May 13, 2015 Voice Your Opinions! Letters to the editor make a difference. You can send a letter of up to 200 words (shorter letters are more likely to be accepted) to the Alaska Dispatch News by email (letters@alaskadispatch.com); or by fax or mail (call them at 257-4308). Send letters to the Anchorage Press via e-mail editor@anchoragepress.com or by mail to 540 E. Fifth Ave, Anchorage, 99501. Feel free to call us if you need factual information to help you write a letter. Contact the Governor. The Governor can be reached at 269-7450; or www.alaska.gov. Contact us. My office can be reached at: 716 W. 4th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501; by phone: 269-0106; visit my website at http://gara.akdemocrats.org; or email: Rep.Les.Gara@akleg.gov

Dear Neighbors:

It’s your turn to speak out or just come listen this Thursday, from 5:30-7:30 in Anchorage at 716 W 4th Ave. You deserve to be heard.

I’m not happy the Legislature voted for a continuing recess from work for most legislators during this 30-day Special Session. I voted against the 2 week break when we should all be working. The vote was along party lines, with only the Republican-led majority in the House and Senate voting for what is technically called a “recess.” A successful legislative session, in my view, requires all 60 legislators to work together, in the same building, to finish the budget, pass Medicaid Expansion and Reform, and pass a bill on the prevention of sexual abuse.

Currently session is being held in the overpriced, new glass Anchorage Legislative Office Building I have voted that we move from (to much cheaper space). Since the April 30th “recess” started this building has rarely been even close to half-full. There are very few legislators to talk or work with. Work gets done when all 60 legislators are working together. I’ve been attending all the House Finance Committee meetings, but there have only been 6 since April 30, and most legislators do not attend those. Most legislators simply are not around this new glass legislative building.

I also want to relay an alarming quote on an issue that I’ve been working on all session. According to the Director of the Office of Children’s Services,

“[K]ids will, in fact, die as a result of unmet needs and our inability to get to them quickly enough [under this budget]”

We can help fix this problem without increasing the Office of Children’s Services budget, and we should before the budget passes. The article covering that budget hearing can be found at http://alaskacommons.com/2015/05/07/house-finance-grapples-projected-consequences-budget-cuts.

Director Christy Lawton’s statement is based on this. In 2011 the state commissioned a study to ask how short-staffed our Foster Care agency, the Office of Children’s Services, is. Testimony has been that today in the Anchorage and Mat-Su OCS offices, social workers, who are supposed to investigate child abuse and help foster youth and families succeed, carry caseloads that are roughly 70% higher than the recommended national standard. The answer was that we were roughly 50 staff short to have a working foster care system. Since then things have gotten worse. While I’ve pushed to implement this study, and the state has hired 15 of the recommended 45-50 staff, the number of foster youth has exploded. It was once down to 1,700. It is now at 2,500. If we were 50 staff short in 2011, we are probably 80 staff short today.

That means the state will be slow to investigate abuse cases, or miss them. It means youth, suffering neglect and abuse in the foster care system will often get more and more depressed and damaged to the point where some can be expected to threaten suicide. I know one foster youth like this and have worked with others to seek help for him.

So how do we start fixing this? As part of the budget, I have fought to use $2.9 million in state savings Alaska generated by gaining authorization to use Federal funds for some sexual abuse services, and transfer the state funds to help shore up what OCS has described as an “overstressed” system “in crisis.” We need social workers to get children into permanent loving homes, rather than the current damaging norm where youth are bounced between one temporary foster home after another.

Main Special Session Issues: Budget; Medicaid Expansion and Erin’s Law

There is a budget stalemate. People need to work together, across party lines, to solve it.

All legislators agree to roughly $800 million in budget cuts given the state’s budget deficit. It’s just a question of where to cut, and what not to damage.

In the current budget the GOP proposes to cut too deep in the wrong areas. It undermines opportunity, dignity for seniors, and the economy by:

—  Cutting public education funding by $48 million, and likely hundreds of teachers and support staff statewide (that includes cutting $32 million promised by the legislature in an education bill passed last year);

—  Cutting Alaska’s monthly Senior Benefits payment to low income seniors who ear roughly $14,000/yr and can’t afford medicine;

—  Cutting the University by roughly $30 million;

—  Blocking the transfer of $2.9 million in budget savings to shore up the Office of Children’s Services and address its chronic, dangerous staffing shortage.

—  Ending all state-funded classroom and “Parents as Teachers” out-of-classroom pre-K in Alaska.

These are some of the main disagreements which I think we can come together on.

To save state money I and others have proposed, but the Republicans have rejected the following:

—  Move out of this new, shiny, glass Anchorage Legislative Office Building and save roughly $3 million a year – the Governor has offered free space at the 7th Avenue Atwood Building;

—  Pass a Medicaid Expansion and Reform bill that saves over $300 million in state spending over the next six years; brings in 4,000 new jobs, gets people health coverage, and brings in $145 million in federal funds to boost our sagging economy.

—  Cut oil company tax credits. In the next 2 years the state will pay $650 million more to oil companies in tax credits than we get back, as Alaskans, in Oil Production Taxes under the oil tax law passed in 2013. We should limit the annual payment of credits to no more than $400 million.

—  Cut roughly $23 million in unwisely appropriated money from the Susitna Dam (which we cannot afford at a price tag of $6 billion) and the controversial Bragaw Road.

These and other cuts far exceed what we need to make this a better budget for Alaska’s children, seniors and economy.

Finally, we should pass the third issue on the Special Session call, Erin’s law. That bill teaches young Alaskans to report acts that lead to sexual abuse and rape. Alaska doesn’t need to keep the label of “sexual abuse capital of the United States.”

I hope to see you Thursday. If not, feel free to let me know if I can help in any way.

My Best,