Readers write: Letters to the editor, April 27, 2016

I am so upset! I knew that the the Legislature would not be able to do the job they were elected to in the brief time they had. They sat there for 90 days and came up with the brilliant idea to cut education and benefits to the elders in our state. Waiting until the last minute, literally, to make very important decisions for all of us in Alaska is incomprehensible! Are you kidding me? Really? Just think how many senior citizens, in our state, could benefit from a fraction of the cost of the daily amount of extra pay you are getting.

“… 5,348 participants in the Alaska Senior Benefits Payment program will have their benefits cut from $125 a month to $47,” and we are paying you $213 a day, every day to go have coffee and talk about the weather!

“The Alaska Commission on Aging encourages seniors in this tier to contact the Division of Public Assistance to see if they qualify for additional benefits like food stamps.” What? I am outraged!

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” Luke 23:34. Doesn’t that strike a chord?

— Jerry Olive

Seward

The Alaska House and Senate passed House Joint Resolution 30 overwhelmingly. The state’s recognition of post-traumatic stress injury due to trauma is a positive step in helping individuals recover.

There is a clear 30-year disconnect between the good intentions of the Legislature to protect individuals in crisis and state bureaucracies that have a far greater intimacy with staff at private hospitals than the disabled or legislative intentions.

As of now, Alaska does not do a good job protecting the disabled and individuals at risk of sanctuary trauma with best practices. There has never been a state grievance law written to protect those who have a developmental disability. The grievance law for psychiatric patients simply tells private psychiatric institutions to write a patient grievance procedure including the appeal process. Psychiatric institutions get to decide if they want to recognize and treat sanctuary trauma. The Department of Health and Social Services gets to decide if it wants to investigate

Laws protecting Alaska’s disabled need to be rewritten by the Legislature with less room for interpretation by state bureaucracies.

— Faith Myers and Dorrance Collins, mental health advocates

Anchorage

I am writing to express my sincere disgust with the legislative actions during this session. I share the views of many Alaskans as we struggle to understand how the elected majority has delayed the budget debate until the very end of the session.

I am in disbelief that the majority is willing to cut the Permanent Fund dividend, cut university funding, negate increases to public employees, drain Permanent Fund earnings, offer an inflated sum for the LIO … and pushes to save the massive oil tax credits that have us paying oil companies $700-800 million above what we collect in oil taxes.

I’ve heard the excuses, the rationalizations and each one speaks to the fact that the oil industry has literally purchased our state government. There is no time to wait to act in fixing this fiscal crisis … regardless of the upcoming election year.

I urge the Republican majority to vote in favor of Alaskans and the future of our state. I believe that Gov. Walker’s plan is sound and responsible. Do the right thing.

— Andrea Lang

Anchorage

Goodbye, hunting rights, the feds have spoken! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed caribou hunting to all nonlocals on federal lands in Game Management Unit 23 for a year — the first of many? This prohibits anyone living outside Unit 23 from hunting/participating in hunting in the region. While I realize the size of the Northwest Arctic Caribou herd has fallen dramatically since 2000 and support efforts to protect the herd, I do not support stopping all hunting. A proposal limiting the number of caribou taken by nonlocals makes more sense.

If the problem has become so bad that drastic measures are needed, then I suggest the agencies overseeing caribou hunting in the region need to be severely reprimanded for poor game management. If everyone involved was taking better care of the resource (overharvesting, wanton waste, shooting cows with calves/unborn calves), maybe we would not have this problem? And, this will not save the caribou. It just means more shot by locals, then shipped out of the region.

— Gerry Guay

Anchorage