Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL END OF SESSION (MAYBE) EDITION

Oil Taxes? Who Knows?

Apparently we are not going to pass an oil tax bill this session. Fine by me. Maybe the delay will allow Gov. Sean Parnell to come to his senses and realize that giving the oil industry a couple of billion dollars a year because – well, just because – isn’t good public policy.

And maybe monkeys will fly out of my nose.

Legislature Requests TSA Hearings in Alaska

Air travel, airport procedures of upmost importance to Alaskans

JUNEAU – Today, fifty-nine of sixty members of the Alaska Legislature sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs requesting hearings be held in Alaska on the often invasive procedures used by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).

“Alaskans depend on air travel more than most other Americans,” said Rep. Max Gruenberg (D-Anchorage) who drafted the letter and gathered signatures from his colleagues in the State House. “The committee needs to hear from Alaskans about our unique concerns.”

House Unanimously Passes Student Concussion Bill

Doogan bill would protect athletes from serious brain injuries

JUNEAU – Today the Alaska House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would protect student athletes from serious brain injuries resulting from multiple concussions.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL TOO LATE TO DO MUCH DAMAGE EDITION

NOW The Work Has To Start?

As I have gotten older, my allergy to work has increased. Even in its advanced state, it’s true, my work allergy doesn’t rival that of my boyhood idol, Maynard G. Krebs, who had what looked, on television anyway, like he was having a grand mal seizure every time he heard the word “work”.

But still. The past week has been too much. Here’s a truncated account of the work I’ve done just in the powerful House Finance Committee.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL BIG LOVE FOR BIG OIL EDITION

Welfare for the Fabulously Wealthy

A heady brew of fear, philosophy and political pressure carried Gov. Sean Parnell’s oil tax giveaway bill, HB 110, to a narrow 22-16 victory in the state House on Thursday.

No one was less surprised than me.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL JUST GIVE THEM ALL THE MONEY EDITION

SPECIAL JUST GIVE THEM ALL THE MONEY EDITION

Oil Industry Give-Backs, Part 2
I’ve been spending time with my colleagues in the powerful House Finance Committee.
Lots of time.
We are closing in on two weeks of hearings on Gov. Sean Parnell’s bill to give another $2 billion a year to the oil companies – HB 110.
What we’ve learned so far is this: the oil companies really, really, really, really – I mean, really – want the money. And Parnell wants to give it to them.

Rep. Mike Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL $10,000,000,000 EDITION

Is that Sean Parnell or Daddy Warbucks?

The powerful House Finance Committee, of which I am a weak and insignificant member, is almost through its first week of wrestling with House Bill 110, Gov. Sean Parnell’s bill to give $10 billion to the oil industry because – well, because he wants to.

Doogan Files Bill to Put $10 billion Into Permanent Fund

It’s time to “walk the talk” on fiscal conservatism

JUNEAU - Rep. Mike Doogan (D-Anchorage) filed legislation today to deposit $10 billion in the Alaska Permanent Fund.

Rep. Mike Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL EXPAND-O-MATIC BUDGETS EDITION

We moved the state operating budget out of the powerful House Finance Committee, across the House floor and on to the Senate this week. The budget is a 79-page monster costing about $8.9 billion. At least that’s how it left the House. Budgets never get smaller, however. They only grow. So there’s no telling how much bigger it will get in the Senate, then in conference committee. But unless a meteor wipes out the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, we can probably afford it.

Alaska Democrats Push Federal Bureaucrats to Allow NPR-A Oil Development

JUNEAU – Today, fourteen Democratic members of the Alaska Legislature called on the Obama Administration to resolve permit issues that are delaying ConocoPhillips’ efforts to develop a new oil field in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A). Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers rejected Conoco’s permit application to build a bridge across the Coleville River that the company needs to access the new field just west of its Alpine oil field, the third largest in Alaska.