Thank you, Mark Pfeffer
My daughter attends Rilke Schule, a public language-immersion charter school. One year ago, our program was in crisis. We were without a school large enough to house 450-plus students and staff, and our only option was to split up the school into several locations, thereby putting the program at risk.
My perspective is that of a parent who is very involved in school matters, and in my opinion, Mark Pfeffer and his organization were instrumental in saving our school. Recently I've seen online commentary about Mark, and the negative comments do not match my experience.
I found Mark to be extremely professional, honest and accommodating to the needs of our students, teachers and parents — and our very limited budget. He and his organization worked closely with school officials to quickly and efficiently construct our school building. He created a collaborative atmosphere to provide creative solutions to our complicated situation.
This holiday season, I offer my heartfelt thanks to Mark Pfeffer and his team for the role they played in creating a permanent home for Rilke Schule. We need more people like Mark who support our great community.
— Kjerstin Lastufka
Anchorage
An idea for Governor Walker
Since we Alaskans live in an ownership state, and all our resources belong to us and our constitution specifies that all our resources shall be developed in the best interest of the people, by what constitutional authority did our Legislature surrender our ACES taxation system to oil companies and replace it with SB 21? ACES put billions into our revenue accounts. SB 21 gives away more taxes than we make. Now we are facing the non-performing promise we were given that oil production would increase and replace tax revenue from ACES. Restore our ACES.
Further, since the PFD is funded from our resources, the Permanent Fund itself belongs to the people of Alaska. We the people have not authorized our Legislature or our governor to take money from our Permanent Fund, for any purpose. Now we, via a vote of the people, may indeed grant unto our Permanent Fund Trustees, authority to buy 10 percent non-redeemable tax-free state bonds, which they could then use to pay the people their PFDs bonuses.
Such a move would allow the state a steady income and guarantee the public their share of the wealth. All state income and property taxes would need to cease and landlords who refuse to reduce their rental charges should suffer a 10 percent increase in property taxes every year, until they comply.
— John J. Kiernan
Anchorage
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