Opinions

Dingman: Alaskans in government should buy a clue instead of luxury junkets and consultants

So, this week, I suppose I should be outraged that Gov. Bill Walker spent $50,000 to hire consultants ahead of President Obama's trip to Alaska.

I just can't get there.

Granted, I did write that I was upset that the Legislature spent more than $90,000 to travel to a conference in Seattle, but it wasn't the $90,000 total that bothered me so much as the outrageous individual costs that staffers clearly spent with no concern as to how those expenditures would play in the public sphere.

The problem is when they were booking $400-a-night hotels, renting cars to drive around downtown, summoning Uber Black, hailing taxis and eating steak and lobster, or whatever it is they did in Seattle, the budget crunch was clearly the last thing on their mind. They had to know that the Alaska Dispatch News, or some other media outlet, would get a breakdown of what they spent.

When state government spends $90,000 here and $50,000 there, it's true that it adds up, but it doesn't really add up to much in the scope of a $4 billion budget gap. However, optics matter. This Legislature and the governor want you to believe that they are serious about controlling spending and finding revenues to pull the state out of the fiscal hole we are in.

Now don't get me wrong. There are many hardworking legislators and staffers in both legislative offices and the governor's office. Many of them work late into the dark, cold Juneau hours and arrive early in the cold, dark Juneau hours trying to figure out innovative ways to work out of this fiscal calamity we have worked ourselves into.

When I read about legislative staffers staying in hotel rooms that cost more than $400 a night, it reminded me of traveling for the university and staying in rooms that cost less than half of that -- and sharing the room. It still startles me that nobody considered the optics of the cost per person for a conference in Seattle when they were clicking "yes" to these extravagant hotel prices. Of course when you make over $90,000 a year and in some cases over $100,000 a year, and nobody can really explain your job duties in a lot of instances, you might feel entitled to a luxurious hotel room on the state's dime.

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So, in that sense, you can add me to the list of finger-pointers. I'm OK with that. I'm not perfect; in fact quite often I'm part of the problem. I have absolutely no problem admitting that. However, I'm not spending a dime of the state's money along the way. And what's more, I have offered solutions along the way, including a suggestion that the Legislature should seriously consider Frank Murkowski's Percent of Market Value Plan.

In Gov. Murkowski's opinion piece earlier this year he said, "If the Senate had approved the POMV plan in 2004, we might have had as much as $2.5 billion to fund education in the FY 2016 budget and $2.5 billion to distribute in the Permanent Fund dividend for all Alaskans."

In 2004, I could not figure out why legislators were not tripping over themselves to make sure this plan was put into place. Today it boggles my mind that the entire Legislature is just humdrumming through this budget crisis and seems far more interested in scoring political points rather than fixing the mess that they put us in.

Let's remember that most of these legislators are not new. The leadership in the Senate boasts Senate President Kevin Meyer who has been in the Legislature since he took office in the State House in 2001 and Majority Leader John Coghill who took office in the State House in 1999. On the House side Mike Chenault, the longest running House Speaker in Alaska history, has been in office since 2001 and speaker since 2009. The junior member of the group is Majority Leader Charisse Millett, elected in 2009.

These folks aren't here trying to fix someone else's problem -- they caused the problem in the first place.

So with leaders like Andrew Halcro, Ralph Samuels, Ethan Berkowitz, Arliss Sturgulewski and other great Alaskan leaders gone from Juneau who would stand up and speak truth to power, even when they refused to hear it, we sit here stymied, stuck with mediocre leadership at best, and wondering just how good that steak and lobster in Seattle really were.

Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late '90s. Email him at michaeldingman@)gmail.com.

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@alaskadispatch.com.

Mike Dingman

Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late '90s.

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