90-day legislative session not the answer

SPECTRUM/Joe Josephson

Editor's note: A statement in defense of Ballot Measure 1, written by its sponsor, Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, ran on this page in the Sept. 26 edition. It can be found online by clicking on the &#8220Opinion” link at www.frontiersman.com.

Ballot Proposition 1 would reduce the maximum length of the Legislature's regular session from 121 days to 90 days. If enacted, Proposition 1 would be far more harmful than beneficial.

Just when the Legislature must consider increasingly complex issues, weighing how to encourage gas production, meet environmental challenges, enact a stable fiscal plan, and improve education at all levels, backers of Proposition 1 propose to reduce the Legislature's capacity to work as a co-equal branch of government. And just when recent events show that the Legislature, in its internal workings, needs to be more transparent, Proposition 1 would make it less so.

Under Alaska's Constitution, the governor heads the executive branch. The governor appoints all executive branch policy-makers, as well as new judges.

In our state, the Constitution allows for no elected attorney general, treasurer or resource manager. The constitutional design is good, insofar as it sets up clear lines of authority and responsibility. However, it requires that there be an effective legislature, able to monitor the powerful executive branch, promote public participation, offer alternative public policies and fine-tune proposals by the governor that should be modified in the public interest.

Ballot Proposition 1 will weaken the Legislature.

Advocates for Ballot Proposition 1 may claim that the ability to meet in special sessions will render the proposed shorter regular sessions harmless. But that argument is wrong.

It is easy for a governor to call a special session, almost at whim. For a legislature to convene a special session, two-thirds of the legislature must vote to do that. For this reason as the enactment of Ballot Proposition 1 would tilt power even more dramatically from the Legislature to the governor.

Finally, passage of Ballot Proposition 1 will heighten the power of lobbyists and special interests to manipulate the Legislature.

Legislators, who will be less well-informed and less able to interact with each other, will depend increasingly on information - or misinformation - offered by lobbyists and special interests.

In short, Ballot Proposition 1 teaches us, once again, that not all so-called &#8220reforms” are beneficial. Prudent voters should reject Proposition 1.

Joe Josephson is an Anchorage attorney and former state legislator.