Hillyer and Elam discuss topics in the House District 8 Forum

John Hillyer and Bill Elam, the two candidates running to represent the northern Kenai Peninsula in the state House of Representatives, met Monday at the Soldotna Public Library for a candidate forum hosted by Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM.

For about an hour, the two candidates exchanged views on important state issues, including energy, education and state finances. Hillyer is a retired Air Force pilot. Elam currently sits in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. Both are running for House District 8 – which represents Nikiski, Sterling and Cooper Landing. Incumbent Rep. Ben Carpenter is not running for re-election as he seeks a state Senate seat.

Hillyer introduced himself as an 18-year resident of Alaska and a 10-year resident of the Kenai Peninsula. He has been married to a retired television reporter for 34 years and has two sons at Soldotna High School. He said he graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, earned a master’s degree in aeronautical science and served 32 years in the Air Force, including in leadership positions in a “high-risk, high-intensity environment.”

It’s the “unique leadership toolkit” he offers the district, he said. He said he wanted to protect rights, revive natural resource production and institute both budget and education reform.

Elam described himself as a member of the congregation who served as a liaison to emergency services and the school district. He is married and has three sons who attend Aurora Borealis Charter School. He said he has worked in information technology his entire career and is now responsible for IT operations at Central Peninsula Hospital.

Although he said he has worked throughout the Lower 48, Elam said the Kenai Peninsula is where he wants to live and raise his family.

“This is my home, this is what I love, this is why I run.”

Different views on education

The repeated conversation about funding education “has been a problem,” Elam said. He said he supports a “sensible and responsible” permanent increase in the amount of money schools receive per student, the base allotment for students.

The Legislature’s reliance on one-time appropriations, he said, means the money isn’t as effective as it needs to be.

“You can’t hire teachers with a one-time fund,” he said.

Hillyer said he does not support increasing the BSA. He said the state spends more than the national average on education when test scores are below the national average.

“We need to address the construct first before we pour more money into the problem,” he said.

The solution, he said, is school choice. He wants to “relieve the administrative burden” on charter schools and promote the development of additional schools. He would also like to see more investment in the correspondence program.

Elam said he supports school choice — he was homeschooled himself and his sons attend a charter school — but he is concerned about the discussion about accountability in schools because those conversations can lead to school closures. Communities need their schools, he said.

“I’m not so sure you can designate a good teacher by law,” Elam said. “I think you can recruit and retain good teachers.”

Containing the wave of emigration

The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said in September that the state has had more residents leaving than arriving for 12 years in a row.

This migration trend, Elam said, is “almost at crisis levels.” He said younger people “don’t necessarily feel like they have a lot of options here.” To combat that trend, he said he would like to see more career and technical training opportunities, renewed resource development and more accessible housing for people in their 20s.

“If my boys leave I don’t mind, that’s their decision – I don’t want them to feel like they have to,” he said.

Hillyer pointed out that the decline in Alaska’s gross domestic product is a sign that the state’s economy is “going downhill.” With that decline, he said, unemployment is rising and people are leaving the state.

“What we need to do is stimulate,” he said.

This, Hillyer says, looks like a revival of natural resource production, spurred by relaxed regulations.

Looking at a pipeline

It is this effort to “step back as a government and let the free market system thrive,” Hillyer said, that can best respond to a projected natural gas shortage on the Kenai Peninsula and elsewhere in Alaska’s rail belt.

Hillyer said he would like to see passage of a bill from the last legislative session that would have provided royalty relief for Cook Inlet producers as well as other reductions in regulatory measures. In the long term, the North Slope to Nikiski natural gas pipeline needs support, he said.

Elam reiterated the idea that the government “needs to get out of the way.” He said he would like to see resource development in Cook Inlet in addition to building the pipeline. Lawmakers, he said, should consult with stakeholders to support development.

In any scenario, even the possibility of importing natural gas, Elam wants to see the Kenai Peninsula as a key location for any terminals, proposed pipeline or other energy development.

Fiscal futures

It is this idea of reducing regulation and incentivizing the private sector that Elam saw as part of the solution to securing Alaska’s financial future. The state, said Elam, must become a better business partner. Encouraging long-term investment, he said, “would really allow our state to move forward.”

Repeated questions around education and the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend are “sucking the air out of the room,” he said. The PFD, he said, should either be enshrined in the Constitution or addressed in some other significant way.

Hillyer said he wants to see the PFD enshrined in the Constitution and he wants “accountability for past, present or future spending.” That means, he said, introducing “performance-based spending,” in which a spending cap is tied to the state’s gross domestic product, so the budget is smaller when the economy isn’t booming.

He also advocated for a “Sunset Commission” to “aggressively” evaluate government agencies and determine whether they are useful – if not, “they will be terminated.”

A full recording of the forum can be found on the Peninsula Clarion Facebook page or as the “Kenai Conversation” on kdll.org or podcast services.

Contact reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Alaska House of Representatives candidate for District 8 Bill Elam speaks during the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM candidate forum at the Soldotna Public Library on Monday, October 21, 2024, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)

Alaska House of Representatives candidate for District 8 John Hillyer speaks during the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM candidate forum at the Soldotna Public Library on Monday, October 21, 2024, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)