Alaska

Trump's cutbacks are a 'direct threat to Alaska's future,' legislative leaders say

Published

12 months ago

March 1, 2025

Trump's cutbacks are a 'direct threat to Alaska's future,' legislative leaders say

Leaders in the Alaska House and Senate say they’re deeply concerned about the impacts of federal staff purges and a forthcoming congressional budget reconciliation package that’s expected to extend tax cuts, stiffen immigration policy and vastly scale back federal spending.

In a letter to the state’s congressional delegation, Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, say the two Trump administration priorities “endanger the economic prosperity and social well-being of Alaskans.”

“The time to sound the alarm is over. It is time to act,” Edgmon and Stevens wrote. “Please reach across the aisle and restore the checks and balances that our founding fathers envisioned.”

The Alaska Legislature’s two presiding officers say they’re concerned the recent House-passed Republican budget framework, which calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, will leave Congress no choice but to slash programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Head Start and Bypass Mail.

“Even if half of what’s been proposed happens to Alaska, it is going to reverberate around the state in a way that we haven’t seen in many, many years,” Edgmon told reporters on Friday.

Medicaid is a particular concern for state lawmakers. The budget resolution from the U.S. House — a necessary step to avoid a filibuster in the Senate — charges the congressional committee overseeing Medicaid and Medicare with cutting $880 billion over 10 years.

Even if the committee cuts everything in its purview other than the two programs, it would still be more than $600 billion short of that goal, according to an analysis by the New York Times. Edgmon and Stevens said the plan could lead to the loss of more than $2 billion in federal funding at a time when the state is already facing hundreds of millions of dollars in structural deficits amid faltering oil revenue.

“Absorbing a $2 billion plus reduction in the return of federal funds to our state is not an option,” they wrote. “It is a direct threat to Alaska’s future, plain and simple.”

Stevens and Edgmon also decry the Trump administration’s moves to fire more than 1,000 newly hired or recently promoted federal workers, from fisheries researchers and to forest rangers. Data on exactly which jobs have been lost has been spotty — though union leaders say they expect all of the nearly 1,400 so-called “probationary” federal employees in the state to lose their jobs.

Another leader of the largely Democratic coalition controlling the State House, Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said she’s concerned the firings will put everyday Alaskans in danger, pointing to agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service.

“It’s horrifying for the safety of our fishermen,” she said. “As we all know, that’s one of the most dangerous endeavors or professions that there is, and to reduce the safety factor even more is just unconscionable.”

In their letter, Edgmon and Stevens also say a freeze on millions in planned energy infrastructure spending threatens to derail important projects, including $130 million planned for rural Alaska.

“These modernization projects are life-sustaining in parts of the state where fuel can cost over $20 per gallon,” they wrote.

Some Republican state lawmakers, though, say leaders are overreacting. Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, pointed to statements from congressional leaders promising to avoid sweeping cuts to aid programs. He says for now, it’s all speculation — after all, at this point, Congress hasn’t laid out the specifics.

“First of all, the process is just starting,” he said. “Anybody who says anything about what’s going to happen or how it’s going to take place, or what’s going to be cut, is pure speculation at this point.”

As for the federal firings, Shower said he supports Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the footprint of the federal government. He said he’s optimistic that even if the cuts go too far at first, critical jobs will be filled.

“This is, maybe, the process of ripping the Band-Aid off a little bit, and it’s painful, but we may have to look at rebalancing when it’s over,” he said. “It’s going to be really a painful dip here, as they kind of basically go through with a sledgehammer, and then maybe it’s time to come back in with a scalpel after that and start (saying), ‘OK, now, what do we really need?’”

But to Stutes, that rings hollow. She said she’s worried that even if the jobs come back, the people who filled them won’t.

She said she’s worried the cuts will exacerbate the state’s decade-plus-long struggle with outmigration as young people and families seek greener pastures elsewhere.

“That’s great to say, as these cars are headed down the highway,” Stutes said. “You think it was bad before?”

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

8 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

20 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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Alaska

Nome brothers summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, carry Alaska flag to third major peak

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Nome brothers summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, carry Alaska flag to third major peak

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Two brothers from Nome recently stood at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, planting an Alaska flag at 19,000 feet above the African plains.

The Hoogendorns completed the seven-day climb — five and a half days up and a day and a half down — trekking through rainforest, desert, and alpine terrain before reaching snow near the summit. The climb marks their third of the world’s seven summits.

Night hike to the top

The brothers began their final summit push at midnight, hiking through the night to reach the top by dawn.

“It was almost like a dream,” Oliver said. “Because we hiked through the night. We started the summit hike at midnight when you’re supposed to be sleeping. So, it was kind of like, not mind boggling, but disorienting. Because you’re hiking all night, but then you get to the top and you can finally see. It’s totally different from what you’d expect.”

At the summit, temperatures hovered around 10 degrees — a familiar range for the Nome brothers. Their guides repeatedly urged them to put on jackets, but the brothers declined.

“We got to the crater, and it was dark out and then it started getting brighter out,” Wilson said. “And then you could slowly see the crater like illuminating and it’s huge. It’s like 3 miles across or something. Like you could fly a plane down on the crater and be circles if you want to. Really dramatic view.”

A team of 17 for two climbers

Unlike their previous expeditions, the brothers were supported by a crew of 17 — including porters, a cook, guides, a summit assistant, and a tent setup crew.

The experience deviated from their earlier climbs, where they carried their own food, melted snow for water, and navigated routes independently.

“I felt spoiled,” Wilson said. “I was like, man, the next mountain’s gonna be kind of hard after being spoiled.”

Alaska flag on every summit

Oliver carried the same full-size Alaska flag on all three of his major summits, including in South America and Denali in North America, despite the added weight in his pack.

“I take it everywhere these days,” Oliver said. “It’s always cool to bring it out. And then people ask, you know, ‘where’s that flag from?’ Say Alaska.”

When asked about his motivation for the expeditions, Wilson said “I guess to like inspire other people. Because it seems like a lot of people think they can’t do something, but if you just try it, you probably won’t do good the first time, but second time you’ll do better. Because you just got to try it out. Believe in yourself.”

Background and next goals

The Hoogendorns won the reality competition series “Race to Survive: Alaska” in 2023. In 2019, they were the first to climb Mount McKinley and ski down that season. Oliver also started a biking trip from the tip of South America to Prudhoe Bay with hopes of still completing it.

Kilimanjaro is their third summit. The brothers said they hope to eventually complete all seven summits, with Mount Vinson in Antarctica among the peaks they are considering next… all while taking Alaska with them every step of the way.

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