Spotlight on Juneau

March 15, 2002

Hello Fellow Voters,

This week we will look at several spending bills currently being considered. Let's take a few minutes now, flip on the spotlights, and see if there is anything we "love to hate" herein.

HB 20 Aid to Municipalities and Others SPENDING bill
Sponsored and co-sponsored by Representatives MOSES, Davies, Foster, Wilson, Hudson, Mulder,
Bunde, Stevens, Joule, and Lancaster. "An Act relating to state aid to municipalities and certain other
recipients, and for the village public safety officer program; relating to municipal dividends; relating to the public safety foundation program; and providing for an effective date."

This may sound like one of those "feel good" bills what with all that public safety foundation talk, but on closer examination you will see several things to be concerned about. In the first place this bill is really nothing more than village "welfare", and funding can be used for just about anything the town council dreams up. Furthermore it increases current funding from $51,000,000 to $89,000,000 at a time of supposed BUDGET DEFICIT! The real clincher is it changes funding source from the General Fund to Surplus of the Earnings Reserve Account of the Permanent Fund. That's right folks, this is one of the first bills designed to RAID THE PERMANENT FUND!!!

HB 241 Rail and Utility Corridor to Canada SPENDING bill
Sponsored by Representatives JAMES, Dyson, McGuire, Kohring, Scalzi, Wilson, Foster, Whitaker, Fate, Morgan, Davies, Hayes, Harris, and Green. "An Act relating to a railroad utility corridor for extension of the Alaska Railroad to Canada and to extension of the Alaska Railroad to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada."

I did not even bother taking time to find out how much railroads across tundra and permafrost are costing these days, but suspect it will be A LOT! Why would we even consider spending BILLIONS of OUR dollars on this "project to nowhere", when we are supposed to have a huge budget deficit?

Why don't we sell the choo choo trains, and let someone else wear the funny striped hats? Current management has been having a hard time keeping the trains on track anyway. Let's get out from under all that liability, and let PRIVATE ENTERPRISE take over!

HB 324 Homeland “security” SPENDING bill
Introduced by the House Rules Committee (RLS): KOTT, Kohring, McGuire, Morgan, Porter, Berkowitz, and Joule, by request of Governor Knowles. In the legislation it clearly states; “No community, state, or nation will ever have the wealth to meet all responsibilities of government while building a stand-alone system that focuses solely on protection from terrorism”.

There are already over 20,000 armed forces personnel, troopers, fish & wildlife protection officers, air guard, army guard, state guard, local police, village public safety officers, etc. protecting Alaska. This means one well armed and equipped uniformed guard for every thirty citizens. How much MORE do we really need? Our total cost: $102,138,100, that we DON'T have!

SB 236 Senate Version of HB 324 Homeland “security” SPENDING bill
Sponsored by the Senate Rules Committee (RLS): PHILLIPS, Cowdery, Halford, Therriault, and Ellis, by request of Governor Knowles.

HB 498 Whittier Private Prison SPENDING bill
Sponsored by the House Finance Committee (FIN): MULDER/WILLIAMS, Bunde, Foster, Harris, Hudson, Lancaster , Whitaker, Croft, Davies, and Moses. "An Act expressing legislative intent regarding privately operated correctional facility space and services; relating to the development and financing of privately operated correctional facility space and services; authorizing the Department of Corrections to enter into an agreement for the confinement and care of prisoners in privately operated correctional facility space; and providing for an effective date."

This bill gives Millions of OUR dollars ($108,000/day, $39,420,000/year) to a private Texas based corporation. Plus WE the people of Alaska are being asked to give a "BLANK CHECK" for the construction cost! Over the life of this prison we will pay Cornell Industries over $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars), which may account for all the serious lobbying effort, political contributions, etc. that have go into this campaign so far.

Instead of the $18,000,000/year ($62/day each) currently being spent in Arizona, we will spend $39,420,000 ($90/day each) under this bill? Sounds like a good way to close the budget gap... NOT!!! With this kind of thinking, it's no wonder we have financial problems with this Legislature. This could be an argument for spending more money on education?

FYI, the sponsor's names have been attached, as we all need to remember who wanted these spending bills in the first place. I'm sure this information will come in handy later. Now that we've taken a good look at these spending bills it's time to tell your legislators what you think. If you need detailed instruction for sending a POM, go to the "Action Page".

Also consider sending written testimony to the committee chairman hearing a bill. This is an effective method of getting your opinion seen and heard by everyone who will consider these bills. Written testimony is attached to the bill and given to each legislator on the committee.

Visit our website for additional details on these and other bills. There is a lot of good information on our "statistics page". If this doesn't get your blood boiling nothing will!

If there is a tax or spending bill you love to HATE, send a copy of your POM, email, letters to the editor, or written committee testimony, and we will post it in future editions of the "alerts" and also on our "opinion page".

Until the next time remember to keep those POM's and Letters flooding into Juneau. We must keep up the pressure now, or pay a BIG bill later. The choice is clear, we must manage the legislature, not let them manage us!

Please forward this message to concerned family members, friends, neighbors, and business associates.  Ask them to do the same. If they choose to join, we will add them to our mailing list and they will automatically receive future issues. Together we CAN and WILL make a difference!
 

 Back to Spotlight