Opinions

Alaska politicians should stop pointing fingers and use them to plug the budget leak

For the past several years, I have been advocating for better fiscal policies in our state. But now I'm seeing some of our elected leaders (on both sides) spending more time blaming each other for our fiscal situation than they are trying to solve it. We need to do better before we go broke. On Wednesday, before the deal was reached on a new budget $3.2 billion short of revenue, I received an email from the Alaska Republican Party. Part of the email included the following:

Our Republican legislators need to hear from us TODAY.

Democrats are pushing hard for more and more spending, and they've enlisted the governor to pile on the add-backs to the budget. The fact is, our legislators are not hearing from those of us who truly believe in fiscal responsibility. And they need to hear our voice.

How is it that so many Republican politicians, who act so fiscally irresponsible in the majority, continue getting re-elected and can even blame Democrats for the problem? Unfortunately, labels seem to be more important than results. This is a big part of the reason we have ended up in the fiscal mess we are in.

I am a registered Republican and have been for a long time. I pay attention to what is going on and care deeply about the future of Alaska. I ran for the state Senate in 2012 on a platform of getting state spending under control and developing a fiscal plan. Many, including my Republican primary opponent, who had served 12 years in the Legislature at the time, mocked me and said I was warning of a nonexistent problem. I wish I wasn't right then, but I was. Blaming this all on Democrats is inaccurate. These problems were created when Republicans had outright control or strong influence on state spending.

But we can't afford to waste any more time blaming either party for the mess. There is plenty of blame to go around. We need our leaders to meaningfully reduce the budget immediately.

During the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions, the Republicans had supermajorities (three-fourths majority) in both the Senate and House, and also controlled the governor's office. During that period, they ran up the largest deficits in state history. From 2006-2012, Republicans controlled the governor's office and the house, and the Senate had a bipartisan coalition. The oil tax system known as ACES was passed with overwhelming support in 2007, and after that, spending radically increased.

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Many millennial Republicans, like myself, care more about results and pragmatism than we do about labels and ideologies. The fiscal challenges the state faces are real. We deserve elected officials who will tell us the truth and do the right thing, not say one thing and then do the other, then blame the other side.

As a Republican, I am tired of listening to us blame our fiscal problems on the other side. I am tired of it because Republicans are just as culpable as Democrats, but mostly because the problem needs to be solved and nothing substantive is happening while we bicker. The fiscal crisis is real and so far neither side has advanced credible solutions for solving it.

We can do better and we must. If our elected representatives don't start working together, we should get new ones.

Jeff Landfield is a Republican living in Senate District L in Anchorage. He is the current chair of the Federation of Community Councils.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Jeff Landfield

Jeff Landfield was a delegate to the 2008 Alaska Republican Convention. He is currently running as a Republican for the Alaska House of Representatives in newly formed District 22. He holds a BA in history with a minor in economics from UAA. He has lived in Alaska since 2004.

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