Four percent wage growth fueled by higher oil, construction jobs
A 4.0 increase in total Alaska wage payments in the first half of 2019 can be attributed mainly to job growth in high-wage industries like petroleum and construction, state labor economists say. Most industries showed growth in wages paid but most were about on par with the 2.6 percent inflation rate, meaning no increase in real earnings. Wage payments grew 3.3 percent in Anchorage; 3.2 percent in Fairbanks and 0.5 percent in Juneau. Payments to oil and gas workers on the North Slope were up 11.6 percent, reflecting brisk activity by the industry in the first half of the year.
Anchorage hikes city budget; school district calls for $82.9 million in bonds
Anchorage’s municipal assembly approved a $540 million budget for 2020, up from a $528.8 million budget for 2019. The new budget maintains city services at current levels but expands police services and efforts to deal with a homeless problem. The budget increase will add $20 per year in tax to a home valued at $350,000, according to city estimates. Anchorage’s school board will meanwhile put a $82.8 million bond issue before voters with most of the money targeted at school repairs still needed after the November, 2018 earthquake. The biggest need is at Gruening Middle School, with $39.3 million in repairs needed. Voters will consider the bonds in the municipality’s spring, 2020 election. A $60 million school bond issued was approved in 2019 by 59 percent of local voters. The municipal assembly must still approve the bond sale.
Nordstrom will leave its big Anchorage store empty until 2024
Nordstrom told Anchorage officials that it will leave its 97,000-square-foot retail store in downtown Anchorage empty until the company’s lease expires in 2024. Nordstrom closed its store, an Anchorage icon, in September. About 170 people worked in the downtown store. While some blame the closure on the state’s three-year recession, which is now effectively ended, others say the decision to close was due to more complex factors including unsuccessful negotiations with the city on part of the land lease. The store itself was doing fairly well considering the local recession, sources told us. Meanwhile, concerns have shifted to how long JC Penny will continue to operate its large retail store in the downtown mall now that Nordstrom has closed its store. Although Nordstrom and JC Penney appeal to different market segments it is usually the case that a concentration of retail in an area boosts overall volume.
Anchorage’s midtown mall sees growth in traffic, new stores
On a positive note, Carrs Safeway opened its planned new 66,000-square-foot grocery in the Midtown Mall Nov. 13 in space formerly occupied by Sears, which closed in 2018. Carrs Safeway invested $12 million in its new store, which will employ 135 full and part-time people. Midtown Mall owners have separately invested $30 million, with $20 million spent on the Carrs side of the mall and $10 million spent refurbishing space for Recreational Equipment Inc., which moved from its old location in the Northern Lights Mall, also in Anchorage’s midtown. The new investments have generally revitalized the Midtown Mall, which is seeing a 4 percent growth in traffic this year even prior to the new Carrs opening.
Warmer Arctic seas fuel storm erosion along coasts; disrupt annual whale migration
University of Alaska Fairbanks’ research vessel Sikuliaq is now in the western Beaufort Sea gathering data to assess future wave and shore-erosion effects of open water in the Arctic. In past years the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas would be frozen with thick ice in November but with climate change the seas off Northwest Alaska coast are open or have only thin ice, exposing the shores to increased wave action caused by fall storms. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Denver recorded Arctic sea ice cover at 39,382 square miles Nov. 7, one sixth of the typical ice cover shown in ice surveys from 1981 to 2010.

Warmer Beaufort Sea ocean temperatures may be causing changes in the traditional fall migrations of bowhead whales from Canada’s MacKenzie Delta along the northern Alaska coast. This may be disrupting traditional Inupiat subsistence whaling. Whalers in Utkeagvik, formerly Barrow, began their fall hunt in September, as is usual, but landed their first and only whale so far in mid-November.
Politics: January 10 court date for Dunleavy recall
Anchorage state superior court judge Eric Aarseth set Jan. 10 for oral arguments in an appeal of Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer’s rejection of an initiative to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Meyer’s decision blocks the recall group from a second round of signature-gathering on petitions to set a special recall election. The group, “Recall Dunleavy” had more than the required qualifying signatures to file for approval of the needed second round but Meyer disqualified the initiative after Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who Dunleavy appointed, argued that the legal grounds for the recall were insufficient.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy named Anchorage Republican Mel Gillis to a state House seat vacated by Rep. Josh Revak, also Republican, who was approved by Senate Republicans to fill the Senate seat held by Sen. Chris Birch, who is deceased. On another political note, Governor Dunleavy’s coat-tails have a limited reach into his home region in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, it appears. Brian Endle, a borough assembly candidate endorsed by Dunleavy, was defeated by his opponent, Tom Hale. The two were contending for the assembly seat now held by Jim Sykes, who could not run for reelection due to term limits.
State hikes tuition at AVTEC vocational school in Seward
Tuition at the state-operated Alaska Vocational and Technical Center in Seward will be increased 4 percent in each of the next three years. One 19-week training term costing $2,642 in 2020, reflecting the first 4 percent increase, would be $2,858 in 2022. Administrative and housing fees at the school will also be increased. University of Alaska regents, however, postponed a proposed 5 percent tuition increase.
UA regents will cut university spending another $25 million next year
University of Alaska regents voted to cut the UA budget by $25 million for the 2020-2021 academic year in line with an informal agreement reached earlier this year with Gov. Mike Dunleavy to trim spending over three years. A similar $25 million cut is in effect for the current 2019-2020 school year. Another $20 million will be trimmed in the third year, the 2022-2023 school year. The Legislature must still approve the reduced budget.
Small businesses affected by summer wildfires, smoke eligible for federal aid
The federal Small Business Administration designated parts of the Kenai Peninsula hit by wildfires last summer to be economic “injury” zones. Kenai Borough sales tax figures show that many businesses in areas affected by the fire suffered revenue losses of 5 percent to 20 percent. SBA’s action makes small businesses in the area eligible for low-interest federal loans. Small businesses in Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Valley the Lake and Peninsula Borough and Kodiak that lost business because of wildfires and smoke can get the loans.
Engineering, design work on $375 million Cooper Landing project
Engineering and design work on a $375 million project to reroute the Sterling Highway and construct the state’s longest bridge, across Juneau Creek, will start in 2020, state transportation officials said. About $111 million of the project cost will be for the bridge. Ninety percent of funds for the project will come from the federal government and 10 percent of funds from the state.
Helicopter, snow-cat winter skiing approved for Hatcher Pass
The state Department of Natural Resources approved a permit for Hatcher Pass Mountain Guides to operate winter helicopter and snow-cat skiing operations in Hatcher Pass in the Matanuska-Sustitna Borough beginning as soon as adequate snow-depth is shown, to protect vegetation, and ending May 31.