million that was in the governor's budget. The Senate added what was left of the Ocean Ranger account, which was $3 million, and split it between Juneau and Ketchikan. Whittier was the first one.

We're going down the coast, and we'll do more more ports as time goes on. But Whittier, Juneau, and Ketchikan were the first ones ready, and Whittier was better prepared than Juneau and Ketchikan. So we've been working on this for a few years. The second tranche of spending is from the, the cruise passenger head tax. Tax revenue accrues in this fund because the entirety of the head tax is not distributed through the first 7 ports of As you recall, by the formula in statute, the remaining revenue builds over time, and it's been stacking up since 2020.

So the last time these funds were appropriated was a few years ago. So what we did, Mr. President, is we look back over the ports over the last 3 years. We average— again, it's restricted money— we averaged the passengers per port for those 3 years and allocated accordingly for $37.5 million to 16 different communities. There was a couple of adjustments. We added a little extra for Anchorage, $1 million in Anchorage, and we had an adjustment made for Skagway because they have a boulder on top of their mountain on the back of their port that they're worried about falling down and taking out their port.

And I worked with the senator from Juneau on tax, those monies from his communities, and we made that adjustment to facilitate that dangerous issue. Other funding, there's $3.5 million in the Renewable Energy Round Fund, or excuse me, Round 18, the Renewable Energy Fund. It's Round 18, $5.3 million. Top 3 projects, I expect the other body will probably continue working down that. Again, that's— we've been working on that for a long time in here.

There's $2 million for the judiciary to purchase Stratton Library from the Department of Education. Just to be clear, Stratton Library is— used to be a library at Sheldon Jackson College when it used to operate over— well over a decade or so ago, two decade— decade and a half ago maybe. They shut down two decades ago. Those funds will go to the Department of Education for, um, judiciary to eventually rehab that building and put in a courthouse. And that rehab building will most likely be behind the one that was previously mentioned up north where the population growth is.

I think it's number 2 on their list, not number 1. Then there was $4 million for the Seafood Marketing Institute and $4 million for the Alaska Travel Industry Association. We put funds in those to facilitate marketing, to push our commerce. We still have challenges in our seafood industry and in the travel industry for— on the travel industry, it's for independent travelers, and we're working We're working with both of those entities to try to get some synergy on those funds appropriated to them because they're both selling Alaska. One group's selling viewsheds, one group's selling fish.

So they can look at the mountains and eat fish. We'll get a bigger bang for our buck, we hope.

So we're— again, we're using the $73 a barrel oil $100 a barrel for— that's our target. The revenue projection from the Department of Revenue is for $75 a barrel. So we're cutting it down a little bit. We want a little bit of breathing room. We're certainly— and I just want the public to know, we're not using $100 a barrel oil.

We're not going to use $120 a barrel oil. We're not going to get intoxicated by over a couple of weeks of movement in oil price.

So this committee, or this bill, adds an additional $156 million in total spending, $88.7 million in unrestricted general funds. But of the unrestricted general funds, I think this is really important, 94% of it is going to K-12. Maintenance. That's the significance of what we're doing.

All of these additions in the governor's underlying budget leverages $1.9 billion— $1.9 billion in federal funds for total spend of $2.47 billion. And with that, I'd like to add just a couple other items, Mr. Chairman, off the script, just for those watching at home. On the concern and significance of the, of the condition of our schools around the state from every corner. We asked them to give us a ranked list of how many years some of these schools have been on the list. Again, we follow the list top to bottom and we go down till we run out of money.

One project— and there might be some scope changes or tweaks along over the years years. One, the longest project's been on the list, 20 years. It's a fire suppression system, so don't go striking any matches in that school. The next two project— next three projects were 15 years.

Then there was one at 14, one at 13, three at 12 years, one at 10, two at 9, 4, excuse me, 3 at 8 for a total of 15 projects have been on the list from 8 to 20 years. No wonder the schools quit applying. Sitka unfortunately didn't apply but one project on the list, so they're not, you know, they come up short. That's the way it goes. Then the next project for 8 years is for Juneau.

So all of those 15 projects are all in rural Alaska.

And then we go down, Anchorage has had 2 projects on for 7 years. Matsu has got 1 for 7, Kodiak 1 for 7. I guess Matsu has 2 for 7. So some of these projects have been on a long time. And I just want to just note that, Mr. President, that the legislature is concerned, particularly I think my colleagues in the Senate, is concerned with the condition of our schools, and we're going to do the best we can to address the situation.

Because if we don't have a good school to put our kids in, we're going to get subpar education out of them. Or out of the process, not out of the kids themselves. With that, I urge my colleagues to support this skinny capital budget. Thank you, Senator Severson. Is there further discussion?

If you are ready for the question, the question being shall CS for Senate Bill 214 Finance pass the Senate? Senators may proceed to vote.

The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any senators wish to change their vote? The Secretary will announce the vote. 19 Yeas, 0 nays. And so by a vote of 19 yeas to 0 nays, CS for Senate Bill 214 Finance has passed the Senate.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the vote on the bill be considered the vote on the effective date clause. I think hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. Madam Secretary, please read the next item on today's calendar.

Senate Joint Resolution Number 20 by Senator Bjorkman, supporting federal, state, and local efforts to clean up and remove marine debris from the state, urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to provide additional funding for those efforts and to remove barriers faced by tribes and rural communities in accessing those funds. And urging the Alaska congressional delegation to advocate for increased federal funding and support for marine debris prevention, cleanup, removal, backhaul, and education. I have no amendments. Thank you. Senate Joint Resolution 20 will advance to third reading in our next legislative calendar.

Madam Secretary, please read the next item.

C.S. For House Joint Resolution number 14, Transportation by the House Transportation Committee, supporting the completion of the Port Mackenzie rail extension and the Northern Rail extension, supporting the increase in defensive capabilities at Fort Greely, Alaska, encouraging a renewed commitment by the Alaska Railroad to a community-minded approach to future rail expansion, and encouraging the development of critical Arctic infrastructure. The Transportation Committee considered the bill Previous zero fiscal notes, signing no recommendation, Senator Tobin. Chair, uh, Senator Keele, signing do pass. Senators Steadman, Schauer, I have no amendments.

Thank you. HCR 14 will advance to our next legislative calendar. Madam Secretary, there are no further items for consideration on today's daily calendar. Thank you. Is there unfinished business at this Any time unfinished business?

Seeing none, are there committee announcements?

Are there any other announcements? And are there special orders?

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment until 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Hearing no objection, the Senate is adjourned.