The Alaska Senate introduced dozens of new bills Friday, plowing ahead with legislative work even as the House of Representatives remains unorganized.<\/p>\n
Twenty-nine bills and seven resolutions were read across in a brief floor session Friday morning — legislation<\/a> pre-filed by senators before the start of the session and three constitutional amendments submitted by the governor. Items were referred to the appropriate committees, whose leadership this year is dominated by the Republican-led Senate Majority.<\/p>\n Senate Republicans and Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, formed a majority caucus that on Wednesday announced committee assignments. Of the 10 Senate committees, Democrats hold no chairmanships.<\/p>\n The Senate was able to come to an agreement for its president before the session started, and on the first day back in Juneau unanimously elected Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, to the position.<\/p>\n Micciche got his start in politics on the Soldotna City Council before being elected directly to the Senate in 2012. Much of his career has been spent with ConocoPhilips, he said, but he’s held various jobs over the years, including running a small painting business in his 20s and being a lifelong commercial fisherman.<\/p>\n New Legislature, same issues, says Juneau’s delegation<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n Micciche said during an interview Friday in his soon-to-be-former office at the Capitol that as Senate president he wants to bring an unprecedented level of communication to the office.<\/p>\n “The public is going to see communication like they’ve never seen before,” he said.<\/p>\n The depth of Alaska’s fiscal problems hasn’t been explained to the public very well, Micciche said, as politicians tend to use technical language most people aren’t familiar with.<\/p>\n “To folks that only listen periodically, we have not done a good job in deciphering what we’re talking about,” he said.<\/p>\n A Jan. 19, statement from the Alaska Senate Majority said lawmakers organized around a “caucus of equals” philosophy that recognizes a diverse array of viewpoints.<\/p>\n Last year, several Republican lawmakers lost their committee assignments after having violated the binding caucus rules. Many of those lawmakers were extremely critical of binding caucus rules and one of them, Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla<\/a>, introduced legislation to prohibit their use.<\/p>\n Micciche said he intended to listen to all viewpoints and seek input from a diverse array of political stances.<\/p>\n “We have folks of both extreme ends of the issues,” he said. “No matter how each Alaskan feels, we have members in each of those camps and everything in the middle.”<\/p>\n Still, the Legislature remains deeply divided over the same issues that have frustrated lawmakers for years, he said, namely the Permanent Fund Dividend. How much of the state budget should go to dividends is the question that needs to be answered before the state can start to adequately address its fiscal problems.<\/p>\n