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Hardwood haven: Busy night for Nanooks and area prep basketball teams. » B1Inside Today

One dollar newsminer.comFRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2018

T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A

SOURDOUGH JACK:

“I guess I couldn’t be a legislator. I’m so poor, I can’t even pay attention.”

• • •

The weather.

Snow accumulation

around 1 inch. Tonight:

Snow accumulation

around 1 inch.

High today .............. 10

Low tonight .............-10

WEATHER » A7

Aurora forecast.

Auroral activity will be

low. Weather permitting,

low-level displays will

be visible overhead from

Utqiagvik to Fairbanks.

This information is provided

by aurora forecasters at the

Geophysical Institute at the

University of Alaska Fairbanks.

For more information about

the aurora, visit http://www.

gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

GOOD MORNING

STAIRDOWN

A pedestrian descends the stairway on Alumni Drive that connects to Tanana Loop on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus on Thursday afternoon. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER

‘A smarter and stronger Alaska’

By Erin GrangerEGRANGER@NEWSMINER.COM

JUNEAU — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker emphasized optimism paired with the need for hard work in his annual “State of the State” address delivered to the state legislature and members of the public Thursday evening.

“My optimism this evening

comes directly from the state of our state, from the strength and resilience of our people, and from the steps we are taking to control of our own destiny by building a safer, smarter and stronger Alaska,” Walker said.

Walker listed the state’s many successes, including the recent agreement with China to finance the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas Pipeline and the recent national vote to open the 1002 coastal plain section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil development.

Finance panel bristles at tax, per diem ideasBy Erin GrangerEGRANGER

@NEWSMINER.COM

JUNEAU — Office of Management and Bud-get Director Pat Pitney presented the House Finance Committee with the governor ’s fiscal year 2019 bud-get proposal Thursday afternoon. The pro-posal, while accepted in some areas, received heavy pushback on the governor’s proposed wage tax and a proposal to dock legislator’s per diem if a budget is not passed within the first 90 days of a session.

Several members of the committee raised con-cerns regarding Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s pro-posed 1.5 percent capped payroll tax, expected to produce nearly $800 million during the next

three years. This form of tax was proposed during the legislature’s fourth special session in 2017. Since then, the governor has added a sunset date of 2021 for the tax to end.

Rep. Tammie Wil-son, R-North Pole , inquired on the model used for the wage tax.

“Not everybody is con-tributing because not everybody works,” Wil-son said. “It is a small portion, in my opinion, of people who are going to be participating in this.”

This tax, as a pay-roll tax, would affect resident and nonresi-dent workers in Alas-ka. According to a recent study, nonres-ident workers earned about $2.7 billion in Alaska wages in 2015.

Huslia man gets 15 years for assaultBy Dorothy ChomiczDCHOMICZ@NEWSMINER.COM

A Huslia man who report-

edly sexually assaulted a village elder was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in pris-on and 15 years probation.

Rudolph John Peters Jr., 46, was originally charged with felony first-degree sex-ual assault and felony sec-ond-degree assault for the Jan. 27, 2016, incident. Peters reportedly was drunk when he showed up at the 69-year-old victim’s Huslia home with alcohol. He and the victim drank some of the alcohol and the woman’s daughter left briefly. When she returned, she found Peters strangling and sexually assaulting the victim.

Peters pleaded guilty Aug. 10 of this year to one amend-ed count of second-degree attempted sexual assault. He was sentenced Thursday to 40 years, with 25 suspended, leav-ing 15 to serve. Peters will be on probation for 15 years after his release. He will not be allowed to live in any village that does not have a law enforcement officer or has fewer than 500 residents.

TAX » A5

STATE » A5

Congress races toward government shutdown

WASHINGTON — A bitter-ly-divided Congress hur-tled toward a government shutdown this weekend in a stare-down over demands by Democrats for a solu-tion on politically fraught legislation to protect about 700,000 younger immi-

grants from being deported.Democrats in the Sen-

ate have served notice they will filibuster a four-week, government-wide funding bill that passed the House Thursday, seeking to shape a subsequent measure but exposing themselves to charges they are responsible for a looming shutdown.

By Andrew Taylor and Alan Fram ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. Bill Walker speaks during his State of the State address before a

joint session of the Alaska Legislature on

Thursday in Juneau. Senate President

Pete Kelly, left, R-Fairbanks, left,

and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon,

D-Dillingham, watch from the speaker’s

desk. MICHAEL PENN/

THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

VIA AP

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters Thursday as he walks toward the Senate as Congress moves closer to the funding deadline to avoid a government shutdown on Capitol Hill.AP PHOTO/ANDREW HARNIK

ASSAULT » A5

CONGRESS » A5

Walker pressures legislators in ‘State of the State’ address