Murkowski defends approach to federal spending questions

I disagree with your recent editorial stating that my views have not been consistent on federal spending. Please allow me to clarify the difference between must-pass annual appropriations that keep the Federal government in business, and a massive $787 billion "stimulus" bill that largely duplicated our annual appropriations.

The "stimulus" bill was supposed to be timely, targeted and temporary to jump-start our economy, but ultimately the bill turned out to be a replication of appropriations bills -- spending billions and ballooning our deficit. For this reason, I did not support duplication of an appropriations bill.

Federal law requires Congress to pass the annual appropriations bills funding the government. My press announcement was to let Alaskans know that community requests made to Senator Stevens, Congressman Young and myself, that were vetted and went through regular order in the Appropriations Committee in June 2008, were ultimately funded.

As part of this annual process, last year I was presented with a question of whether to retain specific projects for Alaska contained in these appropriations bills. A decision not to support these projects could have resulted in Alaska missing out on nearly $200 million in funding. The decision for me was simple. I put Alaska first.

-- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Washington D.C.

Alaska can lead in clean energy

President Obama's economic recovery package includes the greatest investment in clean energy and energy efficiency in history. Through the State Energy Program and Weatherization Assistance Program, Alaska will be able to invest an additional $47 million in renewable energy, building upgrades and weatherization projects. Overall, Obama's stimulus package is estimated to create or save 3.5 millions good-paying jobs. According to the White House, 8,000 of these jobs will be in Alaska. Instead of sending jobs overseas, we'll create them here at home. Instead of being among the world's worst producers of climate change pollution, we will start to lead the world in the production of clean, renewable energy.

While we applaud Senator Begich and the other leaders who acted fast and made the right decisions, we hope that Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young will come to see the benefits of this package aimed at moving us towards a clean energy future. We hope to work with all of Alaska's representatives to move closer to a clean energy economy by next passing a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

-- Kate Troll

Executive Director of the Alaska Conservation Alliance.

Anchorage

Credit card firms break contracts

My faith in the American system of business is shattered. I am 56 years old, have built four of my own homes and have never defaulted on any loans. Having paid my credit card bills on time for years I am now rewarded with increased interest rates on all of them.

What does a "fixed" interest rate mean to the credit card companies? I guess they can "fix" the rate any way they wish at any time. At the very least these credit companies should be liable for false advertising.

This is a huge problem and should be addressed along with all the bailout monies being spent to bolster the economy. I am fortunate to be able to pay these credit cards off completely and am doing so. I will never use a credit card again until the companies are restricted from increasing their interest rates at a whim. Is anyone else as disappointed as I?

-- Jim Mikesell

Anchor Point

American Legion applauds Begich

The American Legion applauds Sen. Mark Begich for supporting S. 423, Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009. This legislation is supported by nearly every major veterans' service organization in the United States. When enacted, S. 423 will help achieve timely, predictable and sufficient VA medical care funding.

-- David Rehbein, national commander

Washington, D.C

All benefit from educated workers

I have been a small business owner in Anchorage for 18 years. My wife and I own our own home in addition to our business, so I pay plenty in property taxes. Even though we no longer have school-aged children, I am proud to support our school district with my tax dollars.

Our economy depends on a well-educated work force. Thirty years ago, there were jobs available for people who had only an eighth-grade education. Those jobs have almost all disappeared. Now almost every decent job requires both a high school diploma and at least some post-high school training or education. Businesses depend on local government to keep turning out qualified high school graduates so they can maintain their workforces. It is not good for our economy if companies move out of Anchorage because they cannot find enough employees here.

The children we are educating today will be the doctors, teachers, plumbers, electricians and mechanics of tomorrow. If we don't pay for their education, who will? We cannot have a society in which only the children of the wealthy can afford to receive the basic education needed to hold a decent job. And without a doubt, education is expensive. But as the cliche says, ignorance is even more expensive.

-- Acey H. Fuller, Owner

Arctic Rainmakers Inc.

Anchorage.

Slaughtering predators in parks will kill big reason tourists visit

Over the objection of the National Park Service, the Alaska Board of Game has taken aim at brown bears and wolves in Alaska's national preserves. The board wants to unnaturally decrease predation and increase moose and caribou for human consumption.

For example, game management units at Wrangell-St. Elias and Katmai National Preserves have seen bag limits increase from five wolves per regulatory year in 1993 to 10 wolves per year in 2003. At Denali National Preserve, the bag limits for bears have increased from one bear every four years in 1993 to two bears per year in 2005.

This intensive management is permitted by state law but is not allowed on National Park Service-managed lands.

Intensive management clearly threatens the natural balance of our parklands. It also threatens to hurt our local economies, many of which rely on tourism revenue from visitors to Alaska that come to view our wildlife such as brown bears and wolves.

According to National Park Service research, out-of-town visitors spent more than $49 million on recreation, lodging and other services at Denali National Park and Preserve alone in 2007. If tourists find they can no longer see the bears and wolves that Alaska is so famous for, park visitation may decline and this powerful driver for our local economies will suffer.

The nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association is asking the Alaska Board of Game to roll back hunting regulations on national preserve lands to pre-intensive management levels in order to preserve healthy populations of bears and wolves, and ensure the viability of our tourism-driven local economies.

-- Jim Stratton

National Parks Conservation Association

Anchorage

Fairness Doctrine isn't censorship

Regarding Paul Jenkins' diatribe against the Fairness Doctrine, it takes the weird twisted illogic of a right-wing nut to equate the fairness doctrine with censorship. The reason right-wing talk radio rails against the Fairness Doctrine is that it would put them out of business. They are afraid of open and free debate. They couldn't withstand the examination, and their commentary would be exposed as the mean-sprited flatulence it is.

The Fairness Doctrine censors no one. It does require journalistic integrity. One day our society will progress to the point where we have no need for those windbags, their ratings will disappear, and they vanish from the airways, but until then lets put some meat on the notion of fair and balanced.

-- Don Miller

Anchorage

Hello? State already has gambling

Just received my 2009 Rondy Guide in the Sunday News and saw the announcement of yet another nonprofit "lottery" sale (this time to raise dough for Fur Rondy). I'm sure it will be a success just like its predecessor as folks generally like to spend a little ($5/ticket in this case) to win a lot ($50,000).

Yet the state refuses to get into the lottery business as our legislators believe it leads down that slippery slope path to hard-core gambling. Let's face it -- we already have gambling in this state via the nonprofits and the pull-tabs. Wake up and smell the coffee. Let's have a state-sanctioned lottery with some real monetary prizes and reserve some of the money to distribute to the nonprofits. It will work and nobody is going to go broke buying a $1 lottery ticket once a week for a chance at a million.

-- Joe Delia