By SUZANNE DOWNING
May 20, 2026 – While Alaska’s long-sought-after natural gas pipeline hangs somewhere between legislative paralysis and political hostage-taking, the Alaska Legislature has managed to deliver something else to the people of the state besides the giant cabbage as the official state vegetable: Expanded legalized snow-guessing.
Yes, really.
At the same time lawmakers failed to get meaningful Alaska LNG legislation across the finish line this session, they successfully passed House Bill 50, a measure expanding “snow classics” — games in which participants guess the amount of snow accumulation at a certain location and time in hopes of winning prize money.
Because apparently what Alaska needed in 2026 was not an 800-mile gas pipeline to monetize North Slope gas and provide long-term economic stability, but more opportunities to gamble on snow depth.
Legislature names Alaska’s official vegetable: Giant cabbage
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Sara Hannan of Juneau, removes restrictions that previously limited snow classics to a specific site on Mount Alyeska and to administration by Four Valleys Community School. Under HB 50, municipalities and qualified nonprofit organizations around the state can now conduct their own snow-guessing contests as fundraising events.
In her sponsor statement, Hannan described the bill as a way to allow more organizations to raise money for “worthy causes.” The permits would continue to be administered through the Department of Revenue’s Tax Division.
The bill sailed through the Senate on Wednesday with only Juneau’s Sen. Jesse Kiehl voting against it. It now heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for signature or veto.
And there, in a nutshell, is the modern Alaska Legislature.
A state facing declining oil throughput, budget instability, looming fiscal gaps, infrastructure challenges, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to commercialize stranded North Slope gas somehow found the time, energy, committee hearings, staff work, floor votes, and political consensus to create a statewide snow-lottery framework.
But the gasline? Still stalled, waiting for side deals, poison pills, and political gamesmanship. There will be a special session dedicated to the gasline starting Thursday.
Legislators spent the final days of session turning Alaska LNG legislation into a Christmas tree of unrelated provisions, procedural warfare, and ideological squabbling. One amendment even attempted to impose state-directed pricing controls on Alaska natural gas. Another inserted borough-specific tax negotiation language serious enough to trigger veto threats from the governor.
The result is no major gasline breakthrough, despite overwhelming public support for the project and repeated warnings from industry leaders that legislative dysfunction sends terrible signals to investors and international buyers.
But at least Alaskans may soon be able to buy tickets to guess snowfall totals in Wasilla, Nome, Fairbanks, or Juneau.
These are not serious people.
This is a Legislature that can designate a giant cabbage as the state vegetable, expand snow-betting games, and spend endless hours posturing in “at ease” recesses while transformational economic projects die by procedural suffocation.
The founders of the country pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.
The Alaska Legislature pledged a cabbage and a snow lottery. You can’t make this stuff up.
Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.
4 thoughts on “Suzanne Downing: We have state vegetable, a new snow lottery, but no gasline legislation”
Load the shotgun with more shells, intently focused on your aim down the long barrel, and keep shooting yourself in the foot one shot after another!
A complete absence of: Logic, Reason, and Common Sense.
The least they could do is get rid of Daylight Savings Time, I’d give them some credit for doing something worthwhile if they were to do that…of course they will probably screw that up too and put the whole state on Pacific Time.
The Alaska State Legislature:
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A gaggle of dumb clucks.
The state food is now sauerkraut. But it does produce an aftermath. Ask Giessel. She lives on sauerkraut. Her photos support this.