Alaska

Alaska lawmakers seek public sector pension reform over persistent opposition

Published

10 months ago

February 27, 2025

Alaska lawmakers seek public sector pension reform over persistent opposition

The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on January 21, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Alaska House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp says that if all goes as planned, the House will vote next month on a new public pension.

A bill to reinstate a defined benefit system for Alaska’s public workers — after nearly two decades without one — “will be over in the Senate’s possession before the end of March,” Kopp said this week.

Alaska’s public employees — including teachers, peace officers, local government workers and all state workers — have been without a pension since 2006, when the state instead adopted a 401(k) style retirement plan in an effort to save money.

Unions and groups representing the state’s public employees say that the change has reduced Alaska’s retention of experienced workers.

“There is one constant theme, and that is high turnover, high vacancies, loss of institutional knowledge, loss of training dollars, and an inability to effectively deliver services because they’re constantly in a training mode,” Kopp, a South Anchorage Republican, told the House Finance Committee this month.

Kopp is working to advance legislation that was first passed by the Senate bipartisan majority more than a year ago. Last year’s Republican-led House majority refused to consider the bill, blocking its progress. But the change in House leadership this year has renewed hope that the measure could pass — despite persistent resistance from some Republican lawmakers.

Ketchikan Republican Rep. Jeremy Bynum, who previously managed the Ketchikan public utilities and served on the Ketchikan Borough Assembly, said that in his experience, retirement isn’t the driving factor in public-sector workers’ decisions to leave the state.

“There’s no doubt that retirement was part of the conversation about why somebody maybe took employment, why they might be leaving employment, but it wasn’t the primary factor. The biggest issues that drove employees where I was at away, was the cost of living in the community,” said Bynum. “It was the remoteness of being in Alaska.”

Opponents of the bill also cite its potential cost as a deterrent. They refer to the unfunded liability the state accrued before 2006, when bad actuarial information left the state with an underfunded retirement plan. The state is still paying off the liability. Though numerous measures were implemented to avoid similar situations moving forward, including requirements for additional actuarial analyses, the risk of future unfunded liabilities looms.

The exact price of the new proposed plan isn’t known — a full actuarial analysis is underway — but Kopp said he expects the annual cost to be less than what the state currently spends on recruitment and retention efforts to fill critical vacancies, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars per year.

The state has kept critical positions filled, including corrections officers and troopers, in large part by approving annual retention bonuses on top of employees’ regular pay. Still, turnover has led to increased costs for training and filling positions.

“The lost training dollars to the state eclipse the cost of what we are going to be proposing here,” Kopp told lawmakers in a House hearing.

Opposition to defined benefits proposals in Alaska has been shaped in large part by the advocacy of Americans for Prosperity — a national conservative group funded by the billionaire Koch family — which has for years recommended shrinking or eliminating public spending on pension plans across the country.

Americans for Prosperity-Alaska has launched an ad campaign claiming that the cost of the plan could force the state to implement a broad income or sales tax. Lawmakers have said no such taxes are under consideration this year.

Bethany Marcum, director of AFP-Alaska, previously worked for Gov. Mike Dunleavy when he was a state legislator. She said that “the expectation of savings to recruitment and retention is being greatly overestimated” and pointed to a recent analysis from the Reason Foundation that argued Alaska is “doing a better job at retaining public workers than most states.”

The Reason Foundation, which produces policy papers on retirement systems in various states, serves as AFP-Alaska’s “pension partner,” Marcum said — providing analysis to back the advocacy group’s campaigns.

Data recently compiled by the Reason Foundation showed that Alaska’s state employee turnover rate was lower than the national public sector average, but according to figures — provided to the writers by the Dunleavy administration — Alaska’s turnover rate rose rapidly between 2012 and 2022 — from 11.5% to 17.5%.

Ryan Frost, a researcher with the Reason Foundation, said it was possible that the sharp increase in Alaska’s turnover rate was due to the elimination of Alaska’s pre-2006 pension plan.

“That makes sense to me,” said Frost, who lives in Washington state. “I haven’t looked underneath the hood to see what the (defined benefit) turnover has looked like in Alaska.”

In 2012, 36% of Alaska’s state workers were not eligible for a pension. By 2022, that figure had gone up to 73%. Recent data from the state shows that only 37% of employees who are ineligible for a pension remain employed by the state more than six years.

Kopp called AFP-Alaska’s messaging “propaganda.”

“They have a right to argue for their interest, but they are very focused on supporting the present annuity financial services industry,” said Kopp.

Marcum said AFP-Alaska’s opposition to the defined benefit plan is driven “purely from a principled policy perspective.”

Fairbanks Republican Rep. Frank Tomaszewski proposed this year alternate retirement legislation modeled after 2023 recommendations from the Reason Foundation.

Tomaszewski’s bill would make the existing defined contribution plan more generous exclusively for public safety workers, who tend to have shorter careers. It would also expand access to the state’s Supplemental Benefit System, which is meant to replace Social Security income, and is not currently open to Alaska educators.

Tomaszewski said he favors a defined contribution plan because it allows beneficiaries to will their accrued retirement funds to their children. A defined benefit pension ensures that the beneficiary and their spouse continue to receive monthly retirement income for as long as they live, but once the beneficiary and their spouse die, funds cannot be transferred to their surviving descendants.

Tomaszewski said that he liked the idea of ensuring that children of public sector workers have access to an inheritance.

“That money is actually yours, in your account. You can take it with you, or you can will to your children,” he said.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, has already said she plans to take up the defined benefit bill once it is considered by the House.

The bipartisan majority in the Senate is expected to support the bill, but one of its members has remained opposed. Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican, instead favors expansion of the Supplemental Benefit System.

“If we want to improve the teachers’ retirement, number one is they should be in SBS,” said Stedman.

By his calculation, allowing teachers to contribute to SBS would give them hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional retirement income.

Alaska is the only state that offers teachers neither a defined benefit pension, nor access to Social Security income.

The system requires both employees and employers — meaning school districts and local governments — to contribute 6.13% of participating employees’ salaries to the system. If the proposal were adopted, the cost to local employers would be in the tens of millions.

“We would have to increase the school districts’ funding to incorporate something like this,” said Tomaszewski.

In an effort to persuade reticent Republicans, proponents of the defined benefits plans repeatedly describe its lack of generosity. Unlike the pre-2006 system, employees’ retirement contributions could be raised in response to underfunding in the plan; employees would get a Health Savings Account instead of access to state-sponsored health insurance; and there would be no cost-of-living adjustment for retirees who choose to stay in Alaska.

“This is structurally so different that it’s barely recognizable. It would be like comparing a rotten apple on an old tree to a robust pear on a living tree. They’re both fruit, but it ends there,” Kopp told the House Finance Committee in a hearing for House Bill 78.

Still, Kopp said this “fiscally conservative” bill will be an improvement on the state’s current defined contribution system, which leaves most public sector workers ill-prepared for retirement and without any incentive to remain in the state beyond the initial five-year vesting period, according to an analysis conducted last year by the state’s retirement division.

“I’m actually glad that people recognize this bill is not generous,” said Kopp. “It’s almost incredible that our current system is so bad that our employee groups across the state uniformly support this bill as being better than what we have.”

Daily News reporter Sean Maguire contributed to this report.

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Alaska

Alaska’s Maxime Germain named to US Olympic biathlon team

Published

6 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Alaska’s Maxime Germain named to US Olympic biathlon team

Alaska’s Maxime Germain was named to the U.S. Olympic biathlon team to compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games. (Photo provided by U.S. Biathlon)

Alaska’s Maxime Germain has been named to the U.S. Olympic biathlon team and will compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

Germain, 24, who was born in Juneau and graduated from West Anchorage High School in 2019, will be making his Olympic debut.

“I am stoked to have qualified,” Germain said in a U.S. Biathlon release. “The goal is now to perform there! It is going to be my first Olympics, but it shouldn’t be any different from other racing. Same venue, same racing, different name!”

The announcement was made Sunday at the conclusion of the World Cup stop in France. He is currently 34th in World Cup rankings, the second-best American behind Olympic teammate Campbell Wright.

Germain has raced for the APU Nordic Ski Center and trained with the Anchorage Biathlon Club.

“Maxime has worked really hard throughout the off season, improving his mental game and bringing an overall level up to the World Cup this year,” U.S. Biathlon High Performance Director Lowell Bailey said in the release. “This showed right away at the first World Cup in Ostersund, where he proved he can be among the world’s fastest and best biathletes. Maxime will be a great addition to the U.S. Olympic team!”

Before coming to Anchorage, Germain grew up in Chamonix, France, and started biathlon there at age 13.

Germain is a member of Vermont Army National Guard as an aviation operations specialist and is studying to become a commercial pilot. Germain has trained with the National Guard Biathlon Team and races as part of the US Army World Class Athlete Program.

Germain joins Wright, Deedra Irwin and Margie Freed as the first four qualifiers for the 2026 Olympic Biathlon Team. The remaining members of the team will be announced on Jan. 6 following completion of the U.S. Biathlon Timed Trials.

The 2026 Winter Olympics run from Feb. 6-22 in Italy.

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Alaska

Trump administration opens vast majority of Alaska petroleum reserve to oil activity

Published

18 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Trump administration opens vast majority of Alaska petroleum reserve to oil activity

The northeastern part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is seen on June 26, 2014. (Photo by Bob Wick / U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

The Bureau of Land Management on Monday said it approved an updated management plan that opens about 82% of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing.

The agency this winter will also hold the first lease sale in the reserve since 2019, potentially opening the door for expanded oil and gas activity in an area that has seen new interest from oil companies in recent years.

The sale will be the first of five oil and gas lease sales called for in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed this summer.

The approval of the plan follow the agency’s withdrawal of the 2024 activity plan for the reserve that was approved under the Biden administration and limited oil and gas drilling in more than half the reserve.

The 23-million-acre reserve is the largest tract of public land in the U.S. It’s home to ConocoPhillips’ giant Willow discovery on its eastern flank.

ConocoPhillips and other companies are increasingly eyeing the reserve for new discoveries. ConocoPhillips has proposed plans for a large exploration season with winter, though an Alaska Native group and conservation groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the effort.

The planned lease sale could open the door for more oil and gas activity deeper into the reserve.

The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, consisting of elected leaders from Alaska’s North Slope, where the reserve is located, said it supports the reversal of the Biden-era plan. Infrastructure from oil and gas activity provides tax revenues for education, health care and modern services like running water and sewer, the group said.

The decision “is a step in the right direction and lays the foundation for future economic, community, and cultural opportunities across our region — particularly for the communities within the (petroleum reserve),” said Rex Rock Sr., president of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. representing Alaska Natives from the region, in the statement from the group.

The reserve was established more than a century ago as an energy warehouse for the U.S. Navy. It contains an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

But it’s also home to rich populations of waterfowl and caribou sought by Alaska Native subsistence hunters from the region, as well as threatened polar bears.

The Wilderness Society said the Biden-era plan established science-based management of oil and gas activity and protected “Special Areas” as required by law.

It was developed after years of public meetings and analysis, and its conservation provisions were critical to subsistence users and wildlife, the group said.

The Trump administration “is abandoning balanced management of America’s largest tract of public land and catering to big oil companies at the expense of future generations of Alaskans,” said Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society. The decision threatens clean air, safe water and wildlife in the region, he said.

The decision returns management of the reserve to the 2020 plan approved during the first Trump administration. It’s part of a broad effort by the administration to increase U.S. oil and gas production.

To update the 2020 plan, the Bureau of Land Management invited consultation with tribes and Alaska Native corporations and held a 14-day public comment period on the draft assessment, the agency said.

“The plan approved today gives us a clear framework and needed certainty to harness the incredible potential of the reserve,” said Kevin Pendergast, state director for the Bureau of Land Management. “We look forward to continuing to work with Alaskans, industry and local partners as we move decisively into the next phase of leasing and development.”

Congress voted to overturn the 2024 plan for the reserve, supporting bills from Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation to prevent a similar plan from being implemented in the future.

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Alaska

Opinion: Alaskans, don’t be duped by the citizens voter initiative

Published

1 day ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

Opinion: Alaskans, don’t be duped by the citizens voter initiative

Voters received stickers after they cast their general election ballot at the Alaska Division of Elections Region II office in Anchorage as absentee in-person and early voting began on Oct. 21, 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)

A signature drive is underway for a ballot measure formally titled “An Act requiring that only United States citizens may be qualified to vote in Alaska elections,” often referred to by its sponsors as the United States Citizens Voter Act. Supporters say it would “clarify” that only U.S. citizens may vote in Alaska elections. That may sound harmless. But Alaskans should not sign this petition or vote for the measure if it reaches the ballot. The problem it claims to fix is imaginary, and its real intent has nothing to do with election integrity.

Alaska already requires voters to be U.S. citizens. Election officials enforce that rule. There is no bill in Juneau proposing to change it, no court case challenging it and no Alaska municipality contemplating noncitizen voting. Nothing in our election history or law suggests that the state’s citizenship requirement is under threat.

Which raises the real question: If there’s no problem to solve, what is this measure actually for?

The answer has everything to do with election politics. Across the Lower 48, “citizenship voting” drives have been used as turnout engines and list-building operations — reliable ways to galvanize conservative voters, recruit volunteers and gather contact data. These measures typically have no immediate policy impact, but the downstream political payoff is substantial.

Alaska’s effort fits neatly into that pattern. The petition is being circulated by Alaskans for Citizen Voting, whose leading advocates include former legislators John Coghill, Mike Chenault and Josh Revak. The group’s own financial disclaimer identifies a national organization, Americans for Citizen Voting, as its top contributor. The effort isn’t purely local. It is part of a coordinated national campaign.

To understand where this may be headed, look at what Americans for Citizen Voting is doing in other states. In Michigan, the group is backing a constitutional amendment far more sweeping than the petition: It would require documentary proof of citizenship for all voters, eliminate affidavit-based registration, tighten ID requirements even for absentee ballots, and require voter-roll purges tied to citizenship verification. In short, “citizen-only voting” is the opening move — the benign-sounding front door to a much broader effort to make voting more difficult for many eligible Americans.

Across the country, these initiatives rarely stand alone. They serve to establish the narrative that elections are lax or vulnerable, even when they are not. That narrative then becomes the justification for downstream restrictions: stricter ID laws, new documentation burdens for naturalized citizens, more aggressive voter-roll purges and — especially relevant here — new hurdles for absentee and mail-in voters.

In the 2024 general election, the Alaska Division of Elections received more than 55,000 absentee and absentee-equivalent ballots — about 16% of all ballots cast statewide. Many of those ballots came from rural and roadless communities, where as much as 90% of the population lacks road access and depends heavily on mail and air service. Absentee voting is not a convenience in these places; it is how democracy reaches Alaskans who live far from polling stations.

When a national organization that has supported absentee-voting restrictions elsewhere becomes the top financial backer of the petition, Alaskans should ask what comes next.

Supporters say the initiative is common sense. But laws don’t need “clarifying” when they are already explicit, already enforced and already uncontroversial. No one has produced evidence that noncitizen voting is a problem in an Alaska election. We simply don’t have a problem for this measure to solve.

What we do have are real challenges — education, public safety, energy policy, housing, fiscal stability. The petition addresses none of them. It is political theater, an Outside agenda wrapped in Alaska packaging.

If someone with a clipboard asks you to sign the Citizens Voter petition, say no. The problem is fictional, and the risks to our voting system are real. And if the measure makes the ballot, vote no.

Stan Jones is a former award-winning Alaska journalist and environmental advocate. He lives in Anchorage.

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