{"id":43201,"date":"2019-02-14T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/capitol-live-senators-set-to-question-budget-director\/"},"modified":"2019-02-14T18:02:58","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T03:02:58","slug":"capitol-live-senators-set-to-question-budget-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/capitol-live-senators-set-to-question-budget-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Live: House GOP tags Pruitt as minority leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

5 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Rep. Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, will serve as the House Minority Leader, according to a House Republicans press release.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, will serve as Republican Finance Leader, and Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, will be Minority Whip.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“Representative [Dave] Talerico (R-Healy) has done a masterful job executing a strategy to get our caucus to this point,” Pruitt said in a statement from the release. “The Governor has presented a budget to try and align spending with revenues, and we’ll be working closely with our colleagues to put Alaska on a sustainable path forward.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The House Majority, led by Speaker Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, has not made any official announcements regarding leadership. The House voted Edgmon into the role this morning. A text from the House Coalition press secretary said to “anticipate details to be forthcoming tomorrow” regarding House Majority leadership. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

— Kevin Baird<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

1:45 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Just spoke with Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), about the budget. Guettabi is one of the authors of a 2016 study about the short-term economic impacts of cutting the Alaska state budget.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The study (linked here<\/a>) found that for every $100 million that the state cuts in its budget, the statewide economy loses 1,000 jobs. Guettabi estimated that if the state cuts $1.6 billion, the state might lose between 13,000 and 20,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I think that it’s fairly clear that if we are to go through the proposed cuts, this lengthens the recession and creates quite a bit of uncertainty for the next six months,” Guettabi said. “From a pure economic standpoint, we’re basically going to have an economy that’s frozen because people are not going to be spending if you don’t know if you’re going to have a job in six months or eight months and businesses probably won’t be hiring.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

— Alex McCarthy<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

12:25 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Juneau School District Board President Brian Holst is attending the Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon. During his roundtable introduction, he said that JSD officials were looking at the impacts of the proposed budget cuts on Juneau’s schools.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We think it will be about 27 percent of our total budget,” he says.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

— Mollie Barnes<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

12:21 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

After that confrontational Senate Finance meeting earlier, Sen. Bill Wielechowski is having a Facebook Live session on his Facebook account<\/a> at 4 p.m. That’s according to a tweet of his.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Today at 4 PM I will hold a Facebook live event to share my concerns about the governors proposed budget as well as answer any questions or concerns you may have. #akleg<\/a><\/p>— Sen. Bill Wielechowski (@SenWielechowski) February 14, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>\n