OPINION: Support elected officials who deliver real prosperity

Chugiak-Eagle River voters are smart. They care about our community and understand that first-time candidates, if elected, recognize very quickly that honesty matters, as does working with other legislators who have diverse policy perspectives. Individual lawmakers must work with others to respond to our districts’ and state’s needs.

Chugiak-Eagle River is fortunate to have a conservative senator who understands how to deliver good governance, balance the budget and keep taxes low. That senator is Kelly Merrick.

Not too long ago, the state was running multi-billion dollar deficits, draining the Constitutional Budget Reserve and Statutory Budget Reserve. Today, Alaska’s budget is balanced, and rather than deficit spending, the Legislature has put billions of dollars into Alaska savings accounts.

The credit for delivering such fiscal stability goes to the real fiscal conservatives in the Legislature on the Senate Finance Committee. This includes Sen. Kelly Merrick’s work with Sen. Bert Stedman (R-Ketchikan).

Balancing the budget means saying “no” over and over to requests for more spending. There aren’t many elected officials who have the resolve to balance the budget and maintain the kind of fiscal discipline necessary to create a pro-business climate, leading to real prosperity for Alaska. Sen. Merrick has maintained fiscal discipline and, as a result, our state is seeing more North Slope development, more oil entering the pipeline over the next decade and significant job growth across resource development industries.

She has helped balance the budget and sustained our stable, low-tax environment. Balanced budgets and low or no taxes are classic Republican orthodoxy.

Sen. Merrick has also worked to promote and accelerate mineral development via her recently passed bill doing the same.

America needs critical mineral development for national security and many of these minerals are in Alaska. When we strengthen national security Alaska also wins with more jobs. Senator Merrick understands this need, and more importantly, worked successfully to get these Alaska resources to market more quickly.

Along with her other efforts to promote Alaska resource development, Merrick worked to pass unanimously a resolution in the Legislature supporting the Willow development. The federal judge who allowed the project to proceed cited this resolution’s unanimous vote as proof that the project is in the interests of all Alaskans.

Conservatives, such as Sen. Merrick, have made significant progress in strengthening crime laws. In the 2019-2020 Legislature, “catch and release” policies were repealed that had been part of the notorious SB 91. This was combined with increased funding for policing. Crime dropped sharply.

This year, legislators significantly increased penalties for fentanyl dealers and closed the loophole that had allowed violent, mentally unstable people, from being released from detention without psychiatric treatment. Passage of criminal justice reforms required collaboration between the Governor’s office and committee leadership. Senator Merrick should be proud of being instrumental in strengthening crime laws.

Although Alaska has diverse thinking in the Senate, the primary divide is not between political parties but individual legislators’ willingness to make the tough decisions to balance the budget and convince one’s colleagues of all stripes to do the same. In Sen. Merrick’s case, the fact that she has been able to bring her fellow senators along, no matter their political affiliation, to uphold the Republican ideal of fiscal conservatism is to be applauded. Sen. Merrick is one of the pragmatic conservatives who want to get the job of governing done in order for Alaska to have real prosperity.

Let’s recognize and reward her with the opportunity to continue to serve.

Anna MacKinnon served the Chugiak-Eagle River area for more than 18 years as an Assembly member, state representative, and state senator.

Ann Brown is a retired attorney. She currently serves as the immediate past chair of the Alaska Republican Party.

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