House Members appointed to Higher Education Task Forces

House members have been named to the Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force and the Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness (established by SB 221 http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?bill=SB%20221&session=26 ). No word yet on when the task forces will begin meeting.

Members of the task forces include:
The Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force (15 members):
Five senators: Senate President Stevens and Sens. Elllis, Hoffman, Meyer, & Thomas;
Five representatives: Reps. Seaton, P. Wilson.....

Alaska Budget Vetos, June 3, 2010

Governor Parnell signed HB 300, HB 302, and SB 230 into law on Thursday, June 3. He said the capital budget passed by the legislature was significantly larger than his proposed budget. Final education funding and a list of vetoes is contained in the Alaska Education Update, June 3, 2010 edition.

Governor Parnell said that in talking to legislators, he found that all the small school projects included in the capital budget are school district priorities, but that they would never rise to the level of being funded without earmarks from the legislature. So earmarking by legislators is an appropriate method for funding those projects. He said that legislators know what the priorities of their districts are better than he does.

There is a new web tool on the State of Alaska website with a map showing projects by geographic area:
http://gov.alaska.gov/parnell/press-room/2010-budget/budget-map.html