Largely overlooked by the media in the Alaska Legislature's usual end-of-session push to pass some sort of budget was a tight vote to defeat HB 130. Actually, House members didn't reject the original bill, but rather an amended version that represents the worst of state politics. At the center of this debacle was Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel.
As originally intended, HB 130 was a simple "housekeeping measure" that would have updated and corrected the legal boundary descriptions of several state wildlife refuges and critical habitat areas. The bill passed the House in 2017 and went to the Senate. There it sat until April, when Sen. Giessel added language that would diminish the purposes and weaken the protections of our state refuges and critical habitat areas; she also expanded their formal names to also make them "hunting preserves." In short, she made several substantial changes that were unnecessary, controversial and, many of us would argue, harmful to the purpose of these special management areas. (Though hunting, like many other activities, is allowed in refuges, it is not their primary mission.) Worst of all, Sen. Giessel did so with no advance notice or public hearings.
The amended bill passed the Senate, then went to the House. On May 12, at the very end of the legislative session, House members defeated the amended HB 130 by the narrowest of margins, 20-20. I and many other Alaskans thank those who opposed Sen. Giessel's amendments, for simply doing the right thing. I would add that those senators and representatives who supported Sen. Giessel's actions should be ashamed for backing what I consider her unethical behavior.
The greatest shame, of course, should fall on Sen. Giessel herself. The problem is that she, like so many others in the Alaska Legislature, seem to feel no shame, no matter how badly they behave — just as they seem to feel no accountability to the public and the greater good, but only to the special interests they truly represent.
— Bill Sherwonit
Anchorage