Articles written by Larry Persily
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Haines school looking at $450,000 in additional state funding
The budget that legislators approved last week and will send to the governor for his signature into law or veto would provide about $450,000 in...
Legislators likely to head into OT due to PFD debates
Alaska lawmakers have spent the final days of the 121-day legislative session disagreeing over the amount of this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend....
Exaggerated claims don't help anyone
Elected officials, ballot initiative supporters and opponents, campaign managers and anyone else who writes, texts or tweets outlandish claims and...
State senator proposes tax to help pay for school maintenance
State Sen. Click Bishop remembers his first paycheck as a teenager in Fairbanks in the early 1970s. His boss explained the $10 deduction for the...
Can't hide tax owie under bandages
The great debate in Alaska over taxes sounds similar to the old question of whether it is less painful to yank off the bandage quickly or peel it off...
Governor tells legislators he will introduce sales tax
Gov. Mike Dunleavy told legislators in a pair of closed-door meetings last week that he will introduce a state sales tax as a component of a...
House budget includes one-time school funding boost
The Haines School District would receive an additional $467,500 in one-year state money under a budget headed toward approval in the Alaska House,...
Legislation would require financial literacy in schools
Pointing to high credit card balances, growing student loan debts and inadequate savings for many U.S. households, Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski...
Senator tries third time for tax on e-cigarettes, vape sticks
For the third time in as many legislative sessions, Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens is leading the push to get a tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products...
Southeast chinook harvest limit cut 23% for all gear groups
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has reduced this year’s non-hatchery chinook catch limit for Southeast commercial trollers by 44,000 fish...
Legislation could help boost legal services for low-income Alaskans
A state senator wants to direct a larger share of filing fees paid to the court system toward a nonprofit legal aid organization that helps several...
Legislature considers school funding increase, but amount uncertain
Sentinel writer Similar pieces of legislation to increase state funding for public schools are awaiting hearings in the House and Senate finance...
Losing billions gets Legislature's attention
It’s embarrassing that it took billions of dollars in losses for some legislators to acknowledge that the state’s fiscal house is leaking worse...
Legislators, governor to get pay boost
Wrangell Sentinel Alaska legislators will get a 67% pay raise next January — from $50,000 to $84,000 a year — and the governor and state...
PFD hearing brings out widely differing viewpoints
When Jan Kanitz of Juneau and Antonia Lenard of Eagle River testified before a legislative committee last Saturday about personal responsibility and...
Ferry system management says it's working to fix hiring problems
The Alaska Marine Highway System is working faster to hire more crew, trying to fix problems that slowed the process so much the past four years that...
House committee starts work on PFD legislation
A state House committee last week held its first hearing on a bill intended to settle the Legislature’s biggest annual political battle: The amount...
Ferry system lacks crew for Kennicott this summer
In a change of plans from just a few weeks ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System reports it lacks enough crew to operate the Kennicott this summer. Th...
Crew shortage plagues ferry system
An ongoing shortage of crew is the “No. 1 risk factor” for the Alaska Marine Highway System, Transportation Department Deputy Commissioner...
Work begins to build seaweed, shellfish farming industry
Organizers are creating programs to start using a $49 million federal grant and $15 million in matching funds to grow Alaska’s shellfish and...
The math is easy; the politics are hard
Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is easier. At least you can rent a backhoe and move the rock. Getting politically caught between more m...
AMHS to get $284 million from Feds
The federal ship has come in for the Alaska Marine Highway System, carrying more than $284 million for upgrades to old vessels, money to help pay for...
AMHS says it has crew to run summer schedule
Other than still needing crew if it is to put the Hubbard into service for the first time since it was built a few years ago, the Alaska Marine...
Alaskans heading south, which is not good
Wrangell Sentinel Publisher For the 10th year in a row, more Alaskans moved out last year than new residents moved in. That’s a draining fact, with...
Alaska needs to accept that the world is changing
The world will continue to need liquid fuels refined from crude oil for decades. But it likely will need less in the decades ahead as it transitions...
