This Year's Legislative Priorities

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Though Alaska absorbs our interest and attention we are a part of the bigger whole.

As the 2012 Legislature begins to unfold, I wanted to give you a sense of my goals for this session. All of these ideas have evolved from important conversations with you, my constituents, as well as from community council discussions and what I have learned in legislative committees.

Here is some key legislation I am supporting or sponsoring:

Permanent Fund. A plan to put billions of additional revenue into the Permanent Fund – to grow the fund and provide for our future needs.

Education

1. Support children in their preschool years by helping parents get involved as teachers in their children's education early on – so their children can get ahead and stay ahead.
2. Provide adequate inflation-proofing for school funding.
3. Reducing student loan interest rates which are much higher than prevailing interest rates for other purposes such as car loans.

Public Safety and Minors. Prohibit the use of cell phones by minors while driving. The age group 16-18 has the largest number of accidents using cell phones – and in these formative years, when they are learning to drive, they need to focus on driving.

Alaska's Share of Our Resources. Alaska is already investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the oil industry each year in oil tax credits—over 3 billion dollars in the last four years. Through these credits, Alaskans are the biggest single investor on the North Slope. Because we need to know what we have bought with these credits, I have sponsored legislation to allow Alaskans to see three things:

A descriptions of what a company is doing to earn its oil tax credits;

How many jobs it's creating; and

How many of those jobs are going to Alaskans.

These are some of my key priorities. I very much want to hear your thoughts, suggestions and other ideas over the course of the legislative session.

I'm Berta and I'm still listening,

 

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