Alaska’s senior U.S. senator — and former state legislator — Lisa Murkowski addressed a joint session of the Legislature last week, covering the usual issues of oil and gas, economic development and lots of federal dollars for local projects.
Her remarks were pretty routine for anyone who has listened to the annual speeches at the Capitol by Alaska’s two senators over the decades. That’s the comforting thing about Alaska politics — the issues don’t change much. We’re like an old TV sitcom where the characters don’t age and the same problems come up in every episode.
But this year the senator premiered a new show, one of advice. She later called it “tough love.” I’d call it blunt honesty in a building where far too many elected officials steer away from honesty in favor of telling voters what they want to hear.
Murkowski talked about the state’s out-migration drain — more people leaving Alaska than moving here for the past 10 years — and Alaska’s poor economic performance at or near the bottom among the states. “Alaska cannot settle for being 49th in anything but statehood,” she said in her speech.
The solution requires elected officials doing more than endlessly debating the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, she said. The amount of the annual payout has preoccupied candidates and winning legislators and governors for years, overpowering efforts at solving other issues.
“If this Legislature spends the whole 33rd legislative agenda focusing on how much Alaskans are going to be getting for a Permanent Fund dividend, we miss everything,” Murkowski told reporters after her speech.
“I maybe didn’t stay in my lane,” the 20-year Republican senator told legislators.
“Maybe I overstepped a little bit with the Legislature today. I generally do not try to tell them how to do their job, but I challenged them,” she added. “We have stalled out on our big dreams, on our big visions.”
The senator also stepped out — which is a lot different than overstepping — in advising lawmakers how to ensure that the almost $300 million she obtained in federal funding for the state ferry system actually goes toward improving service to coastal communities.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to refloat our ferry system. This is our shot. This is your lifeline. Please grab it,” she said to lawmakers. “This is where I may be stepping over because I almost never call on the Legislature to do anything specific here, but I am asking you — approve the matching (state) funds for our ferry system.”
She was more emphatic in remarks to reporters after her speech: “Let’s not screw it up.”
The senator also urged lawmakers to focus on workforce development, housing and child care amid statewide shortages that are hampering Alaska’s economy.
Reactions from lawmakers depended on their political views of the world, their adherence to the dividend gods, their reluctance to admit that the annual dividend fight has consumed years of legislative sessions, and maybe their independence from the advice of others.
“She didn’t say, ‘You must do this.’ I heard the conditional voice,” said House Majority Leader Dan Saddler, an Eagle River Republican. “I didn’t hear any directives. She’s smart enough to know she can’t make us do anything.”
Rep. Saddler is correct, a U.S. senator cannot make the Alaska Legislature do anything. But doing the right thing for 733,000 Alaskans should.
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