The most troubling element about the November 2014 election is the manipulation of information and truth. For starters, Dan Sullivan is running for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat regardless of the fact that he was not truthful about his length of residency on his declaration of candidacy. He said he had been here 17 years; yet, in 2010 he applied for and received a non-resident Alaska fishing license. The Director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, Robert E. Young, has formally determined Sullivan was a resident of Maryland in 2013, when he collected tax breaks on his million dollar home.
It is difficult to know if he is really a resident or if he is just passing through Alaska to run for the U.S.Senate seat? Candidate Sullivan's campaign is loaded with outside money from his billionaire family members and several ultra-rightwing interest groups. This money is being used to distort the truth about Mark Begich's record as Anchorage Mayor and as U.S. senator. I have known Mark Begich for more than 40 years. I served on the Anchorage Assembly when he was mayor. We didn't always agree. However, it seems critical to shed light on the misinformation that candidate Sullivan's Senate campaign team is using to discredit Begich's record as mayor.
Distorting Begich's record is not new. The other Dan Sullivan (the one who is mayor and who actually is an Alaskan resident) has been pounding on Sen. Begich for the past 5 years, blaming the senator for everything but the weather. This has resulted in what Steven Colbert calls "truthiness" (something that is not true, but is repeated so often it sounds true) and truthiness is at the heart of Senate candidate Sullivan's negative attacks on Begich.
The truth about Mark Begich is that he is an effective and hardworking Senator for Alaska and was a great mayor of Anchorage. As mayor he created public, private and nonprofit partnerships that revitalized the city. He initiated and built the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center at no cost to the taxpayers. He oversaw the creation of the downtown and Midtown development strategies that accelerated vibrant economic development and created attractive urban spaces. He built new roads and improved roads, schools, parks and trails throughout the Municipality. In Mountain View, Sen. Begich set in motion community development strategies and partnerships that have and will continue to transform the commercial district, replace dilapidated housing with attractive new homes, and create jobs. He supported Boys and Girls clubs, afterschool programs and worked to expand youth and community centers throughout the city's neighborhoods.
Sullivan's Senate Campaign attacks on Begich are born in Mayor Dan Sullivan's years of budget-political tricky business. It is important to understand how Mayor Sullivan manipulated the budget. The Anchorage Municipal Tax Cap limits the amount of taxes that can be collected every year to cover the cost of services. It is calculated by adding the amount of all taxes collected the prior year and then adjusts for inflation, population, tax on new construction, voter-approved debt service and operation and maintenance costs. Year after year, before the tax cap was set, Mayor Sullivan used millions of dollars of state money to pay for municipal expenditures that had previously been within the tax cap. This artificially lowered the cap. (In sharp contrast, Mayor Begich used that state money as direct tax rebates to taxpayers.) By lowering the tax cap, Mayor Sullivan created a deficit in the following years because the tax cap was not high enough to pay for the budgeted costs of basic, ongoing, public services.
Mayor Sullivan's efforts continued to drop the tax cap lower and lower thereby creating ongoing deficits. He then held press conferences and used his "truthiness" to blame his deficits on Begich. Mayor Sullivan used these self-inflicted deficits to attack unions, shrink municipal services (like snow removal and park maintenance and public health programs), cut police and fire funding and discredit Begich. Mayor Sullivan transferred $3 million of municipal costs to the Anchorage School District, which contributed to ASD's reduction of approximately 500 positions over five years. His strategy led to 15 to 20 percent less Anchorage Police Department funding and a significantly reduced capacity in the APD to police traffic, street-level drugs, vice and to staff other specialized crime units. Due to the reduction in benefits and ongoing stress on the department, the APD is not able to attract new recruits and many officers have left the department.
When Mayor Begich took office he faced a large budget deficit (a fact left out of the Sullivan attack ads). Instead of blaming others, Begich worked with the Assembly to eliminate that deficit. He then, over six years, passed six balanced budget resolutions that both parties on the Assembly supported. As Assembly members, Mayor Dan Sullivan and I both voted for those budgets.
Mayor Begich moved Anchorage forward. He made Anchorage a safer and better place to live and work. By national standards APD was under staffed, so Begich added dozens of cops and first responders. He supported our schools and addressed gang and youth violence. He created public and private economic investments that resulted in jobs and a vibrant economy.
As a senator he continues to do great work for Alaskans, and no amount of truthiness can change that. He is a member of five key Senate committees: Appropriations; Indian Affairs; Veteran Affairs; Commerce; Homeland Security and Government Affairs. He chairs the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard subcommittee and is a member of 12 other Senate subcommittees. Sen. Begich secures billions of dollars in funding and resources for Alaska. He stands up for Alaskan values and works hard every day to forward and protect Alaska's interests. His senate seniority positions him to do even more for us in the future.
Don't be fooled by false claims, truthiness and outside money. Sen. Begich was a great mayor and is an excellent senator. He has earned our trust and our vote.
Sheila Selkregg is a former member of the Anchorage Assembly and former city planner.
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, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com