A few lines in Senate President Kevin Meyer's Sunday commentary actually made me spit up a bit: "After hearing a 'budget first' mantra all year, the governor chose to include issues on the special session ranging from insurance to foster care guidelines. These issues are important but are they urgent compared to addressing the $4.1 billion deficit and impending flurry of pink slips?" Meyer goes on to moan and whine about how it's all the fault of the governor and the Democrats despite the fact that his party controls both Alaska Houses.
So let's take a look at some reality here. If in fact Meyer has been hearing a budget-first mantra all year, why don't we have a budget? Lest there be any doubt, all of us here in the hinterlands heard that mantra. We simply couldn't figure out how supposedly intelligent legislators managed to work for four months and still come up looking surprised that they accomplished absolutely nothing.
But let's move on to another issue raised by Meyer, the issue of the foster care bill placed on the special session agenda. Now why do you suppose that was necessary? Could this be another piece of their job that our legislators were simply unable to do?
Turns out, both the House and Senate are solidly behind House Bill 27. It already passed the House and had all the votes needed to pass the Senate. Just one little glitch — it went to Charlie Huggins, chair of the Senate Rules Committee, and never was seen again. Given that between them Meyer and Huggins determine what actually gets to the Senate floor for a vote, that was a death knell for the bill.
So clearly the question we need to ask is why. Why would they hold up a bill in committee with zero budgetary impact that would set up guidelines for kids in foster care to move them through the system more rapidly and get them into a permanent situation more quickly? Because that's what this bill does. It doesn't ask for funds to implement its requirements, it doesn't ask for more staff, more equipment or even for trash cans that salute social workers as they pass. It's a bill to make life a little better for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
As best anyone can tell, the only reason Huggins and Meyer held this bill up, despite knowing it had overwhelming support and would take all of 10 minutes of the Senate's time to pass, is that they made some pact with the devil to see that no bill introduced by a Democrat was ever going to see the light of day. Which leads me to then wonder what sort of people are these men who would make a political point at the expense of foster kids. Seriously, what human being does that and then sleeps with a clear conscience?
Foster kids obviously are not a huge voting bloc and, perhaps more to the point, they don't have much money to dump into the campaign coffers of these politicians. So targeting them holds little consequence for Meyer or Huggins. But it holds great consequences for these children. For kids waiting to find a home, a family, someone who will care if they are out late, this bill is critical. It could make a difference in the rest of their lives. It mandates that courts and social workers must make every effort at permanent placement for these kids so they don't wander lost in the system until one day they're told they've aged out and have to leave.
But this is something that Huggins and Meyer apparently don't get. They chose partisanship over statesmanship, being bullies over being legislators. They should be ashamed of themselves. The vote on this bill would take precious little time, time the Legislature seems to feel it has in abundance given how little else it's been doing.
I can't believe this needs to be said but for God's sake, pass this bill. Do at least one decent thing in a legislative session that has seen little else in the way of honorable behavior.
Elise Patkotak's latest book, "Coming Into the City," is available at AlaskaBooksandCalendars.com and at local bookstores.
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