Alaska’s governorship is the most powerful in the U.S., yet our current governor, Mike Dunleavy, seeks to strangle legislative power with amendments that limit spending, require the public vote on any tax proposal plus special funds and automatic expenditures being placed into our Constitution. The Legislature is already crippled by the session limit, as well as the governors’ ability to set the agenda in special sessions — which exist only because of the utter failure of the session limit.
Where did this anti-government movement arise? Maybe an adviser to the governor, a former insurance agent, started it more than 40 years ago, calling it “libertarianism.” President Ronald Reagan, a former governor, said the federal government had grown too large and some of its powers needed to be cut and devolved to the states and cities, where services are best delivered. It seems that some only heard the “cut” part.
The State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage are very complex organizations that make any private enterprise or corporation pale in comparison. The number and variety of departments, divisions, sections, working groups and individual jobs encompasses a wide range of skills from various engineering, scientific and medical technicians/professionals to accountants and equipment operators. Overseeing all that is the executive branch, while the Legislature provides the funding.
Tackling that sophistication takes a number of legislative standing committees. Only a few legislators, after years of experience, really grasp it well. And the anti-government ideologues want term limits, too!
Alaska’s House and Senate need to make their own rules and take the time necessary to get our public business done. They do not need their hands tied in the name of an ideology whose adherents cannot bother to learn governmental roles and functions.
During our revolution of 1776, one of the slogans was: “No taxation without representation.” Maybe the reverse is also true: There is no representation without taxation. The citizens need to have skin in the game or certain corporations can turn Alaska into a resource extraction colony; some think we have been already taken over. It just took a governor or two, plus enough legislators in their pockets to steal Alaska’s fair share.
— Thomas R. Wilson
Anchorage
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