Take back money for megaprojects
Is it ironic or infuriating that the same legislators who voted for the largest capital budgets in Alaska's history are in effect looking for loose change in their office couches to find token programs to cut? $180,000 for Farm to School food, $1 million cut in public art, $4 million cut in public broadcasting. Most fourth graders can figure out that getting $300 million in production taxes from the oil companies, while paying $700 million in tax credits to the most profitable companies on Earth, is a guaranteed way to go broke quickly!
After last week's testimony from David Teal (the Legislature's top budget expert) that they would still be $1 billion short in balancing the budget even if every single state agency was closed, you would hope that legislators would be focusing on where to get more money. They can start by reversing past mistakes, and "clawback" money from megaprojects that Gov. Walker was smart enough to put on hold: Knik Arm bridge: $55 million; Susitna Dam: $10 million; Juneau Access Road: $35 million; Ambler Road: $8.5 million; Tanana Road: $6 million. That alone is enough to restore school funding that invests in Alaska's most important resource, our children.
— Bob French
Anchorage
Senate bill's passage shows that lawmakers trample voters' intent
The recent passage of Senate Bill 30 is a lesson on just how much respect most of our senators have for the will of their electorate. While sticking very closely to the "letter" of Ballot Measure 2, taken as a whole the bill is directly opposed to the "spirit" of the adopted ballot measure.
I would like to thank Sens. Ellis, Gardner and Wielechowski for having the courage to oppose this bill, and to a lesser degree Sens. Egan and Olson for supporting amendments that could have fixed some of the bill's problems.
I could go on at length about the ways that CSSB30(FIN) trampled the intent of the voters, but in the interest of brevity I will contain my remarks to the portion that actually contradicts the "letter" of the adopted ballot measure.
Page 19, Section 30 prohibits the operation of cannabis businesses in the "unorganized borough" of Alaska. This is a direct contravention of 17.38.090(a). Furthermore, it would appear that the drafters knew this. Page 1, Section 1 and Page 2, Section 2, contain a rather flimsy legal defense of Section 30.
I'm a construction hand, not a lawyer, but the inclusion of Section 30 appears, to me, to be a repeal "in part" of an adopted ballot measure. Until two years pass, this is prohibited by the Alaska Constitution. Can the state really afford to battle this out in the courts with a $3.5 billion deficit hanging over our head?
Legal issues aside, is this really the best way to "protect" rural areas from themselves? Do they even want or need the state government's protection? The adopted ballot measure provides a method for communities and villages to decide this issue on their own. Sen. Kelly's statement that Alaskans didn't understand what they were voting for is insulting in the extreme.
Consider also the people living along the highway corridors: the Richardson from Thompson Pass to Delta Junction, the Glenn from Glennallen to Eureka, and the Alaska from the Richardson to the Canadian border. I lived near Copper Center for a time and can tell you that jobs are hard to come by in these areas. Are all these people to be forbidden from starting a small business? Will they be forced to drive a hundred miles to town in order to legally purchase their cannabis? The end result will be a niche for the black market to survive in.
Perhaps the House will have the integrity to represent their constituency and fix this dog's breakfast. I for one am keeping a list, and when pot shops start opening I'm going to ask them to hand it out with every sale they make.
— Tim Hale
Anchorage
Where are the corporations?
I was watching the mayoral debate the other night and one of the candidates declared that there are only 14 detox beds available in Anchorage. This is hard to believe.
Which leads me to wonder: Where are the Native corporations in this scenario? Does the Native hospital have any facility for detox? Am I a racist if I think that many of the street people come from villages and have NO assistance when they try to transition to our urban culture? Do any of the Native corporations help people transition?
Break your leg and try to get an ambulance to take you to the Native hospital. Yet Brother Francis, on a shoestring budget, pays the municipality to offer sustenance to the homeless. And, yes, I know the homeless come in all colors. But where are the wealthy corporations in this stew?
Imagine if the corporations helped the Salvation Army fund Clitheroe.
— Bruce Scotland
Eagle River
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