Ballot questions OK’d

MAT-SU — As ballot initiatives go, this fall’s election is shaping up to be interesting.

On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell gave the green light to a pair of initiatives supporters worked for months to gathered signatures for approval. One would raise the minimum wage, the other regulate marijuana along similar lines as alcohol.

Both initiatives will appear on the primary ballot, scheduled for Aug. 19.

The marijuana initiative would make it legal for people age 21 and older to possess up to an ounce and up to six plants. The plants can’t grow in public view and must be secured. Also, consuming marijuana in public would be punishable by a $100 fine. Marijuana growers would have to pay a $50 per ounce excise tax.

The act would set up a process for sellers to get licensed to distribute marijuana and also let the Legislature set up a Marijuana Control Board inside of the state’s Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

It also gives local cities and boroughs the ability to opt out.

“A local government may prohibit the operation of marijuana cultivation facilities, marijuana product manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities or retail marijuana stores through the enactment of an ordinance by voter initiative,” the proposed law states.

Or, local laws can restrict where and when marijuana can be sold or set up its own permitting process.

If Alaska passed the initiative, it would join Washington and Colorado as states that have permitted the recreational use of marijuana.

The minimum wage initiative would progressively raise the state’s minimum wage and tie it to inflation. So, on Jan. 1, 2015, the state’s minimum wage would be $8.75 per hour and a year later would be $9.75 per hour. Each year after that it would be adjusted for inflation.

The current minimum wage in Alaska is $7.75. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

There is a move underway in Congress to bump that up to $10.10 an hour. President Barack Obama has already increased the rate for workers paid under federal contracts.

The Alaska initiative also seeks to keep the minimum wage above the federal minimum.

“If the minimum wage … is less than $1 over the federal minimum wage, the Alaska minimum wage shall be set at $1 over the federal minimum wage,” the initiative states.

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