Ballot measure to add 6 seats

MAT-SU — So what, exactly, does the ballot measure to add six seats to the state Legislature mean for the Valley?

Well, it’s kind of hard to say.

The ballot measure — the only one on this year’s ballot — would add four representatives to the state house and two to the state senate.

The state redraws its districts every 10 years when the nation does the census. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that this go-round the Valley will be the big winner since the population here has grown at a much faster pace than the rest of the state.

“It’s based strictly on population and of course that’s very, very important for the Valley that we get at least one maybe two more in our delegation,” said Republican Wes Keller, who represents Wasilla in the house.

But what happens if voters choose to add more seats? The redistricting board will draw up all the new boundaries using the new number of seats. Which means that the board will decide where those new seats will go.

Supporters have said in the past that their hope is that by adding seats and bringing down the number of residents that have to be in each district the areas of the state that will lose seats in the redistricting fight — rural areas and Southeast — won’t lose as much. There’s also the idea that everyone’s voice is dilluted when the same number of legislators is tasked with representing a growing population of Alaskans.

But trying to figure out if that’s a good or a bad thing for the Valley’s representation in the Legislature is tough.

“It’s hard to analyze to me because you don’t know where the districts will be and you don’t know how they will re-divide them,” Keller said.

But on general principal, Keller said, he doesn’t like it. The districts as they are aren’t terribly big or unwieldy. And adding more voices to the ones already there in Juneau isn’t necessarily a good thing, he said.

“It takes a long time for a committee of 40 to get things done,” he said.

It’s also not exactly a cheap change to make; the Legislature estimates that adding those seats would cost the state $6 million the first year and $4 million each of the next two years.

And, he said, he doesn’t think anyone will really notice the difference.

“We don’t have that many constituents per house member now and the geographics are so large that a couple more isn’t going to make much of a difference in the geography,” Keller said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.