What is the best way for the people of Alaska to receive the services they want and need? Should the government always provide all these services? Or are there situations in which private enterprise can provide them more efficiently and effectively? The Republican-led Majority believes that some government services can be better provided by the private sector and has made privatization of appropriate government services a priority.

The search begins:

• SB 33 establishes the Commission on Privatization and Delivery of Government Services. The commission will examine the possibility of privatizing state government functions as a means of saving the state money and providing higher quality services.

The results so far:

• HB 320 authorizes the Alaska Railroad to accept the Whittier DeLong Dock and associated lands from the federal government. HB 320 also authorizes the ARR to convey those associated lands to the City of Whittier.
• HB 420 amends statutes to require the Department of Community and Economic Development to contract for a tourism and marketing campaign for the following fiscal year by May 1st each year.
• HB 446 allows for the sale of of the Four Dam Pool to establish an endowment to fund Power Cost Equalization - bringing affordable electricity to rural Alaska.
• SB 7 would allow the University of Alaska to select 250,000 acres of state land to provide UA with a larger and more productive land base. Land that should have been given to UA by the federal government instead passed to the state at the time of statehood, and this legislation would correct that error.
• SB 288 authorizes the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to enter into an agreement with the Inter-Island Ferry Authority to operate the State’s Marine Terminal Facility at Hollis.