Except for the bizarre activities around our budget problems, this has been a very successful session for our office.

House Bill 70 - This bill passed this year and makes it very clear that schools cannot administer surveys that ask very personal and familial questions of students with out active parental consent.

House Bill 177 - This act requires that criminal and behavioral information about a foster child be available to the foster parents and that the foster parents have a place in treatment and placement plans.

House Bill 34 - establishes a citizens duty to assist a child that is being raped, kidnapped, or murdered or at least report the crime to some one who can help the child. This came from the little girl who was molested and killed in a men's bathroom in Las Vegas. Some adults knew it was going on and did not help her. Under this bill, if you cannot or will not help the child, you must call the police.

House Bill 78 - This new law eliminates a glitch in the State's system that would not let you transfer the title on a vehicle that wasn't running. It is not a big deal, but it eliminates hassles for those of us who work on our own cars.

House Joint Resolution 36 - This was our effort to refute a research article that concluded that child sexual abuse is not all ways harmful to the child, and might even be helpful to some willing victims. It is hard to believe what is going on in our culture.

The Budget Mess. The Permanent Fund was set up, in part, to provide an investment income stream for when the day came that oil revenues started to taper off. With decreased oil prices and production, we have a sudden billion-dollar deficit. It is possible to make a few more cuts in government and to do some more streamlining, but a billion dollars more is unobtainable. If we laid off all of the state workers, I understand that we would only save $700 million. If we were to do a tax, I would support a sales tax, but that only gets us about $200 million. At some point, we will start using some of the earnings from the Permanent Fund to support a portion of state government. The question is, when? And, how much?

This Summer and Fall. Next week we will try to tell you about the issues on which we will be working during our legislative break.

We are eager to be of assistance to people in our area in dealing with state agencies. If you are having trouble or need help I can be reached by phone, (907) 694-6683; by mail, 10928 Eagle River Road, Suite 140, Eagle River, AK 99577; or via the Internet, Representative_Fred_Dyson@legis.state.ak.us. My web page is http://www.akrepublicans.org/pastlegs/Dyson.htm.