🧵 The #akleg joint floor session is getting underway. They'll be taking up the governor's veto of the pension bill, which followed yesterday's attempt to shove the AKLNG subsidy bill through. It didn't pass with enough votes to survive a veto, so I don't expect this to be too long.
Heres' the link to the stream: ktoo.org And my newsletter recapping yesterday: akmemo.com
www.ktoo.org
And Senate President Stevens jokes that they're about to set the record for joint sessions in a session.
Rep. Kopp, who tried to push the AKLNG bill through yesterday as a bid to get the pension bill passed, starts out in support of an override. He says a lot of work has come to this point, where the pension isn't even that great.
Kopp: "29% turnover with our teachers, the highest in the nation!" He notes there are many hundreds of kids each year who are stuck with substitute teachers. He says it's not a retirement bill, but a job bill. He says you can't have economic success without a functioning public sector.
Rep. Kopp continues to say the chronic lack of experience in state agencies is costing the state, where workers are neglecting to apply for grants, etc. He says the whole thing is intended to save more than that. He notes this is the 33rd attempt at bringing back a pension.
Kopp: "What's the alternative? After 19 years and 32 attempts, there is no competing bill on this floor. There is no administration proposal in the hopper, no workforce package from any other outside group. There is House Bill 78 and then there's the status quo."
I'll give Kopp credit; he's obviously way more passionate about the pension than he was about the AKLNG bill yesterday. Interesting to see the same guy be both one of the fiercest voices for public pensions and for generous industry subsidies.
Rep. Fields frames it as an Alaska vs Outside special interest groups that don't support police. He notes a 2024 editorial calling out Americans for Prosperity for opposing the pension and other anti-cop stuff: adn.com "I support the police, I will be voting yes."
Sen. Stemdan, one of the leading opponents to a public employee pension, says the state's retirement plan is actually pretty good (for older folks like him, but not anyone who's joined since 2006). "It's not perfect, but it's pretty good."
Sen. Stedman says Alaska's chronic recruitment and retention problems aren't actually unique: "We're not an anomaly, we're just one of the crowd."
Sen. Stedman also says that young people love jumping from jobs. He says that you used to be able to work your entire career for one place, but young people don't want that anymore, they like hopping from job to job. (They absolutely-fuckin-don't)
He continues to complain that the REAL problem is that teachers don't have access to the supplemental benefit system. "It's impossible for a teacher to ever accumulate the retirement income and wealth of a state worker ... in our system, it's mathematically virtually impossible."
Sen. Stedman says they need to get the retirement options for teachers up to 25%, rather than the 15% they currently get. And they need to get paid more. (But a pension? Fuck that)
Sen. Stedman, who does have a great pension, jokes that he could help by croaking: "I wouldn't wish this on anybody, but it'd help the pension a little bit ... If I have a heart attack now and get it over with. I'm part of the problem, I'm gonna hang around for a while. Hopefully a long time."
Stedman continues to argue that all public employees SHOULD have either Social Security or access to the Supplemental Benefit System. "Who's the guy who's complaining? The guy that's working for the skinflint." He says, of course, people who work for shitty public employers would complain.
Basically, Stedman's arguing that the real solution is to pay employees better, as if that were an option that's on the table. It's like, sure, if they simply dump a bunch more money into 401K-style retirement plans, they work better. Genius thinking here, man. Stedman then says he's not suggesting anyone consider proposing a constitutional amendment to reduce his retirement benefits to address the true underlying problems with the pension system. No, instead, the fix is to deny pensions to everyone else.
Sen. Stedman says the Legislature is ONLY responsible for state employees. It shouldn't give anything to anyone on the local level.
Stedman says that ACTUALLY Alaska has one of THE BEST retirements in the entire country. He brags that Alaska has never missed a payment (to him). "We are not the skinflints in the retirement system."
Sen. Wielechowski is getting wound up on this one. He says you can point to spreadsheets to claim the retirement system is doing well, but look at the employees voting with their feet and leaving. He says there's obviously a problem when the public sector has NO pension and NO Social Security.
Wielechowski: "I would dispute the notion that we have a good public employee retirement system. ... We have the worst retirement system in the nation, the absolute worst. Why? Because we're the only state in the entire country where our public employees get no social security and get no pension." Sen. Wielechowski then closes with a story from the Scranton Times about a young Michael J. Dunleavy about moving to Alaska: "He came, and he stayed for the pension! We shouldn't be pulling up the ladder."
Rep. Stapp is up to throw a wet blanket on it. He says that, sure, it might be a great deal IF it was the same kind of sweet deal that Dunleavy got. But it isn't. He says he doesn't think it'd actually solve the workplace issues. It wouldn't hurt and it's probably better for most employees.
Stapp says the "fundamental" problem with the pension bill is that providing Alaskans with a pension costs money. It's better, he agrees, because it's better for employees because it means more money going into the system. That's the problem.
Rep. Bynum calls the pension bill an illusion of choice. He says that offering teachers pensions "doesn't help teacher retirement at all."
Rep. Bynum says the REAL problem with keeping public employees around is pay, but also, when he was an employer, higher pay didn't help... ? He then says that the REAL problem is that the cost of living is too high.
Sen. Kiehl says that if we're going to dig into the information, he notes that from the actual Alaska experiences rather than national trends. He throws around some documents: "They're a snooze, they're a drag, but they've got great statistical information in the back."
Sen. Kiehl says that for all the talk about the comparisons, look at teachers. None are state employees, so you have only comparisons between the alleged "skinflints." He says there's a clear and obvious difference in the retention rates between pensions and not having one. Sen. Kiehl references economist Robert Solow, who argued that people's value of safety and security doesn't fit easily into standard economic theory. He says pensions may not be the best total $, but they're a certain retirement. That certainty is valuable!
Saddler's attempt to call the question was given and lifted. Moving on to more debate. Sen. Hoffman opposes overruling the veto. He says that Alaskans are worried about other things, like education funding, adequate housing or energy costs. (It's not like they're solving that, either)
Rep. Josephson credits Majority Leaders Rep. Kopp and Sen. Geissel for all the work they've put into the bill. He also says. times have changed and they need to give workers some basic dignity in retirement.
And, as expected, the #akleg has failed to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of the public pension bill with a 33-27 vote. Needed 40. It, like many things, will have to wait for a new governor.