Harry T. Crawford Jr, Democrat
State Senate, District N
Why are you running for office?
To help get our economy get moving again by incentivizing industry and improving educational opportunity. Alaskans can gain the knowledge needed to be competitive.
The biggest problem facing the state of Alaska is
Alaska lacks leadership with the foresight to look ahead to where we want Alaska to be, and the courage to overcome obstacles to get there.
Describe three ways in which the state should try to grow and diversify Alaska's economy
Incentivize value-added manufacturing that uses our natural resources.
Improve education for the modern economy.
Develop low cost, stably priced energy for industry that can be counted on for the long term
What amount of state spending do you believe is sustainable? If cuts need to be made, where should most of the money come from, the operations budget or the capital budget?
A. An average of the last ten years of revenue coming into the state plus approximately 6% of the market value of our Constitutional Budget Reserve. The Budget should be balanced, no more borrowing from one-time funds.
B.Cuts should be made wherever it makes sense, whether it is Operations or Capital. We need to prioritize things that enhance out way of life, like education, health, a strong economy and cut non-productive studies, and the Taj Mahal legislative offices.
What additional steps can the state take to promote construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope?
The State should issue a final decision to build, and then move forward. Invite stakeholders to bid on buying into equity ownership of the gas-line and let entities participate by what they bring to the project. The State should hire a world-class construction management firm to start and oversee the project.
The voters have chosen Senate Bill 21 or the More Alaska Production Act to generate most of the state's tax revenues. How will you determine whether this tax structure is effective? Do you think any changes should be made to the law in the upcoming legislative session?
I will be watching production figures. MAPA will tax below the world-wide average for oil producing provinces at $100 per barrel. If additional production is added, that would bring revenue totals up to what we would have originally collected, I would say the bill is marginally effective. If production is ramped up to the point where revenue is substantially enhanced I would say MAPA is effective. I will be watching closely how the new law works in practice.
The state's savings is being depleted. How low should the savings go before you begin to seriously discuss implementing a widespread tax, such as as a sales or income tax, or reducing Permanent Fund Dividend checks to help pay for services?
We should turn the lion's share of our Constitutional Budget Reserve into an endowment fund and only spend approximately 6% of the market value of the fund in any given year. We should not spend our one-time savings on yearly budgets. We should put our state on a sustainable path immediately.
Should the state subsidy program for films and reality television programs continue? Explain.
The film credit bill has been gutted so that it no longer works as envisioned. It as well as all other programs needs to be looked at from the perspective of falling oil production and much tighter budgets. In the future we have to receive revenue in return for our incentives.
Taxation on oil and gas production in Alaska is ___ (Generally higher than it should be, About right; Generally lower than it should be, other):
Below the world average for similar fields.
Taxation on other industries in Alaska is ___ (Generally higher than it should be, About right; Generally lower than it should be, other):
Below the U.S. average.
Taxation on individual citizens in Alaska is ___ (Generally higher than it should be, About right; Generally lower than it should be, other):
The lowest in the United States.
What are your specific plans to address the serious problems of leadership, morale and accountability within the Alaska National Guard?
Appoint an independent prosecutor to look into any criminality, wrong doing or cover-up. Apoint an independent commission to look into how we might do better in the future.
What are Alaska's three biggest education challenges? What is your plan to address each of them?
1. In our urban areas we have far too few teachers to do the job we expect from them. We need to re-prioritize money away from buildings and back to teachers. Our class sizes are just too large to be effective.
2. Rural schools face many challenges and are many times too small to offer the options that we expect students to have. We need to take advantage of new means of communicating and do more from centralized locations so we can get highly qualified teachers in front of students electronically when not otherwise possible.
3. We need to put extra resources toward students with challenges, whether that is homelessness, lack of language proficiency, learning disabilities or whatever presents hurdles for children to learn. We need extra classes in the evening and Saturday School for kids that are behind as well as more intensive English language classes for non-English speakers.
What are your suggestions to increase accountability of public schools?
More trained teacher observers in the classroom to monitor the effectiveness of the classroom and its teacher. Do what it takes to make that class more effective whether it is an outside distraction, a disruptive student, an ineffective teacher or some other distraction.
Would you support a constitutional amendment that would allow public funds to be spent on private or religious K-12 education? If such an amendment were to pass, would you then support voucher or some similar grant to parents of state funds that they could spend on private or religious education for their children?
I do not support public funds being spent on private or religious schools. We have many options for our students through our very robust charter school system. We have seen other states erode their public school system by diverting much needed funds to private or religious schools. Alaska needs to continue improving our system instead of abandoning it for a private system that doesn't work for the majority of our kids.
What are your plans for improving the quality of education offered through the University of Alaska system?
We need to continue to grow our University to attract more research and development, as well as attract more students so we can get some of those "economies of scale" that some other Universities enjoy. We need to attract more private and corporate funding as they also need to support the University that provides them with employees.
Do you support or oppose expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act? Explain.
Doing nothing is not an option.Whether the number of uninsured is 50,000 or 25,000 it is unacceptable.I will work with anyone that truly wants to fix our health care crisis by reducing health care costs and getting Universal health coverage for all Alaskans. We must do better by our people.
Are you confident that the current level of state environmental regulation and oversight of offshore oil and gas drilling and shipping is adequate to prevent a major spill in Alaska? If not, where are we deficient and what will you propose to achieve adequate protection?
As evidenced by the Exxon Valdez spill, or the debacle last year with our offshore drilling, it takes constant vigilance to prevent, or mitigate after the fact, an accident in the oil field. We need the best oversight we can get over our oil fields, pipelines, facilities and tankers because the consequences are just too great to try to cut corners on safety. As we were shown in the Gulf of Mexico a couple of million dollars of prevention would have prevented billions of dollars of losses.
What is your assessment of Alaska's transportation system? What, if anything, would you change?
Our transportation system is by no means mature. We have much room for improvement. I would certainly expand our railway system to tie into the Canadian system and connect it to the Ambler mining district and the port for the Red Dog Mine. I would fix the road between Girdwood and Potter Marsh as it is our most dangerous stretch of highway.
The Legislature has approved the use of state funds for four mega-projects: the Knik Arm Crossing, the Susitna-Watana dam and two gas line projects. Can the state afford all four, or should one or more be dropped? If so, which?
The large diameter pipeline should be built immediately because it wil return the needed investment back to Alaska if done right. The bullet line should be dropped. It can't be It can't be made to be economic. If the gasline is built, it would negate the need for Watana because the gas-fired generation would be much cheaper than Watana. As much as I like building dams and bridges, the case has to be made for an economic project that returns value to Alaskans commensurate to what we pay for it.
State your position on abortion. When should it be allowed, and when should government pay for it? Do you anticipate pushing any legislation, policies or budget proposals that would change the status quo in Alaska?
Nobody likes abortion. We should do all we can to prevent the need for abortion through family planning, education and access to birth control. We should strive to make every birth of a child a wanted birth. But, I will not stand between a woman and her doctor when she makes this most personal decision.
When is it appropriate to appoint a non-Alaskan to a state board or commission?
It is not appropriate to appoint a non-Alaskan to a state board or commission as long as there is a competent Alaskan available to fill that seat. I would say that incident would be rarer than hen's teeth.
Are you satisfied with the process by which judges are selected and appointed in Alaska? Explain.
I am satisfied with the process for selecting judges. I would say we have the best system in the country for keeping political influence away from our judicial system.
The number of Alaska State Troopers and Village Public Safety Officers is ____ (More than necessary, about right, less than necessary):
It is less than necessary.
If you answered more or less, what specific steps would you take to achieve the right level?
I would make sure the Department has enough money to hire an adequate number of troopers and VPSO's. We have less troopers now than we did when our population was considerably less.
Bio
Age: 62
Occupation: retired Iron Worker
Current employer: retired
Employment history:
Iron Worker 1971-2007 State Representative
2001-2010 Self-employed Landlord since
1975 Chugach Board of Directors 2011-present
Previous public offices held: Five term State Representative 2001-2011
Previous unsuccessful runs for office:
1996, 1998 unsuccessful State House race
2010 unsuccessful US Congressional race
2012 unsuccessful Senate Primary race
Postsecondary education:
Louisana State University 1970, 1978-1981
Military service: N/A
Spouse's name: Gwen
Children: Beau, Clarissa, Andrew, Trevor
Website: www.CrawfordForAlaska.com