State lawmakers released more than 80 proposals for new laws and constitutional amendments on Friday ahead of the start of the 34th Alaska Legislature, which is slated to gavel in on Jan. 21.
They cover a wide range of topics, from elections to education, health care, energy and even artificial intelligence. Topping the list, though, is a key campaign issue: a revival of a pension system for state and local government employees.
Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, has prefiled a bill that would replace the current 401(k)-style defined contribution plan for new employees and offer current workers a chance to switch. In an interview, Giessel said her proposal was identical to last session’s Senate Bill 88, which passed the Senate last year but failed to advance in the Republican-led House amid conservative lawmakers’ concerns about its cost.
The state abandoned its prior pension system in 2006 after lower-than-expected investment returns and an admitted “mistake” by the state’s outside actuary led the state to underfund its pension plan, accruing billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities that the state is still paying off.
But “this bill is not your grandfather’s pension,” Giessel said, pointing to the proposal’s so-called “shared-risk” model, which would ratchet up contributions if the pension fund underperforms expectations.
“This bill is a modern pension, which spreads the risk among retirees, active employees and the employer,” she said.
Giessel and other public pension advocates argue that the state’s substandard retirement system is one reason why so many state jobs remain unfilled — as of early last year, 14% of state jobs were vacant, according to legislative budget analysts, and the state currently lists more than 300 open jobs on its website, from accountants to lab technicians to nurses and bailiffs. Some openings advertise multiple vacancies.
The pension proposal would allow most employees to retire at 60 or after 30 years of service. Public safety employees would be able to retire at 50 with 25 years of service or 55 with 20 years on the job.
Giessel says she sees a “positive future for the bill” with a pension-friendly coalition of moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents set to take control of the House.
Rep.-elect Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, a pension advocate and former police officer slated to be the majority leader in the lower chamber, said in an interview he anticipates the House Finance Committee will take a close look at a similar shared-risk pension proposal and come up with its own tweaks after hearings and public input.
“It will be a priority bill for the House,” Kopp said.
It’s not the only pension bill on the docket for the upcoming session: Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, is sponsoring a bill that would allow new hires to choose between a pension or a defined contribution plan, though he told KTOO he would also support Giessel’s proposal.
Other bills: Repealing ranked choice voting, legislating from Anchorage, restructuring the Permanent Fund and limiting cell phones in schools
The pension bills account for just two of the 81 proposed bills and constitutional amendments released by lawmakers on Friday.
Another, from Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, would direct school districts to bar students from “possessing or using” a personal cell phone during school hours, including during lunch and passing periods. The bill would also task the state Department of Education and Early Development with devising a model policy for districts.
Wielechowski said the idea came from a high school student he’s mentoring. And he said the principal at Begich Middle School told him that banning cell phones had made a big difference.
“There was all kinds of disruption going on,” Wielechowski said. “(The principal) said it’s been the best thing they’ve done in the school this past year, in terms of helping with some of the discipline issues they were having.”
The state Board of Education recently directed the department to come up with a model policy limiting student cell phone use but stopped short of requiring districts to implement it.
A bill from Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, would ban restaurants from serving food in foam plastic containers and instead direct them to use compostable serviceware.
Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, has reintroduced a 2024 measure that she describes as the state’s first artificial intelligence-focused bill, which would set policies for AI use by state agencies and require political deepfakes to carry disclosures. An AI bill along similar lines, from Sen.-elect Mike Cronk, R-Tok, would bolster civil defamation claims related to AI-generated deepfakes.
Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, has prefiled a bill on another 2024 campaign issue: repealing ranked choice voting and open primaries. Alaskans rejected a similar ballot question in November by the narrowest of margins, just over 700 votes.
Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, proposed a constitutional amendment that would make several changes to the Alaska Permanent Fund — constitutionalizing a law that limits the state’s annual drawdown to 5% of the fund’s value, restructuring it into a single account in line with recommendations from fund managers, and requiring the state to distribute a dividend every year. Another proposed amendment and companion bill would create a state spending cap linked to the state’s economic output.
“The Permanent Fund, as a delivery method for funding our budget every year, is a great thing,” he said. “But there’s also a little bit of risk there that if we get the critical mass where our budget problems are pretty much taken care of by a financial instrument, that we may come to neglect the economy a little bit if we’re not referencing it.”
If they pass the House and Senate, constitutional amendments must pass a public vote to take effect.
Kaufman, who has a background in quality management for large resource development projects, also proposed two bills that he said would draw on lessons from the private sector: requiring state agencies to come up with four-year strategic plans and expanding the state’s Office of Information Technology.
Some other bills touch on familiar subjects from years past. Another from Rauscher would move legislative sessions from Juneau to Anchorage. A bill from Giessel would repeal a 90-day limit on the length of the legislative session that exists in state law but is routinely ignored. A constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, would do the opposite and enshrine the 90-day limit in the state’s fundamental governing document.
Other prefiled bills revive proposals that failed to make it across the finish line during the last legislative session — including some that passed last year in the hours after the constitutional 121-day deadline for lawmakers to conclude their work expired and were vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe reintroduced a bill related to insurance coverage for elected officials, and Rep. Andrew Gray, an Anchorage Democrat, is reviving a proposal to require bars, liquor stores and others to post signs saying that alcohol can cause cancer. Anchorage Republican Sen. Kelly Merrick is backing a similar bill with additional provisions that would allow 18-year-olds to serve alcohol.
Prefiling a bill can highlight an issue important to a lawmaker or their constituents, but there’s no guarantee that it will pass into law. Of the 665 bills introduced during the last Legislature, just 13% made it through both chambers and past the governor’s veto pen.
