Legislature leaves many bills for next session

There were big pieces of legislation approved this session. The House majority, at least, felt confident enough to boast that it had met its objectives in passing legislation to change oil taxes in a “historic first session.”

And, yes, the capital budget that takes up so much time came through with quite a bit of Mat-Su funding, too.

But a lot of what we spent our time talking about, wringing our hands about, was left hanging in Juneau.

It’ll be there waiting when lawmakers return in January. But sometimes the end of the Legislature can feel a bit… well, anticlimactic.

We followed several education bills during session. Bills that, if passed, would substantially change how education is delivered in Alaska and who is eligible to receive public education funds.

If you weren’t paying attention to this Legislature, here’s a quick recap: Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, and Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, each introduced legislation in their respective chambers seeking a vote of the people on whether to remove a piece of the state’s constitution that prohibits spending public education money at private or religious schools.

Fellow Mat-Su Rep. Lynn Gattis also put in a piece of legislation changing who can create a charter school, opening it up to entities like Alaska Native corporations.

Near the end of the session, Dunleavy put out still more legislation seeking to clarify how public education money could go to public and private schools under his voucher idea, and changing the way health insurance works for educators.

All of that is still on the vine, waiting for its time to come.

Does that mean we’re in for a fight next January? Here’s hoping we’re at least in for a good, rousing discussion.

Another piece of legislation we have spent a lot of time thinking about started out as veteran Valley Rep. Mark Neuman’s attempt to increase to $600 million the amount of money that the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority can borrow.

KABATA is the group in charge of building a multibillion-dollar bridge from Anchorage to Point MacKenzie.

Neuman’s legislation, as it wound its way through the Legislature, crashed hard against an audit that accused KABATA of inflating its numbers when estimating the costs and benefits of the bridge.

The audit seemed to cause enough uncertainty, though, that the House felt a need to dissolve KABATA into another state agency, the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.

We were kind of hoping to get a resolution on that one, too. But the Senate ran out of time.

The Mat-Su delegation did get some things passed. For a rundown, check today’s news pages.

And the Legislature’s main accomplishment — changing the oil tax structure in the state — could be headed back to the people for review at the ballot box. Organizers of an opposition movement announced Thursday that they’ve collected signatures and filed a petition with the state for a referendum to repeal the just-passed oil tax change, Senate Bill 21.

In these days when the biggest bloc of residents in Alaska and the U.S. are the ones who don’t vote, we applaud this grassroots effort by our fellow Alaskans. It’s a good reminder about the importance of participatory democracy and voter vigilance. Because even when one-party rule exists, those in power are still accountable to the people who put them there.