Rep. Dan Ortiz is running for reelection on November 8, to represent District 36 in the Alaska State House. Going door to door through Wrangell on the campaign trail late last month, he stopped in the Sentinel office to talk about his record, his candidacy, and the direction he believes the state should head in the coming session.
Unaffiliated with any political party, after being elected to office in 2014, Ortiz served both legislative sessions caucusing with the Democratic-led House Minority. He presented that as a strength under the state’s current financial circumstances, which has seen legislators wrangle over spending items in an effort to reduce a multibillion dollar deficit.
“If you take a look at what happened, despite the fact that I was in the minority I was able to – with the leverage that the minority had on the Constitutional Budget Reserve monies – we were able to restore money to the Alaska Marine Highway System in both years,” he said.
Accessing the CBR requires a three-quarters supermajority, which the currently Republican-led House Majority lacks. In order to pass a budget, votes from members of both caucuses would be needed, which Ortiz explained gave the minority leverage to return some funding to areas like education and the ferry system. A supermajority agreed to a compromise budget in May, which made up for the shortfall in revenue with CBR funds while reducing the FY17 budget by seven percent from the previous year.
Ortiz added that being in the House Majority – which he pointed out he had not been invited to join – might have restricted his ability to vote in the district’s best interests.
“Those people who were part of the majority who might have been sympathetic to those issues, they had to vote for that. My opponent would also have to vote for that. If the majority doesn’t change, and that majority follows that path that they followed in the last session, he’s going to have to vote, sometimes against the best interest of the district.”
But along with cuts Ortiz pointed out additional sources of revenue would be needed to further reduce Alaska’s spending deficit, which is set to exhaust the CBR in a couple of budget cycles if left unaddressed. A number of potential items for increasing state revenue went unaddressed during the session, something Ortiz expressed frustration about.
“We’re supposed to serve in the best interest of the state. In the last legislative session, that didn’t happen. Particularly in the House side, we were unable to even vote on any meaningful measure that addressed the state’s number one problem, which is our fiscal situation. So how can the existing majority give the message that they accomplished or that they were able to address the best interest of the state, when they didn’t even vote on any measure that addressed the biggest issue? We just didn’t vote, which is crazy. If we continue in this next session with that same majority body, what’s going to be different?”
Looking ahead, Ortiz hoped to see the emergence of a bipartisan majority from among the state’s rural and coastal districts, one which would put less emphasis on oil tax credits and other subsidies in a time of cuts to public jobs and services, while focusing on solutions to cash inflow which would be felt more evenly across the state.
“If we can get a bipartisan majority – and there’s very good indication that that might happen – one of our first tasks will be to come up with some meaningful legislation that puts the state on a sound fiscal path, a sustainable path,” he said.
After passage of the Legislature’s budget, Gov. Bill Walker in June used his veto powers to further cut items from this fiscal year. These amounted to $1.29 billion, including a cap on individual Permanent Fund Dividend payments to $1,022 and reduction of the state’s oil and gas tax credits by more than half.
“Thankfully the governor vetoed the money in this year’s budget,” Ortiz commented. “But when he did that, all he did was pass on an obligation that the state now has into the future. That doesn’t get off us off the hook, that just pushes it down the road.”
In next week’s issue, the Sentinel interviews Republican candidate for District 36 Bob Sivertsen. Candidates for the Alaska House race will be attending a debate in Wrangell on October 26, set for 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. The event is being organized by radio station KSTK and is open to the public.
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