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June 2003
At
the Kenai River Festival in Kenai, and Nikiski
Fun in the Midnight Sun Day, a team of volunteers administered a 5 question
survey to 347 people selected at random from the crowds. The purpose was
to determine public support for legislation enacted during the first session of
the 23rd. Legislature. The questions and results are show below:
1. Governor
Murkowski had Senate Bill 119 introduced, where it passed mostly along party
lines. SB 119 allows individual campaign contributions each calendar year to
increase from $500 to $1,000 for each candidate and from $5,000 to $10,000 for
political parties. Do you agree with this change?
Yes = 11.7% No
= 73.6% Don’t Know/Not
Sure = 14.7%
2. Democrats Croft and Lincoln
introduced HJR 3 and SJR 19 which proposed an election to give Alaskans the
opportunity to constitutionally protect our PFD from legislative spending. HJR
26 and SJR 18 were introduced by Republican controlled committees and represent
Governor Murkowski’s “endowment plan” or POMV (percent of market value) scheme.
The Republican plan offers no assurance of future dividends, no guaranteed
inflation proofing and could even erode Permanent Fund principal. Please circle
the legislation you prefer:
HJR 3/ SJR 19 = 69.2%
HJR 26/ SJR 18 = 9.8% Don’t Know/Not Sure = 21%
3. Introduced by
Republican Representative Norm Rokeberg, and passed mostly along party lines,
House Bill 11 will divert 25% of certain royalty deposits from the Permanent
Fund principal (estimated at $40 to $55 million per year) and give it to the
legislature. Do you agree with this change to the Permanent Fund?
Yes = 11.5% No =
80.2% Don’t Know/Not Sure
= 8.3%
4. How many
pieces of legislation were introduced and passed during the first session of the
23rd Legislature?
295 intro/263
pass = 24.6% 663
intro/196 pass = 59.8%
1,359 intro/213 pass = 15.6%
5.
Republican Senator Ralph Seekins introduced Senate Bill 89 which
increased the amount of time a person can spend trying to influence the
legislature before being considered a lobbyist, from 4 hours to 40 hours in a 30
day period. Now, those who are no longer considered lobbyists can contribute
money to all the State Legislative candidates (previously restricted to those
legislators from the district in which they reside) and are not required to make
financial reports that were previously available to the public. Who benefited
most from this bill?
The Public = 8.6% Politicians/Lobbyists =
67.7% Don’t Know/Not Sure = 23.7%
In our bonus question:
"Can the Governor spend your PFD better than
you"? 705 people responded, with
only 5.2% saying YES. 3.7% were not sure, and a whopping
91.1% said NO!!!
Those seeking to represent the public need to remember these HUGE numbers!!!
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