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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
There are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun. Journalist
@Midnight_Sun_ak
. Newsletterer. #akleg dork. Husker. WWE mark. matt@akmemo.com
Anchorage, AKakmemo.substack.comJoined October 2008
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Friday newsletter will be out on Saturday. Was up late last night and am just kinda outta steam today. But, hey, at least I can get back on the coffee train next week.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Carpenter says, basically, that's fine by him to make a kid-witnessed assault much more serious than a non-kid-witnessed assault: "Two guys fighting without kids around? That's happened for eons. ... Two guys fighting in front of kids is not acceptable, ever."
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Some back and forth about deterring assaults in front of children, basically why not make it more serious? Rep. Josephson says he's open to such talks but says he's not certain about the legality of making the penalty much more serious.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. C. Johnson asks why require a separate crime at all? Why not make it be a standalone. Rep. Josephson says, sure, it could be. Anchorage has handled it that way (where Josephson was a prosecutor) and it's worked well.
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Matt Acuña Buxton Retweeted
Gene Park
@GenePark
me alone at a legacy newspaper trying to cover a $56 billion a year global industry that caters to an audience of 3 billion+ humans and is the dominant arts medium of the 21st century
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Finishing My Coffee
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Replying to @LauncherWP @winterion and @wapo
Gene Park is a great writer, but I get the impression he's going to be a one man show and has been handed the digital age newspaper adage of "do more with less." Seems a shame.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Also important to keep in mind that Rep. Josephson was once a prosecutor. When there was a question about 18-year-olds committing crimes, Josephson notes that 18-year-olds are adults under the system and there's no murder by a 1-year-old, just murder.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Gray wonders if it'd just be wiser to connect this directly to a domestic violence crime. He says they're relying on the discretion of officers, which is a good sentiment but maybe not something to rely on.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Allard asks again whether public testimony would somehow count as assault in front of a child if there was a child there. Rep. Josephson says, again, it would take an actual assault charge. An argument over money wouldn't count as assault.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Allard asks if an argument in front of children would count under this bill? Does it just have to be physical or could it be emotional? Rep. Josephson says it'd still require an actual assault. There has to be an assault charge.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Allard wonders if other things like... "Reading pornography, sexual content at schools and sexual reference within schools in public libraries, public testimony with public officials with children present" would qualify as assault under this bill.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
There's some back and forth about how broad or narrow this crime should apply. Should it apply to school ground fights, too? It'd require a person under 16 to be in the dwelling, vehicle or location of the assault. Vance wonders why so broad vs why not narrower?
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
The assault itself is, of course, already a crime. This bill would essentially add on another misdemeanor that Rep. Josephson says, essentially, would recognize the harm done to a child who witnesses an assault.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
After a long answer about the exemptions contained in the bill, Groh notes that the accompanying constitutional amendment hasn't even been referred to this committee. He adds that shares Gray's concerns about tying the Legislature's hands. Aaaand that's it for that bill.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Groh asks the differences between the exemptions contained in the current bill and the constitutional amendment they've been talking a bunch about. Harvey says, actually, he's not sure they're allowed to talk about the am. because it hasn't been publicly noticed. (They're not.)
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
The staffer notes that the spending cap is based on a 5-year running average. So, basically, it'd only REALLY get bad if an economic recession occurs over several years. "You wouldn't have immediate dual layoffs, that's one of the benefits," Harvey says.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Allard asks if the voter-approved bonds are put to voters then why not put this bill to voters, too. Then one of the staffers talks about how legislation works (maj.), how constitutional amendments work (2/3 vote) and how they'd want voters to be able to break the limit.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Hahaha, of course Rep. Groh went ahead and had his own set of slides on the state's budget prepared. Good thing I'm not there in-person because I'm dying. Rep. Vance says he needs to run it by her ahead of time next time.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Groh brought some of his own documents on the state's financial picture. Rep. Carpenter says they can't know if it's real. Groh says he paid to have it prepared and ran it by legislative finance division. Rep. Vance kinda tut-tuts him, says let the staffers finish.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Groh going ahead with some of his high-level questions for the staffers. Why move forward with a spending cap now? Matthew Harvey, staff to Sen. Kaufman: "This is the proposal that's in front of the body right now." Says if the committee wants to do other things, they can.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Rep. Groh has a lot of questions about how this would fit into the fiscal policy working group's call for an all-in simultaneous approach to solving the budget, but those are questions for another day as both sponsors Stapp and Kaufman have to run off to other meetings.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
The PFD would be excluded from the spending cap. Rep. Gray asks why when it's the largest piece of state spending. Kaufman says, basically, because they didn't want to get tied up in the PFD policy and politics.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Eastman asks if this bill really actually does anything as long as the Alaska Constitution remains unamended (they also have an amendment on deck, but that's not being heard today). Kaufman concedes that, no, it wouldn't work without the amendment.
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
Kaufman says that they need to sync the government to the economy. (The only thing, though, is that the only significant revenue link between government and the economy right now is through the oil tax.)
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Matt Acuña Buxton
@mattbuxton
The Stapp/Kaufman legislation would unlink the spending cap from population and inflation, instead tying it to the state's GDP. Here's their projection of how it'd work (it'd call for additional cuts to current state spending). "Measure what matters," he says.
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