Jim volunteers at the Food Bank of Alaska
Mobile Food Pantries
Homelessness is a tragic and growing problem in Anchorage. We need to direct its efforts towards targeted investments in housing. This ranges from shelters to resource centers to permanent housing solutions. More needs to be done to address the longer-term causes and issues surrounding homelessness and measures to prevent homelessness in the first place. Efforts such as substance abuse prevention, treatment programs and increasing support for AFD's and APD's Mobile Crisis and Intervention Teams would both improve public safety and work to reduce some of the homelessness in Anchorage.
Public safety is one of my primary concerns. Property crime rates are extremely high. One of the greatest challenges for our police force is staffing and retention of officers. The Anchorage Police currently have over 50 vacancies among our sworn officers, and other police forces across the state have a similar staffing crisis. I strongly supported the defined benefits bill that was introduced in the previous legislative session. We need to attract and retain police officers across the state. To do so we need to make Alaskan jobs competitive with similar positions in the Lower 48.
Education - Our public schools are just one part of the larger economic crisis we face in Alaska. in terms of actual dollars, we have essentially flat-funded education for more than 15 years. However, when adjusted for inflation, we have actually cut edication funding by more than 25 percent over that period. Classroom sizes are going up, enrollment is going down, we have shortages of teachers and the overall quality of our educational system is deteriorating. I strongly support restoring education funding to levels that address inflation. I also support defined benefit retirement for teachers, as well as for other public employees.
Economic growth - I will work hard to address the various challenges that face our economy. Alaska loses more than 10,000 people every year to outmigration. People leave because housing costs are high, jobs are less attractive than in the Lower 48, our education systems are deteriorating, and we're facing an energy shortage in a state that is awash in energy resources. I will fight to address housing issues in Alaska, provide the resources to make Alaskan jobs more attractive so we can hire and retain our employees. We can't keep people in Alaska if our students can't get a good education. We need safe streets and safe parks. We need to maintain and improve the infrastructure we need to get our energy resources to market - both markets in Alaska that need these resources, and to the world markets through exports.
