Hello and thank you for tuning in. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you with a message from Juneau. Today I will speak about the Exit Exam and the Senate Finance Hearings on Fiscal Planning.

Exit Exam

Since the beginning of the conversation about the exit exam, I have been concerned about protecting the needs of the learning disabled student.

The legislative intent and the language in the Exit Exam bill clearly addressed testing of students who have an Individual Education Plan. I am very disappointed with the regulations enacted because they do not contain the same accommodations and plans for alternative testing mechanisms to address the needs of these students. Is it possible that some learning disabled students will not receive a diploma for the simple reason that the bureaucratic educational community has not implemented regulations correctly?

After many meetings with the Department of Education and Early Development and the Attorney General's Office over the past months, through the Senate HESS Committee today I have introduced legislation to address the concerns of the community. My proposed legislation:

1. Allows learning disabled students (who do not achieve a passing score on the exit exam) to receive a diploma if the student successfully completes an individualized assessment which demonstrates proficiency on the performance standards established and required by the student's individualized education plan.
2. Allows for students with a severe cognitive disability to participate in an assessment based on alternate academic standards and to receive a diploma without taking the exit exam if the student meets graduation requirements and successfully completes the assessment.
3. Delays for one year the cut-off period for a student's IEP to provide for an individualized assessment mechanism

I will continue to insist that changes be made systematically so that our exit exam system properly assesses the educational accomplishments of all students. I sincerely hope that this legislation finds support on both sides of the aisle and is quickly signed into law.

Fiscal Planning

This week in Senate Finance Committee we have taken up the suggestions of the Conference of Alaskans and other legislative proposals for fiscal planning. This has been a very complex conversation because there are many ideas out there to consider and flush out. The ideas range from using earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund, imposing some sort of broad-based tax, instituting some specialty taxes and fees, and perhaps making further cuts to state services. What makes this discussion even more difficult is that wherever changes to the constitution are contemplated, we must be aware that it takes a ¾ vote of both the House and the Senate to put the measures on the ballot for all Alaskans to vote. Some of the proposals we are contemplating include:

• The POMV or the Percent of Market Value proposal suggests using a formula that purports to limit spending to a set percent of a fund's total market value. The set percent is based on the expected difference between total annual return on investments and the rate of inflation. The suggested calculation is 8% projected average annual return minus 3% projected average annual inflation resulting in 5% maximum annual payout. POMV eliminate the distinction between principal and earnings.
• Senator Kim Elton's proposal is that if the POMV passes then 80% of the 5% payout would go to dividends.
• Senator Georgianna Lincoln's proposal is to enshrine the current dividend calculation in the Constitution.
• Senator Ralph Seekins' proposal to implement a system whereby fund money is used to pay dividends and to fund education, and a limit on spending is set to avoid potentially shrinking the buying power of the fund. Under Seekins' proposal, the principal would be recalculated every year based on inflation and on mineral royalties put into the fund. The state could not withdraw the full 5 percent in a given year if that withdrawal would drop the fund balance below that number.
• Senator Ben Stevens' proposal is to implement a 4 percent statewide sales tax with exemptions for certain essential goods. Under the proposal, the state would collect the tax and return an additional 1 percent to those municipalities with rates higher than 3 percent.
• Senator Hollis French suggests we revamp the "economic limit factor" on new and smaller oil fields and implement sliding scales of return based on oil prices.

While these are hard decisions to make, these conversations have increased the active involvement by the public in the debate through email, telephone calls and public testimony and the appreciation they have shown for our efforts.

I would love to hear from you on any of these topics or anything else we are working on in the capitol.

For information on legislation I am working on, to read district updates, or to send me an email, please find my office on the internet at www.akrepublicans.org
You can also call the office directly, 907-465-6600 or toll free in state 1-877-465-6601. Please let me know if you would like to be included on my email distribution list for updates from the office.

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