Juneau -- Immediately following Governor Knowles's State of the State and Budget address to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature, House and Senate Majority Leaders met with members of the press to give their reactions to the Governor's comments.

Comments are available on the House majority Actuality Line by dialing 1-800-478-6540 toll-free and following the instructions.

Box 1: Representative Eldon Mulder (R-Anchorage), Co-Chair of the House Finance Committee, discusses the governor's bonding proposal to deal with deferred maintenance needs in Alaska's schools.
= Eldon Mulder, 50 K

Box 2: Representative Mulder contrasts features of the Majority's bonding package with that of the governor.
= Eldon Mulder, 28 K

Box 3: Representative Mulder points-out just how large the State's deficit would be had the Republican-led legislature not aggressively and successfully pursued spending reductions during the 1990s.
= Eldon Mulder, 44 K

Box 5: Speaker of the House Brian Porter (R-Anchorage) notes that the positive crime and welfare statistics cited by the governor are due, in large part, to actions taken by the legislature which were, at times, opposed by others.
= Brian Porter, 33 K

Box 6: Speaker Porter says the hard decisions the legislature must face are harder than many people realize.
= Brian Porter, 15 K