Alaska lawmakers shut down regional offices on Friday afternoons to save money

[TexasTowelie]

The Alaska Legislature plans to save money by closing its regional information offices on Friday afternoons except during the legislative session.

The joint House-Senate Legislative Council, the committee that handles the Legislature's internal business and budgets, made the decision at a Thursday meeting in Anchorage. The regional legislative information offices were closed Friday afternoon.

Lawmakers were responding to a reduced legislative budget that they passed earlier this year. The office closures will save about $300,000.

"It's hard, because our goal is to make sure we're available to the public," Kodiak Republican Sen. Gary Stevens, who chairs the Legislative Council, said in a phone interview. "But we had a quarter of a million to take out of that line item of the budget — it made sense."

http://www.adn.com/politics/2016/09/02/alaska-lawmakers-shut-down-regional-offices-on-friday-afternoons-to-save-money/
(short article)

[napi21]

1. WHY is Ak. hunting for money? I was under the impression that because of the oil,

they were doing very well. They DO give each resident a check every year don't they? Or is some stupid Pub cutting taxes on their wealthy buds up there too?

[TexasTowelie]

2. Actually they had to make some substantial cutbacks due to the collapse of oil prices.

They also cut the maximum check from the Permanent fund to $1,000 when it was over $2,000 a couple years ago. If I remember correctly there credit rating was cut earlier in the year. They are not in good financial shape, I've posted several other articles in the Alaska Group that have more details of their financial crisis.