Vote Phil Isley #1



Deeper Understanding.
Better Solutions.



Challenges facing alaska and anchorage today and into the future.

election integrity

budget, education, and economy





Rank choice voting



Rank Choice Voting was suppose to allow Alaskans to vote for the best candidate in the order of who would be best for the position. This would allow third party candidates a chance to get elected over party candidates. Then we had a primary where we were allowed only one choice. This defeated the purpose of RCV by the citizens of Alaska and pretty much insured that the parties would remain in power. It basically eliminated third party candidates and just reduced the work load at the Division of Elections and saved the cost of a run off election. My question is why do we need to spend money on a Primary Election when we have RCV? We should just have one RCV General Election and see who wins. Perhaps it would save enough to give us a higher dividend.



Budget and economy



We are suppose to be a government for the people, by the people, but we have lost that in favor of a government for the party by the party. With all the Independent registered voters in Alaska it is surprising that we are under the control and at the mercy of the caucuses. Let me explain. When you ask your representatives why they voted for something or over spent the budget, the answer that you receive is, “I had to vote with the caucus”. The caucuses vote on party lines and are exempt from the open meeting laws. So you have no idea if they supported you or not which removes accountability. So when democrats are in control, we get more government and taxes. When the republicans are in power, we see tax break to corporations that reduce the cost of goods and services to us, but still results in a tax increase. The point is nobody is representing the people anymore. The caucus allows overspending without accountability to the voters. It will have serious consequences in the future. Currently, we have an over sized government and are loosing the private sector through taxation, regulations, and fees. We need accountability now! It should begin with making the caucuses comply with the open meeting laws and demanding fiscal accountability. At some point soon, we have to increase private enterprise or reduce government. It would make sense to downsize the government as the private work force moves away, but it hasn’t happened. When we decided to limit legislature sessions in Juneau, I seem to remember it was set to 180 days. Then it was moved to 90 days because every thing could be done in 90 days. But it costs $20,000 to $50,000 a day to have the legislature in Juneau and we are continually going into special sessions. This costs us too much. With covid, we were forced to work from home. Even students were home schooled. Since, the legislature doesn’t have the money to pay the full perm fund dividend, why don’t they work from home? It would place a burden on the lobbyists, but it would allow the citizens to have full access to their representatives. It would definitely save lots of money to help with the budget.



Education



Everyone has a funding plan. They all need more money for the children and are always short teachers. However, nobody has an education plan for the students and there is no set standard for progression to the next grade level. This results in students that can’t read by the end of the third grade will drop out or graduate not knowing how to read. I have talked to many teachers and former teachers and the biggest concern was the teachers were not allowed to teach. Many of them get frustrated and quit. At this point, the National Education Association and many school districts are so strong in the communities that the only solution might be to contract out education to the private sector because they are goal orientated. But if you wish to try to salvage the educational empire, here some things to try. Have the legislature develop a two year budget cycle that is updated every year. By allocating for two years, the school districts know how much the state has sat aside for the next year. If things get better, it could be added to the next year and if things are worse, you have the funds already allocated and things might be tight the next year. This could be required for boroughs and municipalities also. We have a Basic Student Allocation (BSA) that is about $6,660 per student for the state. But the total funding is about $20,000 per student in Alaska. So why don’t we have a Basic Teacher Allocation (BTA)? The reason for this is because they always have to lay off teachers during the on going school budget crisis. Laying off teachers and promoting larger class sized is poor management and is used to get an emotional response from uninformed voters. You would have to define a teacher criteria or they would call cooks teachers. Bottom line is that if you can afford to pay a superintendent of the school district a quarter of a million dollars in a year and your students are failing third grade reading, you need a serious overhaul. The United States Speaker of the House that is third in line to be President does not make that much money.



Paid for by Phil Isley
Box 190464
Anchorage, Alaska 99519