2020 Alaska General Election
COVID-19
Has the Alaska Legislature done enough to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic? Why or why not?
Has the Alaska Legislature done enough to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic? Why or why not?
House District 34
Ed King
Candidate for House District 34
The COVID pandemic has been really challenging to deal with the across the board at every level of government. I think the municipality has done a great job doing what it can do dealing with the issue. I think the federal government has done a tremendous job, providing assistance to the community. Unfortunately, the state legislature really hasn’t. They didn’t really do a whole lot. They didn’t provide any kind of economic relief. They didn’t provide any kind of substantial assistance to small businesses … All they did really was put a pause on evictions, and allowed the federal money to pass through the state government. But no, I don’t think that the state legislature has done enough.
Andi Story
Candidate for House District 34
Nothing is more important than getting us back to post-COVID days. We really worked hard to get the federal assistance coming in. We passed some laws to make sure tele-health was available for insurance coverage, to stop evictions, help with electrical with utility bills, working really hard to urge credit union One and urge the Governor to release funds as quickly as possible through the RPL process. We’ve been advocating diligently for another federal stimulus package, because we know we need some more monies on the ground here. We’ve lost so much revenue, and we’re glad to hear that many people across the country realize that. So we’ve been trying to work and advocate for our constituents who were not getting the aid in a timely manner. So that felt good to help more.
House District 33
Sara Hannan
Candidate for House District 33
No, we have not done enough because we don’t have the money to take that burden on. We have thus far depended primarily on federal monies to address it, and right now those federal monies are not meeting Alaska’s needs. Our economy runs a little different than other places. Even if the COVID pandemic is resolved sometime this winter, our economy and fisheries and tourism aren’t going to be back until at least next summer. So I do believe that the state of Alaska is going to need to address the impacts of COVID-19.