There is more to state government in Alaska than just the amount of the annual Permanent Fund dividend. Though voters certainly might think otherwise, judging from the campaigns of many candidates in recent years.
But the campaigns are over — at least officially — and it’s time for Alaska’s 60 legislators to start work in Juneau. The session opens Tuesday. No doubt one of the final negotiated compromises before adjournment will be to set the amount of this year’s PFD. It’s become an annual tradition, almost a ritual for lawmakers to politically haggle over the dividend until the final days of the session, much like a bargain-hunting shopper keeps clicking on a website in the belief that the price will go down, not up.
Sadly, the price to Alaskans keeps going up. The fatter the dividend, the leaner the state budget for K-12 education, the university, state ferry system, school repairs and other community grants, mental health services, enough employees to process food stamp and Medicaid applications, and everything else that draws on the same checkbook as the dividend.
But while the dividend debate crops up most everywhere in legislative work, much like skunk cabbage, other important work stacks up.
Maybe this year could be different. Maybe lawmakers — and the governor, if he cares to get involved rather than occupying himself with pro-dividend, anti-tax and anti-federal speeches — could do something to help school districts that have gone six years without a meaningful increase in state funding.
Maybe legislators and the governor will deal with deferred maintenance at public facilities, including school districts — such as Wrangell — that are looking for help in repairing worn-out buildings.
Maybe they will take note and vote to do something about unaffordable and often unavailable child care services. Maybe more funding for university programs, road repairs, employee recruitment and retention efforts to fill vacant desks and missing services. And maybe legislators and the governor will agree on realistic economic development efforts, not the pie-in-the-sky ideas so often baked in Alaska’s political oven with thin crusts and watery fillings hidden beneath heavy helpings of whipped-up promises.
The community needs to take an interest in what the Legislature and governor are doing, just like it took an interest 40 years ago against a silly citizens initiative to spend close to $3 billion to move the state capital. In 1982, Wrangell voters cast their ballots 936-17 against moving the capital out of Juneau and up north to Willow in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Yes, the vote here was 98% against the move.
Wrangell has spoken up strongly in the past and can do so again. Help drive community interest in legislation and the budget by sending in letters to the editor for the Sentinel to publish. Write up your opinions and help your elected officials do what’s best for the state.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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