"Damn legislators… don't do a thing."
Yes, this is what we're thinking. But let's look back: We won't let them do a thing.
If we want them to tax us — half will scream. If we want them to start over with a zero-base budget, we're afraid our special-interest programs will be cut. We will vote them out, even if they do something.
How did we get to this place?
We can pretty much agree that we've misspent $1 billion dollars a year over the past 40 years. Grain silos, Delta barley farms, dairy farms, milk subsidies, fish processing plants, gas lines that will never be built, 100 percent funding of unorganized boroughs' expenses, state buildings that never should have been built …
Yes, we wish we could have that money back — do we ever.
The Chamber of Commerce wants spending to artificially stimulate the economy and to drive the population higher than can be supported; the Alaska General Contractors want more construction; the teachers want more benefits; more dividends; free medical services; subsidized energy…
When we could tax the oil industry to pay for it, these appropriations bought re-election for all incumbents.
So now we have a population the state economy can't sustain; we underfunded pensions so now our young people will have to pay more, and we've created social problems in the Bush (suicide, poor education, fetal alcohol woes, lack of employable job skills) that are coming home to roost.
No matter what course we take there will be pain.
OK, we know why we have our present budget, and our crime and social services problems, so what do we do about it? The liberals and conservatives are at each others' throats. There is no compromise.
What we need is to find the common ground and have a public philosophical debate about the best way to achieve our common goals. We can all agree we want less crime, a better economy, better education.
We don't want drunks to freeze in the streets or for women and children to go hungry. We want to hand a better quality of life to our children. We can agree on these things.
Our debate must revolve around a philosophy of government. Will more government or less government achieve our shared goals?
Until we voters can come together and agree on an approach that will achieve our goals, our politicians will sit on their hands. They want to be loved, they want the power and money their offices give them — and many of them actually want to do good.
Politicians are followers, not leaders. They need the voters to lead them to ways to handle our budget problems. Let's put together our top citizen debaters and hold a town meeting. And let our big-government and small-government advocates educate and convince voters of the correct philosophical approach to solve our shared problems.
Dave Cuddy is a lifetime Alaskan, a former state legislator, banker, musician, real estate developer and longtime volunteer in the Alaska community.
The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com.