Good news! The “Tell us what we bought with $4 billion in state investment in the oil industry” bill has had a hearing in House Resources committee. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4io07WjNwY

House Democratic Whip Berta Gardner talks accountability for oil tax credits

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House Democratic Whip Berta Gardner tells reporters about the hearing on her bill to allow Alaskans to see what they are getting for the billions in oil taxe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1V937CxP_g&feature=youtube

Constituent Meeting Invite

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Representative Lindsey Holmes and I have filed legislation to remove the state-mandated property tax exemptions for religious school teachers living in church owned housing. It is simply unfair for the state to require property tax payers to subsidize housing costs for a subset of teachers! The first hearing of House Bill 305 has been scheduled for Feb 9th, and I would welcome comments, pro and con.

"'The number of workers in the oil industry rose during 2010, but the increase was almost completely due to an increase in the number of nonresident workers." And, "...non-residents earn substantially more than residents." These were taken from the recent Department of Labor's "Nonresidents Working in Alaska" report. I've introduced legislation fight this trend.

The Governor’s budget ranks the Department of Education and Early Development last in funding with an increase of 0.7% while the Governor’s Office budget has the highest increase of 26.4%. These priorities will not advance Alaskans’ education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nq6LusthB8&feature=youtu.be

Earlier this session, the Commissioner of Natural Resources (the other Dan Sullivan) told the House Resources committee that he changed the mission of the department, deleting the language about conserving resources and ‘for future Alaskans’ because he wanted the mission statement to match the actual services provided. He had identified a real problem but provided the wrong fix. He should have changed the services to match the mission!

The State of Alaska has paid $3.5 billion in tax credits to explorers and producers, making us the single largest investor on the North Slope. We do not know what this investment purchased so I have introduced the “Tell Us What We Bought” Act to compel release of that information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK5p9pMPnak&feature=related

Rep. Gardner: Alaskans need to know what we're buying for our oil investments

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Rep. Berta Gardner describes her legislation to all Alaskans to see what they are buying for the over $3 billion in oil tax credits they have already invested.

On the First day of Session, Representative Kerttula and I rolled out the House Democrats goals for this year. Our main priority is to turn our resource wealth into meaningful education opportunities for future generations to prosper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSPS1bvObhk

Rep. Berta Gardner on education

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Rep. Berta Gardner: "The easiest way to transfer our resource wealth across the state is through focusing on education."

Sometimes we need reminders to do things that benefit ourselves and also our community. Today during the House Resources committee I was reminded how beneficial it is to "Look for Alaskan Grown, Ask for Alaska Grown, Buy Alaskan Grown." It is truly fresher, tastier and allows me to feel good about supporting Alaskan growers.

Yesterday evening I attended UAA's "First Annual Innovate Awards Presentation and Patent Wall of Fame Induction" celebration. Two Professors were honored for their patented invention on iris scanning technology, and 13 others, from a variety of disciplines, were presented with seed money to launch their own research and intellectual property development projects. Congratulations to each of them.

I am excited to see the work being done to support entrepreneurship, and I welcome Dr. Helena S. Wisniewski to Alaska as UAA's new Vice Provost for Research and Graduate. Can you believe she is a dog-musher from New Jersey?

I expect that the next legislative session will again be focused on oil & gas taxes…and I’ll keep in mind the very successful lease sale earlier this week, which shows that Alaska is strongly in the game:



http://thealaskanews.com/alaskas-north-slope-lease-op-gets-over-300-bids/11143

Alaska’s North Slope Lease Op Gets Over 300 Bids

thealaskanews.com

After the success of the recent oil and gas lease sales led by Governor Sean Parnell on December 7, 2011, local Alaskan officials have released their official

My take away from two days oil & gas tax seminar includes that we are “doing more for exploration than any jurisdiction on earth” and that we should insist on more openness, ie, “not a single payment of government should be confidential.” Watch for coming legislation on this second point!

Thanksgiving night and I am thankful, and grateful, and thrilled by the birth of my granddaughter Vivienne. Way to go, Cass & Jeff!

I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. I am personally thankful for my job, which I love.

Following Thanksgiving begins the season of shopping. One of my constituents forwarded to me a message encouraging Americans to support American jobs by making the effort to purchase American made products, from American owned business. I'd like to expand that a little bit and suggest that we all consider buying Alaskan products from Alaskan owned businesses. It is true that the money we spend during the holidays can have a huge impact on our local economy - especially when focused on small businesses with local products.

Thanks for your commitment and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Here's a photo taken by photographer Oscar Avellaneda of the Community Building for Alaska event which I recently attended. It was an eye-opening and thought-provoking conference sponsored by the Alaska Community Foundation and Alaska Pacific University. The conference was an interactive training opportunity for community members from different groups across the state, with a goal of "igniting citizenship, building trust and seeing possibilities".

In one small group discussion on safety, I was alarmed to hear some anecdotal stories about rape victims being denied appropriate care by medical providers. I'm working now to follow up on those stories to see if they are true, and if so, what went wrong and what should be done to make sure such things don't happen in the future.

The Alaska Literacy Program hosts the BIZBEE, an annual fundraiser, which brings together teams of adults for a traditional spelling bee with some fun twists. I was tickled to be invited to participate as a judge and had a wonderful time. The event occurs right before Halloween and as you can see I am dressed for the occasion. Here is some information about the Alaska Literacy Program:

http://www.alaskaliteracyprogram.org/index.cfm?section=About&page=About-ALP

Thank you for visiting my Official Legislative Facebook page. I am excited to provide another avenue for exchange of communication for State and Legislative information.