Alaska Dispatch News columnist Charles Wohlforth has pronounced Gov. Bill Walker courageous.
If courage were dropping a dozen raw eggs on the floor and then cleaning up the mess, this observer would agree.
But that's not courage.
What's courageous about blaming the Legislature because it refused to tax Alaskans in nearly a dozen different categories the governor had demanded in December?
In his New Sustainable Alaska Plan, Walker had proposed to tax Alaskans who bother to get up and go to work in the morning. He planned to tax those who stop by the local pub for a pint after work. He proposed to tax them, via medical taxes, when they get sick. He would tax them when they put fuel in their cars, boats and planes to get to a doctor. He wanted to tax miners more for the rocks they break and fishermen more for the fish they catch.
His proposals would have taken money from private sector Alaskans and yet hold state workers basically harmless, with extremely minor concessions made last year with cost of living allowances and a minor furlough.
What's courageous about not tackling contracts? Or the cost-driving social and education formulas that make sustainability the impossible unicorn that it has become?
What's courageous about taking up to $700 million from Alaskans while reducing actual agency spending by less than $200 million (see governor's press release)?
Courage would have been shown if Gov. Bill Walker had presented a budget in December that significantly reduced government spending.
[Video: Gov. Bill Walker announces vetoes, PFD cut]
Instead, his initial budget proposal actually increased spending year over year.
Walker dug his feet in, saying the budget was as trimmed as it could be.
That turned out not to be the case, as he showed Wednesday.
The reason why the governor has run into such resistance with everyday Alaskans comes from his own lavish spending habits, including his consultants hired to work on his newest version of the gas line:
— He hired Rigdon Boykin at $120,000 a month – a $1.2 million deal for his old friend from Walker's failed Alaska Natural Gas Port Authority.
— He hired Radoslav Shipkoff, a financial adviser based in Washington, D.C., for $100,000 a month to advise his office on how to finance the Walker gas line.
— He fired a $366,000 Alaskan at the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and replaced him with a Texan whom he pays a $550,000 base salary and $200,000 in bonuses.
None of that is in the category of courage. We're talking about spending and choices.
When former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan came into office, he inherited a $17 million deficit left for him by his predecessor, Mark Begich.
Sullivan immediately went to the people of Anchorage and told them the facts and that an austerity approach was essential. The first thing he did was to freeze travel and new hiring.
When he term-limited out of office six years later, he left his successor, Ethan Berkowitz, with a cushion of more than $2 million. In addition, during those six years, Sullivan moved the bond rating of the city to AAA, the first time in Anchorage history.
Contrast that with Gov. Walker, who refused to make the needed cuts during his first year in office, then doubled down in his second-year proposed budget. During his 18 months in office, all three rating agencies have lowered the state's bond rating.
Plenty of Alaskans can live through this year without half of their Permanent Fund dividends, which is where Gov. Walker made his most significant cuts.
But there are other Alaskans – lower income and middle income – who are going to take a big hit. This hit to their pocketbook is on the governor, and the Democrats who maneuvered him into office.
In fact, it was the Alaska Democratic Party that abandoned their own candidate in 2014 and threw their full faith and support behind Gov. Walker. He could not have ascended to office without them. Led by union boss Vince Beltrami, they own this governor, and as much as they are trying to disassociate from him now, they also own the new 50 percent tax on every Alaskan's Permanent Fund dividend.
Republicans have called for steep cuts to government during this time of austerity.
If the governor was truly the independent he claims to be, he would have heeded the call for smaller government. There would have been no need for a special session in May. Legislators would not have to come to Juneau for another special session on July 11.
Walker is cleaning up the eggs he broke last year. We can applaud him for getting the goo off the floor, but let's not lionize him.
Suzanne Downing is communication director of the Alaska Republican Party.