Correction: An earlier version used preliminary results for the primary election between Brent Johnson and Sarah Vance. In official results, Johnson had 3,682 votes or 56.87% of the total and Vance had 2,792 votes or 43.13% of the total.

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, and Brent Johnson, both candidates in the House District 6 race, further defined themselves on key issues during a forum led by the Homer Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday, with questions from chamber director Brad Anderson, the Homer Independent Press and Peninsula Radio Group.

Both Vance and Johnson agreed on Alaska’s need for a fiscal plan, healthy fisheries and sustainable education funding in last week’s forum. But their approaches to resolve several key issues differed. 

Vance is a Republican Homer resident who was first elected to her seat in 2018, beating out former representative Paul Seaton. Johnson, a lifelong Alaskan and nonpartisan candidate, previously served 12 years, three of those as president, on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. 

Johnson unsuccessfully challenged Vance for the House District 6 seat in 2024 after Vance voted to not overturn Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of increased education funding. Vance won that election by 4.6%. 

While the August primary’s vote tally was symbolic, as both Vance and Johnson advanced to the November general election. In official results, Johnson led with 57% of the vote to 43% for Vance.

Growing state revenue

A fiscal conservative, Vance stated early in the forum that she continues to oppose a state income tax. However, she expressed flexibility on proposed measures such as a 2% statewide sales tax, which she said so far has the most legislative support.

“I oppose taxes in all forms, but if it comes with an entire package of a fiscal plan that we can all squeal a little bit, then that’s something I can support,” Vance said.

Johnson supported closing the loophole that allows large S corporations like Hilcorp to avoid paying corporate state income tax as both a revenue generator and a way to “make it level across the board.” But he opposed a state sales tax, calling it more regressive than an income tax.

Further on revenue generation, Johnson also mentioned reevaluating the per barrel credit for oil companies operating North Slope legacy fields and other tax revenue sources related to resource development.

“Mining is very weak on paying taxes in Alaska. Maybe they can do a little better,” he said. 

Bridging the gap for natural gas

Both Vance and Johnson agreed the Alaska LNG pipeline must be built to provide natural gas to Alaskans and increase state revenue. However, the Legislature has yet to pass a bill advancing the project, and pipeline construction and gas production is years off. Meanwhile, Southcentral Alaska still seeks a solution to the looming natural gas shortage. 

ENSTAR has said demand could outpace supply as soon as this winter. BlueCrest Energy, a Cook Inlet producer, should start producing gas next spring, and Hilcorp says they have enough gas stored to supply winter demand, according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News. 

But, ADN reported, providing that gas will require contract restructuring between Hilcorp and ENSTAR, an effort which the utility’s vice president said raises “complicated questions” about gas prices and other issues.

Vance unequivocally opposed importing natural gas, saying it’s hard to close that door once it’s been opened. Instead, she supports continued development of Cook Inlet natural gas and suggested the state “may need to look at some temporary royalty reductions” to “level the playing field” for Cook Inlet producers and support economic viability of gas production. 

Johnson also supports development of Cook Inlet gas as the cheapest option, but said realistically, the state will likely need to import gas to bridge the gap before the North Slope pipeline’s construction. 

Both candidates said they were in favor of pursuing alternative energy sources now to support the Railbelt, but that new renewable energy development won’t be able to fill the immediate gap caused by the natural gas shortfall. 

“It’s simply not viable to put something online that fast,” Vance said. “But we should keep them in motion so that we don’t get in this situation again.” 

Providing for education and public employees

On education, both candidates said the current system is broken. Johnson said inadequate pay and benefits for educators leads to high turnover in schools, and proposed moving back to a defined benefit retirement plan for public employees, including teachers.

Vance said one of the larger issues facing Kenai Peninsula Borough School District employees is the high cost of healthcare. 

“When it comes to the school district, I’m going to continue to introduce the bill that would give the option for the school to consolidate its healthcare with the state of Alaska plan. This has the potential to save $6-8 million per year to the school district, and thousands for each individual employee,” she said.

Vance also said the Legislature needs to fix the base-student allocation, but did not elaborate on how. A joint task force created last year is expected to bring recommendations on a wide range of financial challenges and school policies prior to the 35th Legislature convening in January.

“(They’re) looking at what it is we need to turn those dials in there,” she said.

Johnson also called for increased distance education as a way to unify what he called Alaska’s “dual education system” and bridge the gap between curriculum demand and staff availability. 

The KPBSD is experiencing a steady decline in enrollment, due in part to parents shifting from public schools to homeschooling. Homeschool students are currently permitted to enroll part-time in Alaska’s public schools; Johnson said he’d like to see more of that.

“Distance education has been cut because of funding problems. I think we ought to offer more distance education, because we can’t offer enough teachers to take care of the classes that the students want to take,” he said. “I want to have homeschools provided what they need and public schools provided what they need and bring them together whenever we can.”

Discussion on education funding led into a debate on defined benefits.

Unlike defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans are funded primarily by the employer and provide a specified payment amount upon retirement. Defined contribution plans carry less risk for employers because employees contribute part of their paycheck to an investment account like a 401(k). The employee’s retirement fund can fluctuate, as it is ultimately based on those contributions plus or minus investment gains or losses. 

The state stopped offering defined benefit pensions to new public employees in 2006, after the system accrued a multi-billion dollar shortfall that was misreported by a state actuary. That debt is currently expected to be paid off in 2039. Supporters of restoring the pension argue that the current system makes it difficult to recruit and retain state employees, while opponents are concerned about potential long-term financial liability to the state. 

“As a fiscal conservative, I cannot currently support a defined benefits plan. We are still $7 billion in debt from the previous one,” Vance said, adding that a defined contribution plan allowed for higher flexibility in the job market, rather than locking an employee into one position for years. 

Instead, she offered low workplace satisfaction and noncompetitive wages as higher-priority issues to address.

“When you focus on that workplace, when you focus on the needs of their mental health for some of these really high-stress jobs and making sure they have the flexibility to enjoy the Alaska that they live in, then everything else is going to pencil out,” she said. 

Johnson noted that Alaska is the only state providing a defined contribution plan.

“We should change over, because we surely can be smart enough to figure out, like the other states, a way to make defined benefits work. The key is for the legislature to put enough money into it to make it work,” he said. “That’s what (state workers) are asking for.” 

Fisheries and ranked choice voting

On the Cook Inlet fisheries, Vance advocated for increased accountability of the Alaska Board of Fisheries through legislation.

Johnson called for studies of Kenai River salmon — specifically a smolt outmigration study, in addition to the usual escapement counts — to better enable fishery managers to forecast salmon returns.

“The spawning factor can be up or down by a lot, and the overwinter survival in a lake … is tremendously different from year to year,” he said. “If you do a smolt outmigration, the managers are going to find out two years earlier if you’ve got a problem.”

Near the end of the forum, both candidates were asked their positions on ranked choice voting.

Ballot Measure 2, included in the November ballot, will ask voters whether the state should keep or repeal open primaries, ranked-choice voting general elections, and campaign finance provisions that require candidates to disclose sources of political contributions. A “yes” vote repeals the current system and a “no” vote keeps it in place.

Johnson is a “solid no” on Ballot Measure 2, expressing particular favor toward open primaries and dark money disclosure. 

“I’m a nonpartisan voter…. I want to have an open primary so I can vote R, D or N. I think it’s crazy that, as a nonpartisan, I should be paying for an election that I don’t get to participate in,” he said.

Vance, in turn, is a “solid yes” and said voter turnout has gone down since the adoption of RCV “because people are overwhelmed by the size of the ballot.”

Voter turnout in southern Kenai Peninsula precincts in August increased by more than 10% compared to the 2024 primary election.

Watch the chamber’s House District 6 forum recording on the Homer Chamber of Commerce website.

The next forum, for Homer City Council candidates, will be held 5:30-7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Kachemak Bay Campus. 

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.