Lawmakers get an earful at townhall

WASILLA — Throwing the door wide open to questions Saturday morning brought Valley legislators a variety of concerns on everything from Medicaid to road projects to river erosion.

For two hours at the Wasilla Area Seniors Incorporated (WASI) senior center, representatives Lynn Gattis, Jim Colver, Wes Keller, Shelley Hughes, Lora Reinbold and Cathy Tilton and senators Charlie Huggins, Mike Dunleavy and Bill Stoltze listened to what the audience had to say.

Elizabeth Ripley, head of the Mat-Su Health Foundation, urged the legislators to vote in favor of expanding Medicaid in Alaska. She said Mat-Su sorely needs the boost it would give to mental health treatment.

There were “$23 million in emergency room charges for behavioral health at Mat-Su Regional in 2013 and we don’t provide mental health care at Mat-Su Regional, the ultimate tragedy,” she said. “If people get the health care they need sooner, we manage cost and they are more productive citizens.”

Numerous people expressed the opposite opinion on Medicaid expansion, including Ron Johnson with the Alaska Republican Assembly, who also spoke out against common core education standards and asked the legislators to work to “step down” the state budget.

Pete Probasco was one of many to speak out in favor of a bill Keller sponsored, which requires high school students take a course about the U.S. Constitution. He said he’s amazed at how little kids learn about their country these days.

He also spoke in favor of a pending bill that would do away with Daylight Saving Time, something he hasn’t been in favor of since his days growing up on a dairy farm.

“I think that the cows for a couple weeks every spring and a couple weeks every fall thought that we were totally stupid when we switched to Daylight Saving Time because they knew what time it was,” Probasco said.

Bill Kendig, who ran for Mat-Su Borough Assembly last year, urged the legislature to look at a different alignment for upgrades to Knik-Goose Bay Road. He said the state needs to look for one that eats up less commercial real estate.

“You’re cutting out commercial activity,” he said.

Jess Hall was one of many to speak out in favor of a bill that clarifies the distinction between someone who is building a home to live in it and someone who is building a home to sell it.

“We feel that it’s important to redefine the legislation a little bit so we can tell the difference,” Hall said.

Debbie McCarthy and numerous others spoke out against the Office of Children’s Services. She’s actually suing OCS in federal court.

Ingrid Ling, Executive Director of WASI, urged the legislature to avoid cutting the grant for the Older Alaskans Community-Based Fall Prevention Program.

She worked through statistics to estimate that between 4,500 and 7,000 elderly Alaskans fall and are seriously injured each year. Considering that falls are the most common reason seniors are admitted into nursing homes, that means there is a phenomenal per-fall cost to the state.

“If we prevent only one fall, which would otherwise result in costly, state-subsidized nursing home care, the program pays for itself and then some,” Ling said.

People seeking consideration from legislators looking to cut the budget included Jim Sykes, who wants the state’s help in combating erosion along the Matanuska River, librarian Sara Saxton who urged legislators not to cut library funding, and representatives from Alaska Family Services and the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness who spoke against cuts to homelessness programs.

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