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Thursday
March 31, 2011
The quintessential early bird
The Robin is a popular bird for their cheery song,
and early appearance at the end of winter.
Front Page Photo by JIM LEWIS
Alaska: VA PRESSED TO STOP SENDING ALASKA VETERANS TO SEATTLE FOR HEALTHCARE - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and the VA's Undersecretary for Health, Dr. Robert Petzel, promised U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski that the VA will do better in purchasing care for Alaska veterans from Alaska community providers, rather than require they travel to the VA Hospital in Seattle, when the VA cannot provide the care at its facilities in Alaska.
Murkowski today in a Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee hearing questioned Shinseki and Petzel about the progress made since April 2010 when Murkowski again questioned that Alaska veterans are being forced to travel to Seattle when adequate care is available from community providers in Alaska.
In the April 2010 appropriations subcommittee hearing, Shinseki told Murkowski, "We are going to look very closely at why we would send a veteran on a 2,000 mile journey if there is competent, safe, health care available close by."
Today, VA Undersecretary Petzel admitted to Murkowski that he was not pleased with the progress the VA has made. Petzel said, "I think there are more things that can be done. You have my promise we are going to look much more carefully at being able to provide more of the care in the community. There will be an occasional thing where it might be in the veteran’s best interest to travel outside Alaska for care. We will do a better job in looking for alternatives in the community."
Secretary Shinseki added that the VA is currently paying $4 billion a year to purchase care for veterans that cannot be delivered in VA facilities and that budget will go up significantly in the 2012-2013 timeframe. Shinseki noted, "We do have the ability to refer patients to civilian healthcare in communities where we're not able provide it. I will work with Dr. Petzel to set some objectives and let's go and work at them." - More...
Thursday - March 31, 2011
Alaska:Legislative Report Finds ‘Significant Deficiencies’ in Oil Tax Audits - In a report made public this week, several significant deficiencies were found in the State of Alaska's ability to audit oil company tax returns. On March 29th, the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee released the results of its “Single Audit for the State of Alaska” for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010. In that report the Legislature’s auditor found that the Tax Division was deficient in several areas when it came to overseeing the tax returns of the companies that pay severance taxes under ACES to the state.
The audit found “Insufficient internal controls over the auditing of severance tax revenue may result in the loss of revenue and increase the risk that tax revenue assessments will not hold upon appeal.” The audit highlighted problems in the Department of Revenue such as incomplete reports, an inadequate system for audit plans and procedures, lack of adequate supervision and high turnover among auditors. - More...
Thursday - March 31, 2011 |
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Alaska: Governor Sets Million Barrel Daily Goal for TAPS within Ten Years; Calls on Alaskans to Demand Passage this Session; Democrats say numbers show even more production won’t overcome billions in lost revenues - Governor Sean Parnell announced yesterday a new goal for Alaska of one million barrels of oil production per day through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) within ten years. Current production is about 600,000 barrels per day, down from two million barrels 20 years ago.
“By reaching this goal we will have sparked tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in payroll,” Governor Parnell said. “By taking action, we will experience longer term state savings and sustainable budgets and contribute more to our nation’s energy security and domestic stability.”
In a call to action at a rally Thursday attended by nearly 1,000 Alaskans and hosted by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, Governor Parnell said that his administration’s proposal to reduce oil taxes to spur investment and create jobs was vital to arresting the oil production decline and achieving the new throughput goal.
With 18 days left in the legislative session, House Bill 110 is moving to the House floor for a vote as the Senate Resources Committee takes public testimony on Senate Bill 49.
Governor Parnell, “The time to reduce oil taxes is now and I am asking all Alaskans to send a clear message to legislators in Juneau that a ‘do-nothing’ strategy is unacceptable because Alaska’s future is at stake.”
In response Rep. Les Gara and Rep. David Guttenberg say according to a new fiscal note from the Alaska Department of Revenue, Governor Parnell’s proposal to give large tax breaks to the oil industry would still cost the state billions of dollars in lost revenue even if future oil production increases. Because producers have not committed to increasing investment, exploration or production should the bill pass, the administration used arbitrary scenarios assuming various degrees of increased production. No scenario showed Alaska making back lost revenues once the bill takes full effect.
“This bill fails if it works,” said Rep. David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks). “And if it doesn’t work, and we’ve not heard any reason to believe it will, then it’ll cost billions more.” - More...
Thursday - March 31, 2011 |
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Columns - Commentary
 DANNY TYREE: He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Tax Liability - As both a capitalist and a taxpayer, news of recent antics by General Electric (G.E.) made me wince.
That’s because G.E.’s actions are practically begging the usual suspects to ramp up their protests against “evil corporations.”
According to The New York Times, G.E. – despite making a $5.1 billion profit in the United States in 2010 – paid no federal income tax and actually received a $3.2 billion TAX CREDIT to apply to future indebtedness.
The nearly 1,000 employees in G.E.’s tax department achieved this through a series of deductions, shelters, adjustments, “green” energy subsidies, offshore profit centers, generous depreciation schedules, brownie points, Early Bird specials and a Sunday newspaper coupon that actually expired last Friday but received an “Aw, what the heck, man” pass from a particularly mellow agent at the IRS.
The multinational was just carrying out its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders (okay, fiduciary responsibility on STEROIDS), but the tax burden does seem troubling in light of recent Supreme Court decisions. With much effort, corporate entities won the same First Amendment rights as individual HUMANS, but apparently want to be TAXED at the same effective rate as disabled THREE-TOED SLOTHS.
Granted, millions of low-income taxpayers pay no federal income tax at all, and I understand that G.E. let the government off pretty lightly. Some of the tax lawyers had been holding out for the keys to Yellowstone, Fort Knox and the Lincoln Memorial. And only a shortage of active volcanoes saved that sacrificial virgin. - More...
Thursday - March 31, 2011 |
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Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Achievements By
Judith Green - We in Ketchikan recently were very aware there was a local teacher representing our city in the 2011 Iditarod Race - many in town were present at the start, many were present at the finish line. HOORAY to Team Taggart for beginning and ending the race. Ketchikan was talking proud. One family that was present at the start of the race was the Valentine family: Trevor and Tiffany with their 2 sons, Jake and Jared. - More...
Thursday PM - March 31, 2011
Kudos to Bobbie McCreary! By
Diana Chaudhary - I would like to congratulate Bobbie McCreary for being selected by Sandy Parnell as a "First Lady Volunteer of the Year". I have worked with Bobbie on several projects and have long admired her incredible organizational skills, as well as her compassion and dedication to youth. - More...
Thursday PM - March 31, 2011
Abortion, Re-Cross Examination: Part one By
Rob Holston - I’ll address some of Laura Allen's comments made in a letter of March 21. I am law abiding. I recognize that the Supreme Court decision is the law of the land. That does NOT mean that this law is immune from either legal, scientific or moral debate. It neither means the law is correct nor does it abrogate my right to challenge it. Your premise that to oppose any law of the land simply because it is the “law of the land” is sophomoric logic. Slavery was once upheld by the the law of the land. Women were prevented from voting by the “law of the land.” - More...
Thursday PM - March 31, 2011
Where does the money go? By
Lewis Roger Amundson - I would also like an answer on where the money goes too. I know they make good money off us otherwise they would not do what they do. I also think if you're going to come here and run a business you should live here and have an Alaska state identification. I'm not against people who work, just the ones who are greedy! They should have to tell us what is going on. Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU) has more money than the City of Ketchikan. - More...
Thursday PM - March 31, 2011
Nurses face over-load of patients and complaints By
Rida Wazni - This letter is in regards to the issue of nurses in the health care system today. There is an increase in the number of acutely ill patients to the lower number of nurses to attend to their needs. Nurses are dealing with job dissatisfaction, burnout, distress, physical and mental illnesses due to the heavy workloads. Patients on the other hand, are unhappy about the shortage in delivery of care. - More...
Thursday PM - March 31, 2011
Misappropriations or good business? By Gayle Brooks - We the people have been screaming from every corner of the U.S. about Government spending and misspending, and here we are in small town America adding to the pile. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
States Rights By
A. M. Johnson - It has been a very frustrating past few days from Senator Begich and Representative Young's visits to Ketchikan. Frustrating from the standpoint of typical "No Action" visible from either of these two or Senator Murkowski, in taking firm aggressive stances on various Federal acts such as the Tongass Roadless Act, that are detrimental to Alaska and Ketchikan in particular. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNMENT By
Charles Edwardson - I missed a recent Ketchikan townhall type meeting on economic development, as I was out of town. If I had attended, the first statement I would have made is: economic development and government are like oil and water and the borough assembly and city council are forms of government, and I would then gauge the response of the industry experts in the room before I engaged in any other talks about economic development. If some of the industry experts agreed it would be worth further discussion, but if no one agreed than it would have been a nice forum to catch up with friends and have a nice brainstorming session that will lead nowhere. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
Low income housing is a great need in Ketchikan By
Shannon Nelson - Housing is defined as a combination of: Mortage or rent, insurance, gas, electricity, maintenance and phone. Housing should not exceed 30% to 36% or 1/3 of your monthly income. Rent should not be more than 25%. Transportation 18%, Food 14% household 7%, Savings 10%, Debt 10% and everything else 11%. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
Cost of Living in Ketchikan By
Lewis Amundson - I have read the letters about the cost of living in Ketchikan and I have to say that it is not just high costs for electric, heat and rent. We live in a cornered market from bad doctors to poor airlines. I have lived here for 31 years - more than most and I'm getting tired of being walked on and have some big issues with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. We pay high prices for every thing purchased locally -- their answer is we have to ship everything in. So is that why I would have to pay $250 dollars for a pair of work boots purchased locally and could buy the same boots from Big J's out of Washington for $160 dollars? Don't try to tell me it costs that much to ship a pair of boots. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
Re: Upcoming State Herring Sac Roe Fisheries; Open Letter to Commissioner Campbell By
Andy Rauwolf - As you may be aware, conditions exist that are severly impacting the marketability of our kazunoko (herring roe) in Japan. It has been common knowledge for several years that younger Japanese are losing interest in this tradition. Along with this problem, Japanese super markets reported that Russian herring roe outsold Sitka’s and British Columbia’s product in the year-end 2010 sales season. This is due in part to lower prices for shipping. There is also reported to be a backlog of unsold Sitka herring roe left over from last year’s huge harvest. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
An Apology to Our Customers By
Brad Tilden & Glenn Johnson - Alaska Airlines experienced a computer system outage this past weekend that disrupted our operation, and we want to offer our profound apologies to the thousands of customers who were affected. We recognize we fell far short of our service commitment to you and are working diligently to determine the underlying causes of the failure to prevent a recurrence. - More...
Monday - March 28, 2011
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