Afternoon, I guess, actually, it is afternoon.
We are in the 22nd day of this legislative session.
And joining us today, Senator Giesel,
Senator Walschowski,
Senator Stedman will be here shortly.
Senator Hoffman,
Senator Tobin,
and myself, Stevens.
And Senator Olson.
99 days to go?
Yeah, 22.
So yeah, that's getting close.
99 Days, yeah.
So, earlier this month, the Sikhists in Sentinel reported on a new number of students unenrolling
at Mount Edgerton School, a lack of educational opportunities there, access to mental health
services, and a drop from morale and school spirit.
Because of this, on last Thursday and Friday, The Senate Finance Committee shut down.
and traveled to Sitka.
It was so quiet around here on Friday.
Did you notice this is wonderful here with their absence,
but now they're back.
And they learned a lot, learned firsthand
what is happening at Mount Edge from high school.
Really an unprecedented move.
So early in the session, but I speaking with the chairs
I know they felt that it was important to have boots on the ground and to hear from students directly
Which they did and have a first-hand access to see what the deterioration of the school buildings actually are
So, Senator Steban, if you walk us through the purpose of the visit, what you saw,
what your experience, and what the students are learning for,
and the path forward is, we'll start with Senator Senn, please,
Senator Haman.
First of all,
if Anchorage, Fairbank, or Juneau had 25% of their students not show up on day one,
what would they do?
I think gives the magnitude of the problem that we were facing, which took action.
So we've got 400 students there, and they've lost 100 students very, very quickly, so that's
a very important issue.
Senator Staben.
Yes, this issue at EDSCOM had kind of been just bubbling up over the last couple of months.
We've been hearing concerns from parents and community members and so on and
so forth. So it got to the point when the numbers were alarmingly large, pushing
into the 90s and then on up to around 100 or whatever. I had mentioned it to my
colleagues that there's something going on over there. We need to go find out
whatever it is and so we had those conversations and and off we went so
we spent the first day at search and looked at the new hospital and talked
about some mental health issues with the search, and the students at edge come,
and then the second day we did kind of a walk-through tour of Mount Edge come
and talked with the superintendent,
talked about the Nanook Corporation
food folks that handled the food service
and I think some dorms, and then met with about 40
to 50 students in the music room,
asked the adults to vacate, a couple of them stuck around.
So because we wanted to just have a dialogue with the kids and we want to there are the students and
We wanted a nice open dialogue, and they were very respectful
and
Went around the room for
Hour and a half or something like that. Yeah, we had to finally get leave and go to the airport and get on the airplane
Anyway, so that so the question is you know, what's what next clearly there's huge concerns. There's infrastructure concerns there
The area that they have little concern with is the teachers and the education.
This is infrastructure issues, mental health issues recreation issues food issues things like that.
We have not had the chance to meet with the commissioner yet.
So we need to do that because the superintendent doesn't work for us. We're the appropriators.
We have a scheduled hearing Thursday at Senate Finance following the transportation committees of both bodies, I think the previous day, but we've had, they had four members of our finance committee tour down there with one house member with us.
Robin, what's her name?
Robin.
Frayer, Robin Ferrer, she got remarried, so are married.
again, so change her name. So I got to learn learn her new name, but she was a graduate of
Monichcom High School and has a son there going to school. Senator Cronk was with us. He he has
his two daughters, two of his daughters graduated from there.
Senator Olson, one of the sons, he's graduated there, the other one, student body president
Senator Hoffman's had numerous relatives, close relatives go through Edgcomb, and the concern that we have is we don't want the kids, the students going back to their communities and with a bad experience from Edscomb and loosened enrollment.
Edgscomb produces some of the top leaders in the state from the local level all the way up to our biggest corporations.
personal experience. So I'd like to just have Senator Hoffman make some comments, but that's
just kind of a rough, rough top area. But you can go into more detail here.
Well, I think as a result of going down to EDSCUM on the decline in enrollment,
we found an array of additional problems. As Senator Steadman said,
When we had the tour of the facility, we went to the meeting room where parents come in
and teachers first come.
It looked as though that facility hadn't been changed since 1940s.
new coat of paint, and there was some improvement, but it still looked like
Army barracks to me, Army facilities from the forties, even with the changes. We
walked in and Senator Cronk looked in the back room and hidden away were all of
their trophies. Literally hundreds of trophies that wasn't all
When you go to a school, usually you walk into the entrance in the hallways, the school
with their pride show off all of their trophies and such with the history and the accomplishments
which builds a School Pride.
I think Edgecombe still has that School pride, but look at what they would have if they looked
On the walls we went back and seen some of the graduating classes from the 1930s, 1940s and 50s.
But the quality of facilities I think were deplorable.
throughout the facilities, including the dormitory.
The dormitories, when we went through the
dormITories the hallways were dark.
We went up to the second floor of the men's dormatory.
There was another floor above them.
tiles like this that were brown spots,
tiles that we're missing.
And then we went upstairs to look at what was there.
They had a brigade of Rubbermaid, 33-gallon Rubbermade buckets.
Literally looked like about a hundred of them
where they employed RubberMade brigades that
put them in different places when they had reigned.
The condition of the
cafeteria
was maybe
a little bit better than equipment that was outdated.
Some equipment didn't work.
The floor, the preparers of the food, said it was very difficult to keep the floors clean,
which is required.
You can see holes, pant holes and chipped holes down to the cement.
You looked above where some of the food is being prepared again shingles
Tiles were missing many of them brown spots. These are places where food are being
Prepared they had an infestation problem. I said well you probably have mice problems
They said they have rat problems
They had reported
rat
Infestation where they were
defecating and broken up the rice, the bags, and deficcated in them. That has been improved
since then. Those were some of the reports. So they also complained, because of
the condition that this whole facility was a military base, virtually over timed the whole
The area has been contaminated by oil.
They complained about the water, not tasting funny.
They asked that we look at trying to get them watering facility, at least in the cafeteria
eat and drink three times a day. Many of them said that they bring in their own
bottled water because the water tastes so bad. I had a glass of water and I
couldn't finish it and the superintendent said yes it would be nice if they had
something like at the airports where they could fill up the
water with clean water.
I think some of the problems may be the pipes and maybe contamination.
I don't know, so we went down to the gymnasium and they were pretty proud of the fact that
even the people of teams over in Sitko would rather play in that facility than their own
because even though it was built in the late 30s, early 40s it is quite a nice facility.
They pointed out that in a corner, the rats were so prolific that one stayed in that
one corner and has been there for quite some time and they even gave it a name.
What was the name they gave?
It was Twinkle-Toes.
Twickle-toes and then they couldn't get one that was under the bleachers because it
couldnít get it out and it was starting to smell a little bit but I think they made
quite a bit of inroads in removing many of the rats, but it's still a problem.
Okay. Well, thank you, Senator Hoffman. I appreciate those comments and we're going to
have to get on to some questions in a minute. The story goes on and on.
But all of you had a chance to go over there. Just to remind you there, we'll be hearing
in education on Wednesday, on edge cover, and then on Thursday and finance on education.
Good. I didn't have the chance to meet yesterday with the commissioner and the superintendent and
they seem to be well aware of the situation there, well-aware of your visit and
the concerns you have and concerns that they also have. So, Mr. Dremel, can you tell us
what you plan to hear from, what what's your,
what do you want to here from when you meet with a commissioner in Senate education?
I do want to let folks know that both the House and Senate Education Committees have been monitoring the situation that's been happening at Mount Edgecombe.
And while we wished we could have had earlier hearings to bring light some of these issues before they got so acute.
Unfortunately, the Deed Commissioner and the Superintendent indicated that February 11th was the soonest they'd be able to present to the committees.
So tomorrow at 8 AM, House Education will be having the Commissioner, and
the superintendent there before them at 3.30 PM tomorrow as well, Senate Education,
will receive an update from the Super-Intendant and from The DeED Commissioner.
And then on Thursday, you will hear additional information being shared at the Senate Finance table.
I do want to note that Mount Edgecombe is a vital institution for the state of Alaska, and it is
an incredibly important resource for our state, but it's also really imperative that we mention
that the things it facing are being experienced across all school districts here in state
of alaska. We know that junior and senior high school at Antioch has been closed due to structural
We did a site visit recently to North Pole,
and their students shared with us
that one of the classrooms can't get warmer than 50 degrees.
During that same site, visit Lathrop shared
they only have one working boiler out of three.
All over the state, our students are facing
these deplorable conditions,
and I am very concerned that the 100 students
that have left Mount Edgecombe already
are returning to school districts
where their school facilities are in a state of disrepair.
I find this incredibly frustrating because I know myself and my colleagues have acted.
We have act because, really, in the first year that Governor Dunleavy was in office,
we appropriated $1.1 million for pool operations and maintenance, which he vetoed.
In the FY21 budget.
We, again, appropriated $250,000 to help with the Aquatic Center, which the Governor vetoed.
In the FY 22 budget, the legislature appropriated 7.8 million for capital repairs at Mount
Edgecombe, with which, The Governor, vetoed, in FY 24,
the governor vetoed $1 million in need of repairs for the girls and boys dormitories.
And in an FY 25,
home, so they could be fed and supported in their cultural identity.
And in the most recent budget, the Governor again vetoed 2.7 million for the replacement
of dorm windows.
I and my colleagues continue to act, we continue
to advocate for school repairs and to address school
infrastructure across the state.
And it seems that we do not have a governor
who wishes to lead.
It is incredibly frustrating, not only for our students
in Mount Edgecombe, but it's also freshly
incredibly frustrated for students across Alaska.
I am looking forward to the deed commissioner
and the superintendent in Mt.
Edgecomb to come talk to us about parent notification,
parent engagement, how they've talked with our
students about some of the changes that they're
this precipitous 25% drop which I do not believe can be explained away by school
choice because it doesn't seem like the students are being offered a very
fair choice in their education opportunities. Thank you Senator Tobin as
well as Senator Esteban then I want to appreciate what you've had to say all
of our attention is on this right now a lot of other things to pay attention to
as well but no what time do we have to be out of here? Okay good let's open it up
Jeff Landfield, based on everything you just said about the schools in Monetchcombe, in
the last eight years the state has spent $8 billion on dividends.
That's a billion a year on average, wondering how you reconcile that with all these problems
the states experiencing.
Thank you, Jeff.
That statement will stand.
I have a good one.
There's no question there.
There is a response to it.
Senator Sandman.
I'll answer a little part of that.
Sure.
Those appropriations that were just mentioned, that we're vetoed here moments ago, as an example we had a balanced budget when we package up those projects.
The roof leak set Senator Hoffman was talking about was in the girls' dorms.
That was one of the vetoed projects in Windows.
Classrooms actually are with leaky windows and leaki roof on the newest one so
We have put forward responsible budgets and trying to deal with the maintenance now this year
We've got
401 million on
Deferred maintenance list of schools
All of a sudden this Year Galena ended up in number two asking for 36 million
But I don't even see it on last year's list
So we got to figure out where that's all about.
But we need to have a dialogue with the administration
and try to get them to work with us so we can slow down
this deferred maintenance.
Because every year, it doesn't get addressed.
It just gets worse.
Thank you, Senator Stavans.
Senator Wilkowski.
There's probably a few different ways you could.
You could look at that question. I would just respond by saying in that same time
We've probably given eight billion dollars in oil tax credits for development, which we're told
We don't need to give we've given another billion in tax breaks to a Texas billionaire
We have given an other five hundred million dollars and by having a zero corporate income tax on
as the Senate Bill 113, highly digitized businesses.
So we're giving away a lot of stuff,
and that needs to change.
The gravy train needs be over.
Thank you, Senator Ogrowski.
Yes, please, go ahead.
Becky Boor with the Associated Press
on a different topic for Senator Giesel.
You've been having hearings on AKLNG
for the last week or two, a couple of weeks.
Can you...
describe what clarity, if any, you feel you've gotten in terms of where the project is in the
timeline, reality versus hopes or hype. And are you anticipating or when are
you participating hearing from Glenfarn and any sort of specific asks that they'll make
before the legislature? Senator Giesle. Thank you, Becky. Yes, we've been focused on the gas pipeline.
what we know about the fiscals. We know nothing about
the fiscals. Glen Tarn has told us, don't worry, this is a
private sector project, we will bear all of the cost,
we'll get investors,
we take all the overruns and delays,
we'l take that responsibility. In the meantime,
we talked to the regulatory commission of Alaska.
So last Thursday on February 5th, Glenfarn submitted a FERC report, and in that document, they outline a timeline.
This was reviewed last night in Senate resources.
They identified February 1st as final investment decision.
Remember, they issued,
they submitted this report on February 5th.
They have not yet reached final
investment decisions, but they talk in there
about having bring pipe in,
putting in the ground by the end of the year.
This is completely unrealistic.
Speaking to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska,
we spoke to them last week.
on, I want to say Friday, regardless, it was last week.
They pointed out that actually the Glenfarn is going to have to apply to the RCA for a
certificate, a certificate that would certify their financial fitness, that they have the
Under the old project that was being led by Exxon, the legislature gave that certificate, that recognition, to AGDC.
This is a completely new project, and now Glenfarn will have to go before the RCA to obtain that
certificate.
Senator Wielikowski and committee asked the question to RCA,
how long does that certificate take to secure?
The answer was 180 days.
So we're talking six months, just right there,
just to get certified by the RTA.
So, we don't have information about the fiscals,
we've been told we can't that,
it's confidential proprietary information,
but.
We will be having AGDC at the table in Senate resources the last Monday of this month.
And so we'll be asking Mr. Richards a lot of questions about the project.
In terms of the board, the Board for Eight Star, which is the umbrella organization over
two Glenfarn members, so the CEO and the COO and Mr. Richards representing AGDC standing
in for the state.
There's also a public member, Janet Wies, she has no voting authority on that eight-star
overriding board.
So these are just some of the things we've learned.
There is a lot more to know.
It's a completely new project and something we have not seen before.
So, said at least without certification and it would take six months to get that, what
could be done?
Nothing can be taken in terms of moving ahead on the pipeline.
They won't be able to move ahead.
That's right.
I'm not even sure they can come to final investment decision in light of the fact that
we haven't even determined what our tax structure will be for this project.
We understand that the governor has, it will proposing a property tax bill.
Well, you know, what will my committee, the resources committee think about that, and
then we send it on to finance.
What will the implications be financially for the state?
As Senator Wilakowski points out, we need to make corrections even in our tax structure
for oil.
James Brooks from the Alaska Beacon continuing with resources and discussions.
Last year there was discussion of a bill creating a Department of Agriculture and so I'm wondering
how likely is it given all the other priorities that we will see a Bill come to the floor on
Department Of Agriculture. And for folks who are familiar with it, I am curious about your
thoughts on the Governor's appeal of the lawsuit regarding his exact latest executive order on that
Well, I can start with the first half because the Senate
Resources Committee has taken over the Department of Agriculture, Bill, from the Rules Committee.
And, you know, we'll have a hearing on it.
There are some ideas around about what a department
of agriculture would look like.
I recently went to a circumpolar agriculture conference.
There's a lot of potential in Alaska
for greater food production.
But it will be low on the list of priorities.
The gas pipeline, the fiscal plan
that the governor is proposing,
has oil and gas pieces in it
that we also will also be addressing.
James, what would you repeat your second question?
Yes, the governor's office,
the executive branch has appealed.
It's lost in the lawsuit over the Executive Order,
the second executive order.
That's off to create the Department of Agriculture.
Presumably,
the legislature will continue its opposition to that appeal.
And I'm curious what you think of that continued fight.
Comments, anyone?
Senator LaChausen?
Aye.
You know, I think the state's resources would be better spent doing other things.
I I it's a waste of time.
I thing it is a ways to money.
I mean, it was a well-reasoned decision.
Governor is probably going to lose, but she is entitled to go ahead and file it.
So.
Thank you.
Hi.
Thank You.
Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon.
My question is about school maintenance and given the testimony also from students this week.
It's kind of a two-part question, is there any emergency funding coming into the discussions
on the supplemental budget or any proposal that's come from the department to address
some of these critical needs from schools?
And then my second question is, will there be more negotiations with the governor?
We did see some last year behind closed doors on education funding, but will
those types of negotiations with the governor in order to bring more funding to
the school maintenance list and those top priorities.
Okay, thank you. So on the supplemental budget, would one more co-chairs, Senator Hoffman?
I would look to the Governor if it rises to that level. We will have dialogue with him.
Very difficult to three-quarter vote to override. So why should we utilize capital into put into the budget if
All it does is end up in a veto. I know
That's probably not the right attitude to have but there are a lot of other things
Hopefully he will see the need as a result of the dialogue here and listening to people from
throughout Alaska that there is a need and we cannot
continually stick our heads in the sand and watch our schools crumble which will necessitate
us building brand new schools. Just a comment that Governor will be in office for the next
10 months and we want to work with him. We want make sure that issues that are important to us
in our budget process, issues important in bills, get the consideration. So we're going to continue
For the questions. Oh, hi, if I could go back to Alaska LNG. So
Glenn Farn says they're gonna start with building construction man camps about 20 of those and hundreds of
Access roads as well including what looks like gravel
Can that not happen and also does by April 15th and it also
Does the legislature need to do anything in order to let that happen? This is the early construction works
I was part of that
FERC filing that Senator Giesle mentioned.
And would you identify yourself?
I'm not sure you did.
Sorry, I am Alex Day-Marbon, Anchorage Daily News.
Okay, thank you.
Senator Geisler, a response?
Alex, can't authoritatively answer that question.
My understanding is that RCA is the first step for them,
for those kinds of projects.
What they filed with FERC is a very perfunctory document.
that they actually file monthly FERC reports related
to their Texas project that still has not reached FID.
In fact, they've not reach FED on any North American project yet.
And that Texas Project has been in the works now
for a couple of years.
So I am skeptical about any of those timelines they had
in that FERC document.
Thank you for the question, Alex.
Yes.
Eric Stone, with Alaska Public Media, there is some discussion in Senate Finance last week.
There's been a lot of discussion at Senate finance about the Department of Corrections,
and particularly last year there was a discussion about possibly exploring the idea of sending
some inmates to outside facilities outside the state.
Senator Sebman mentioned it, Senator Hoffman said that it is a suggestion that maybe we
I'm curious if you guys want to expand on that a little bit.
And also for others who are not on the Finance Committee,
Senator Tobin, Senator Wilakowski, et cetera,
I am curious, what do you think of the idea?
This is something that Alaska has done before.
Is this something worth exploring again?
Well, we've done it in the past.
I was the one that's first in
the house had a chance to visit
the prison in Arizona.
And of course, there's a big move at
that time to bring our prisoners home,
so they'd be closer to their families
and have access to native foods and that sort of thing.
So it is a bigger issue,
but it's an enormous cost,
and we got to explore everything.
Senator Steff.
Well we seen
major increases over the last five years in overtime and the
supplementals for the Department of Corrections.
And I don't know if we've hit a plateau.
I doubt it, but given this is an area that has grown
probably faster than anything else,
We have a limited budget if we are not able to pass revenue measures
We, have to look at doing something so this is an idea that is on the plate and
We in the senate want to
Look at balancing the budget and putting putting it on a even keel
but as everyone is well aware the governor has not been
If I could add a little bit, one of the biggest concerns we have is that budgets are out of control.
They're not controlling their overtime amounts.
We've brought that up for the last several years.
We're getting huge supplemental requests for overtime.
We are concerned that the way they select the individual for over time is waiting.
It needs to be readjusted to control that overall cost.
That's what's corrections and we also have concerns with Department of Public Safety and
their over times, how do we get control of that?
Because we can't keep going, the direction we've been going the last few years.
The operating budget is extremely strained with those items and
that's driving this discussion.
In many cases, you're seeing correctional officers and state troopers doubling their salary as a result of the overtime and other issues that are affecting the state's budget.
We could have two more, another additional police officer or someone in corrections to
provide some of the services.
But that is not happening.
So somewhere along the line, the way that it's being administered isn't working.
Senator Tobin, then Senator Wallach, Mr. President, I think there's two additional factors.
We currently have the lowest discretionary parole rate in the United States.
We've seen over the last eight years, our discretionary per role and geriatric parole
continue to decline. When we asked the board of parole chair why that was,
it's because they're engaging in double jeopardy. Folks who are up for discretionary
parole who were excellent candidates to re-enter into their community safely with support are being
to be incarcerated.
I also think that there is a definite consideration around diversion.
We are continuing to see folks who are going through pathways that lead to over-incarceration.
I recently introduced a bill called the Veterans Justice Act, which will hopefully get folks out of pathways of incarceration and into actual treatment.
One of the biggest concerns I have is our current board of parole doesn't have any expertise
on folks who are considering these applications for additional treatment services, options,
abilities to actually repair the harm that they have contributed into our communities.
We note that our correction facilities are also not offering these services in their systems.
This is contributing to what we are seeing happen in our courtyards.
When we see riots and other things act, people don't
any understanding that they could potentially have a different pathway.
I'm very frustrated with our Department of Corrections.
This has been an issue that I continually brought up.
And until we actually start to work to repair harm, we're not going to see any systems get any cheaper.
They're only to get more expensive.
Thank you, Senator Tobin.
Senator Wollacowski.
Thank You.
We are having a hearing on this in the State Affairs this week.
But, as you've heard, the budget is clearly being strained in all directions.
That said, when I first ran for office years ago, this was a big issue.
There was huge effort to bring prisoners who were outside back into Alaska.
And there are a couple reasons for that.
One of them was that there were concerns that we were sending people out to other states,
quite frankly interacting with more hard and criminals and gang members and there was a concern
that they were becoming indoctrinated in that way. And there is a second concern in
that the vast majority of people who are in prison are going to get out of prison.
And if we want to help reintegrate them back into society and rehabilitate them,
they have to have access to their family, their clergy,
their support network, and when you have them outside the state of Alaska, that becomes much
more difficult. So it's going be a real balancing test there.
So, we know that the Department of Corrections, the department of Public Safety, Department
of Education teachers,
we have
a recruitment and retention issue.
The latest non-resident worker report,
these are data from 2024,
says that we have more out of state workers
in this state than we've ever had since the 1990s.
And these folks are taking high salary jobs.
They are earning over 17% of the wages
are going to out-of-state workers
who are flying in two weeks on, two-weeks off.
the entire police force do not live in the state of Alaska.
There is apparently a gentleman from Australia flying up to work shift
in Bethel as a police officer and flying out.
This is an issue that we need to face.
These wages that were paying here in Alaska are going to another state where they pay an income tax.
Where they're paying property tax, where their families are living.
I talked to some CEOs of some of our largest companies.
And they say that they have Alaska employees.
With their family's here, the families, are electing to move to the lower 48.
Better schools, lower cost of living.
But the employee is continuing to work in Alaska.
Again, shifts, two weeks on,
two week off, the companies are building man camps
to keep their Alaska once Alaska employees still employed.
So this is an issue.
We have a very unstable situation.
that we've got it correct. And on top of that, we have had a request to report last year
to look at the problem of Alaska natives having approximately 20 percent of the population
of state of alaska, but 40 percent
prison, the numbers of Alaskans in prison. That report was completed by AFN, but I have not had
time to review that report yet. So there is another problem that is clogging up our correctional
facilities. What a great question, Eric. You've got a response from everyone. We'll give you a
I'm Mari Kanagi from Anchorage Daily News and I have a question for Senator Tobin.
Broadly speaking, would you say that you're supporting an increase to education funding
this session?
If so, by how much and through what mechanisms such as inflation proofing for the BSA or
another method?
Would you say that there's enough to go around for maintenance as well as an increase in school funding?
Yes, Senator Tobin. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I think we all understand the budget situation or state faces.
At the beginning of session, we had a real opportunity to continue to direct resources into our schools through a grant program for reading proficiency
and also additional funds for career and technical education.
I am very disappointed in my colleagues who vote to sustain that veto because that is money our schools desperately need.
I think the Senate majority is continuing to look for pathways to help support our struggling public school infrastructure and also our public schools services.
And we are going to use every opportunity and everything available to us to invest in the best and most important resource our state has, which is our children.
Thank you, Senator.
Yeah, maybe a question for all of you.
You know, we've, there's 100 days left,
and there is a lot on the table still.
I'm curious how you're characterizing the progress
that's been made so far.
Do you think it's enough,
or do you still a whole lot more work to be done?
Oh, I hate to correct you, it was 99 days,
but no one is paying attention, but me,
I think, well thank you Will.
Anyone want to start with that?
Well, we've accomplished so far and what we expect, please go ahead.
Well you're right, well we have three super big issues on our hands.
We have two finance shares, you'll tell you the budget is a mess, right?
But we also have that gas pipeline and we
have the Rural Health Transformation Project.
That is also a big undertaking that again we're being told, don't worry.
You don't have any say in this, but actually we believe we do.
So this is something we're digging into also.
It's been very, very busy so far.
And I think we've identified those priority items,
and we are moving hard against them to get some progress done.
Well, I would say from a budgetary standpoint,
the Senate Finance Committee is one of the most experienced
Among the three of us, Senator Stedman,
Senator Olson and myself,
we have
centuries?
Cost to a century, maybe 70, 75 years of experience,
just among the 3 of
us we've been, and those are just the years
on the Senate Finance Committee,
not counting the year in the legislature.
So
The committee is fast to learn.
I think we should be able to address the financial ends of it.
There are major policy questions that I would like to have addressed.
The ones that Senator Wilkowski brought up is probably, from my viewpoint,
issues that needs to be addressed to to turn the state around. We can continue to put out
small fires here and small fire is there. I hate to say that the problems in edge come are small
So that we have a balanced budget constitutionally,
we are required to get the maximum benefit
from our resources.
I don't believe we're doing that.
And that, I think, is the top issue from my viewpoint.
The only thing that were required
to do is to pass a budget, constitutionally.
Thank you for the comments, right.
Think we've done everything we were supposed to do today. Thank you all so much. See you next week