Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Alex Strawn “They're communities that are created through a state process that allows people to sell interest in land without going through our standard Title 43 subdivision process. So, if you have a 10-acre lot, for instance, you can hire a surveyor to divide up the land, and you can essentially create condo association and rules and go record it And you never have to go through the subdivision process.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “any rule that you write has unintended consequences, no matter how well it's written or how well-intended you are when you write it. There's always unintended consequences and there's always loopholes to be found.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Ken McCarty “if this would happen, a little over $19 million would come into the borough at your discretion, whatever you want to spend. And I know that Matsui is all looking for different revenue sources to come in.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Colleen Vague “Many of the recommended changes close identified gaps in the current code and should be advanced. These that should be advanced include emergency fire response access, traffic movement, and vehicle circulation. Developments with more than 10 dwelling units must follow the subdivision construction manual and the bridge and culvert crossing regulations. And new regulations for drainage and stormwater management. Those are all good ideas.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “this creates a new definition for, uh, what's called a vehicular circulation road, and it has a standard that all the exterior walls of your buildings have to be within 100 feet of your of your external or your vehicle circulation road.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “This actually requires that your drainage plan be stamped and developed by a professional engineer, and that— and then it has actually very specific standards of how much of the water you have to retain on site as a result of your development.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “if you're doing a condo plat and the lots that you're creating are over 40,000 square feet, that those are just create essentially treated as parcels.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Brendan Carpenter “Time is of the essence. Yeah, but it seems reasonable to me. I would— I just think that the sooner we get it, if we liked it and we were like, heck yeah, it just seems the quicker the better.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Brendan Carpenter “coming before us, I think it would be worthwhile for us to, to be able to discuss it, come up with something, and give it to the assembly like, we're online with this, this is what we would like to see.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Brendan Carpenter “I'd like to, uh, add, um, the annex now to a future one so that— oh yeah, so that we get more than like, like, hey, hi, my name is Ken McCarty. Okay. And then, bing! Yeah, I'd like to see that as well. Something a little more in-depth so we get something to chew on.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Colleen Vague “Reducing regulatory burdens for truly small-scale multifamily developments makes sense. Please ensure the proposed legislation has no loopholes”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “if somebody did a condo plat for 40,000 square foot lots, uh, then— and I addressed this earlier— then if you did, if you had a 40,000 square foot condo unit, then you could do 2 units on that without a multifamily permit. If you go beyond that, you have to get a permit and you're subject to the provisions of this.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Ken McCarty “540-page document was submitted to the Boundary Commission saying you know, is this viable? And they're like very interested.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Ken McCarty “the big question they asked is, what does Matsu say? And so that's the big question. It's like, well, what does Matsu say? And that question is not being addressed.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

“Hearing and seeing none, Resolution 26-09 has passed.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Brendan Carpenter “there's only so much time, and I— you know what I mean? Okay, if we could send them— and the last time they did it, it was overrun by a bunch of people that were like, bah, and everybody was like, what? And so this time it'd be a little more I'd like—. Yeah, I'd like more information on it for sure.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Alex Strawn “we have been processing multi-family development permits for these condo plats, and it's not— it's kind of a square peg in a round hole type situation.”

Mat-Su Borough: Regular Planning Commission Meeting - June 15, 2026 · Jun 15, 2026

Adam Prestidge “the 2 mills 2 mils is a concept that was first introduced by Wood Mackenzie and other— and Gas Strategies and other consultants to AGDC quite some time ago, and it was an assumption that went into our ability to commit to a $16 price cap. And so I don't see that there was a commitment to $16 at any time before we had an assumption that was based on 2 mils.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Adam Prestidge “one of the benefits, one of several benefits that we see with the alternative volumetric tax is that it is calculated based on a reportable throughput on the pipeline that is then calculated by multipliers, and there's no value— there's no question of valuation applied to that. And so what that means is that we avoid, for all parties involved, the potential for litigation over what is the value of this property over the decades to come.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I don't want to get personally lost into big dollars if the whole project is built and it's full of gas and everything's wonderful. I think we should be concentrating on the economic of the project and trying to see how close we are to the hurdle rate to get it to FID or not.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “we certainly have produced the Phase 1 analysis and will be happy to provide that for the version of the bill that passed out of the House. And we do have extremely detailed model assumptions document. Provide that to the committee, and then I think we can go from there on providing any additional information that would be helpful and any additional sensitivities the committee would like to see. We'll go ahead and get that information. We'll see where we can slide that into our hearing schedule.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “if nothing else for us to, you know, nice to have a hearing on it, but to take a look at it, I think it's critical that we know if we give a concession with our left hand, it's not taken away with some mechanism on the right hand. And how much of a concession is needed to get it to the economic hurdle? And maybe it's zero tax, for all I know. But I think we need to see that on Phase 1, because that's what they're trying to get the FID on, is my understanding.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “isn't there a timing difference between when the $0.16 was agreed to and when the concept of the volumetric tax numerics were put in play, like a couple of months difference in time?”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Adam Prestidge “this tax structure, the alternative volumetric tax, has the benefit of creating alignment. And so the more, the more gas that flows on the pipeline, the greater the revenue to, to the state. The more gas that flows on the pipeline, the lower the cost of gas to the ratepayers.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “given the time and resource constraints with a special session that ends in 4 days, we have maintained our baseline model assumptions at this point.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “Property tax revenue to the state would be estimated at $24 million initially in 2029, ramping up to $239 million by 2033, which is when the full export operations begin and the project construction is completed. And then the municipal revenues, in addition to those state revenues, would start at $50 million initially in 2029, ramping up to $497 million in 2033. So all told, you have a little over $700 million per year of property tax revenue that would come just from the AK LNG project to the state and municipalities if the project were to proceed under current law.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “each additional mil of equivalent mil rate on the full project would be equivalent to about 5 cents of AVT revenue.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Adam Prestidge “that price cap, that commitment that we can get this project done with a cap on the price at $16, is an extraordinary commitment. It is a commitment that we're able to make on the basis of how 381 was put together. If there were a significant change to the tax structure, for example, going from 2 mils to 3 mils would be a 50% increase on the tax burden as set out in HB 381. That would really put in— that would really challenge our ability to maintain that $16 price cap.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “what we're being asked for is concessions, and I want to know what we actually gain, whatever concession we give, not looking at hypotheticals 30 years out. We're trying to get a financing package across the line, is my understanding. Otherwise, why would we give a concession?”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I'm kind of curious when the corporate income tax kick in on the gas line. You know, I think it's somewhere around 20, 21 years out, which means it's time you deal with your depreciation and your interest costs and your carry-forwards. It's not making any money for decades.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “we calculate based on our, our assumptions that the effective rate would be somewhere between 10 and 11 cents per 1,000 cubic feet.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I think the model has all that. It's got to have all that data in there to just print it out. It doesn't have to be fancy looking.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “We can't control capital cost or operating costs. Or much other variables. We have very few levers we can move. But we can make that 1 mil equivalent, 2 mil equivalent, 3 mil, 4 mil, 5 mil, whatever we want.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Jesse Kiehl “through some of my history, both here in the Capitol and in municipal government, it's pretty good we know what it means is never good enough on tax law. You have to have the words on the paper.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I think 2 mils of our 2% of $16 billion is somewhere around $320 million. So I just need to, I guess, get some of these numbers adjusted. And I'd rather, Mr. Chairman, have us look at the aggregate dollars and going to the state, and then if there's a split to the municipalities like we do with our oil tax, we look at the whole, you know, the portion that goes to each borough and then a portion that goes to the state. But if we don't use the aggregate dollar amount, we get our tax modeling off.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “The issue at the table is the gas line. And what would be nice if we could see an analysis on the gas line itself and also the marginal impact of the change in property tax from the 20 mills to, you know, the— to the 2 mills, which is basically what's on the table.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I would suggest that on the interest rate you use, not something below 5, but use the government bond rate.— as a base. I think the Department of Energy was talking about 20-year bond rate plus 3/8 and then step it up.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I'd like to know the marginal impact of a 1 millage rate change. You got 2.13 mills here. If you change that assumption in your model to make that 3.13 mills, what's the effect of the economics of the project?”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “it's a 20 mils tax or 2% of assessed value, and that assessment is done centralized by the State Department of Revenue. We manage the appraisal and assessment process for all oil and gas property in the state, and then any municipal oil and gas property taxes are allowed as a credit against that state tax.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “Frankly, when I look at this bill and I see 2 mills, I find that alarmingly low. If I could pay 2 meals for my house, I'd run down to City Hall with a Christmas card to the mayor.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Dan Stickel “we look at, under our baseline modeling, 2031 is the first year of exports when the first train comes online, and that would be the first year of tax liability for the alternative volumetric tax with a total of $39 million paid in, and that would increase to $131 million by 2033, which would be the first year of the full export operations. Under this version of the bill, the state would receive about 9% of the total AVT revenue, with the remainder allocated to the various municipalities and communities as outlined in this bill.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I think there's a couple months difference in when the 16 cents was in play and when the concept of the effective 2 mil tax rate was put on the table or put in play.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

Bert Stedman “I'd like to know the operating expense of the pipeline. I'd like to know the operating expense of the liquefaction plant, um, and some of these other component parts, um, that you have to plug in your model.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Finance - June 15, 2026 1:30pm · Jun 15, 2026

“A message dated June 12 stating the House passed and is transmitting for consideration CS for House Bill number 381, Finance, amended by the House Finance Committee, an act relating to the taxation of certain natural gas Project property and related facilities, relating to local contributions for public school funding, relating to municipal property taxes, relating to the Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation, relating to reporting requirements for natural gas pipeline projects, relating to approval of contracts by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, and inflation adjustment of the maximum price of natural gas, relating to an alternative volumetric tax on natural gas throughput relating to agreements and a payment related to a natural gas project relating to municipal impact grants and providing for an effective date. House Bill 381 will be referred to the Finance Committee.”

Alaska Legislature: Senate Floor Session - June 15, 2026 11:00am · Jun 15, 2026

Pat Higgins “I think this gives a, a good reflection that we're not at odds with that study, and I think that's an important issue.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Paul McDonogh “this version with its red lines does a good job at achieving what we think is the proper means of coming up with class size averages through evidence-based analysis of the science, while still also acknowledging that our main job is to comply with state statute.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Kelly Lessens “President Jacobs said in that meeting, I want to send the legislature a bill, right? And this gives the administration space to develop its own guidelines for pushing effectively, for pushing at the bill for the delta for the class sizes that we have not been able to attain for a very, very long time and don't appear to be able to attain in the near future.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

Jharrett Bryantt “is it the board's will to get the financial delta for both class size targets, both the one in the bill as well as the Pikus Avenue? I'm assuming so. I just wanted to clarify.”

Anchorage School Board: 6/13/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Jun 13, 2026

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