Civics 101 — a lesson in checks and balances

Let me start by apologizing for the elementary nature of this column. By the time we graduate from the eighth grade, most of us know the basics of how a bill is supposed to move through the gears of government. It appears, however, that some elected officials either slept through class or have forgotten the process.

Usually, a bill is introduced in one or the other houses of the Legislature, House or Senate, where it is debated, voted on and either passed or defeated. It is then sent to the other legislative body where the process repeats itself. It goes back and forth between the House and Senate until consensus is reached or the bill dies a bureaucratic death.

If it makes it through the Legislature, it is passed to the executive branch, in our case the governor, where it is signed into law or vetoed. The process can also start in the executive branch and then be sent to the Legislature to be debated, tweaked, passed or killed and if passed, sent back to the governor to be signed or vetoed. A third option is a public referendum, but that will just confuse the issue, so let’s concentrate on a more common method — specifically, the one where the bill starts in the governor’s office.

Now, what can we use as an example? Let me think. How about ACES, the largest jewel in Sarah Palin’s crown. Actually considering her length of stay in office, it’s more like a tiara, but ACES is a jewel nonetheless and Palin takes and deserves credit for it.

In 2007, she presented her tax plan to the Legislature. The Legislature, particularly the Senate, went to work and did what the legislative branch of government is supposed to do. It debated and discussed and came to a bipartisan consensus. The bill was then sent back to Governor Palin, she signed it, and — ta-da! — we had our clear and equitable share of Alaska’s oil wealth.

Our present governor is right about Palin’s original prescription for tax reform. The final bill wasn’t the same one that came out of her office.

The Legislature did boost the rate oil would pay as profits went up. And after the House, Senate, Republicans and Democrats put their spins on ACES, Palin signed it. What she didn’t do was have a conniption, then a special session and then not a special session where she removed the bill from the agenda, and then threaten to do everything she could to end a bipartisan majority in the Senate. That’s what our present governor has done.

Parnell was brought up short by the Senate when it said no to his plan to cut oil production taxes. Senators wanted more time and information before they gave $1 billion to $2 billion back to big oil. They wanted more time and more information. Who do they think they are, an equal branch of government?

Parnell’s reaction was to attack the bipartisan nature of the Senate and openly support challengers in the Republican primary. Apparently, having both sides work together and come to a consensus is not the sort of thing “liberty-minded” people like our governor should have to tolerate. I guess cooperation is somehow unpatriotic. Let’s go for ideological purity instead.

The fundamental nature of power is a desire to become more than it already is. This is true for businesses and governments alike. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams et-all understood this very well. They designed a system that would make it very difficult for power to expand unchecked. It is difficult, but not impossible. I’m engaging in a little bit of hyperbole here, but it’s to make a point. There is a growing political sentiment that any kind of compromise, any divergence from pure doctrine, is treachery. This is the single most destructive element I’ve witnessed in politics in my lifetime, and I’ve been around awhile.

Republicans and Democrats working together in a truly representative way just doesn’t seem right to some people. Maybe we should put more faith into oil corporations — the largest power in the state, and probably the world. Ask folks in the Gulf of Mexico or Prince William Sound regions about how that’s working out for them.

I’m not saying we should just have our way with oil companies any more than I’d advocate for them to have their way with us. We may be able to adjust the tax structure so that exploration, reinvestment and ultimately production would increase.

I’m sure we can, but the decisions made by our government will effect all of us and so should be representative of all of us, not just oil lobbyists, the ranks of whom our governor used to be in.

Even in a state as Republican as Alaska, we have had the wherewithal to form a coalition in the Senate that speaks for the entire state, Republicans and Democrats. That’s something to be proud of and I’d hate to see it end. The Parnell administration, on the other hand, would like to put in place a rubber-stamp committee that would dilute the truly representative nature of our Senate. This could tip the balance of power in his and, not so coincidentally, big oil’s direction.

I’m guessing you have picked up on my theme here, but for those of us in gubernatorial mansions that haven’t caught on yet, the system is designed so that no one branch of government gets to call the tune.

The Legislature, governor and courts must all work together, but are independent enough to check each others’ power. It is a little something called checks and balances, and it has worked quite well for us. The system also functions best when no one party or ideology is able to push its agenda and muffle dissenting voices.

This is not a radical manifesto, it’s the template that virtually all free liberty-minded societies use to govern themselves. It involves cooperation and compromise, and most importantly, it involves an informed electorate. It involves you.

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.