Legislature fiddles while Alaskans burn

This editorial originally appeared in the Tuesday edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

What has already become a bizarre series of special sessions for the Alaska Legislature got weirder Monday. In a press conference to explain ramifications of a state government shutdown, Gov. Bill Walker introduced Matt Peterson, an Anchorage-area mediator. During remarks of his own, Mr. Peterson explained the governor had called him to ask if he would offer his services to legislators stuck at a budget impasse.

With less than a month to go before the state’s government largely shuts down, the desperate need to resolve the situation legislators have created is apparent to all.

The introduction of a mediator was made all the weirder by the fact that at this point, Mr. Peterson’s services may be necessary. Legislators couldn’t craft a compromise in their 90-day session, nor in the 30 days of special sessions that followed.

And when a fragile compromise budget was finally assembled by the House majority and minority caucuses during the past weekend, Sen. Pete Kelly and the Finance Committee he chairs wasted no time in dismantling the deal and replacing it with items — such as the substitution of one-time funds for reinstated education formula funding — that seemed almost designed to repel the Democratic minority.

At least some members of the minority caucus need to be on board with the budget in order to support a Constitutional Budget Reserve withdrawal that is the sanest method of covering the state’s $3.5 billion to $4 billion budget deficit.

Layoff notices were mailed Monday afternoon to about 10,000 state employees, notifying them that unless the Legislature passes a budget before July 1, most workers will be out of a job until a budget is funded. More than a dozen news releases sent out Monday by state agencies made it clear that allowing the state government to shut down because of the Legislature’s failure to pass a budget should not be acceptable.

If there is no budget on July 1, ferry service will shut down, stranding thousands of Alaska residents and visitors — many of them far from home. The state Department of Law will be forced to prioritize prosecution of crimes, with misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses pushed to the bottom of the pile. Department of Fish and Game biologists will be called back from counting salmon in the midst of the Yukon River Chinook run, creating a massive data gap in the monitoring of one of the state’s most important and fragile fisheries. A list of serious impacts to Alaskans would run far beyond this editorial space.

In his press conference Monday, Gov. Walker demurred when asked if he felt state workers were owed an apology, and if so, by whom. Telling reporters “the buck stops with me,” he moved on to other aspects of the potential for a shutdown. In accepting responsibility for the current state of affairs, the governor was polite but not correct.

The Alaska Legislature is the reason the state’s government is 30 days from shutting down. It is legislators who owe an apology — not just to state workers but to all Alaskans, for so far failing to do the biggest and most important part of their job.

Yes, the state’s budget deficit makes things more difficult, but that’s not an acceptable excuse. Gov. Walker submitted his budget on time, and legislators have had more than 120 days to reach whatever compromises are necessary to keep Alaska’s government running. The fact they have not only failed to do so but in many cases been clearly unwilling to negotiate is enough to make one think a mediator really might be necessary.