Mat-Su residents need Mat-Su representation

To the editor:

As I look at this past legislative session, I wonder whom our senators — Charlie Huggins and Mike Dunleavy — represent? They were lead proponents of harmful legislation to the Mat-Su.

As Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Huggins had a central role in passing Senate Bill 21, the bill to reduce Alaskan’s oil income. As a result of this bill, Alaska’s state budget will have a deficit ranging from $700 million to $1.7 billion next year alone.

I wonder how we will pay for it? As many have pointed out, deficit spending always raises the specter of possible income taxes or drawdowns of Alaska’s Permanent Fund. We are a resource-rich state and should use revenue from those resources to maintain balanced budgets and low taxes. I understand that oil company executives are acting in the best interest of their shareholders, but who is acting for us? SB 21 already has led to deficit spending and we will need to be vigilant to ensure the next step isn’t a state income tax or a raid on the Permanent Fund to make up the cost.

Sen. Dunleavy wasted no time coming up with his own bad ideas. The worst was his proposal to increase insurance rates on Alaskans. His bill, Senate Bill 55, would have allowed insurance companies to use our credit scores as a reason to raise prices on insurance we already have — health insurance, auto insurance. While insurance company executives (who would profit from Dunleavy’s legislation) testified for SB 55, every single citizen who testified opposed it. The Senior Voice newspaper also ran an op-ed about how it would harm Alaska seniors. This legislation introduced by Sen. Dunleavy was so extreme that many of his Republican colleagues refused to support it. Unfortunately, the insurance companies most likely will be back next year, trying again to rip us off.

Next year in Juneau, there will be a debate about House Bill 77, which passed the House this year but not the Senate. This law would eliminate the ability of individual Alaskans to reserve water rights for our fisheries. It would eliminate our right to go to court to protect property rights. It would even allow a single person, the commissioner of natural resources, to grant a “general permit” for massive projects like Pebble Mine. Not surprisingly, the outside organization Northern Dynasty is pushing this legislation because it wants to steamroll local opposition to that project.

Here in the Mat-Su, we have to be concerned about property rights. HB 77 would empower the state government and large corporations to take property from individual landowners. That is wrong, and it is an attack on our heritage of limited intrusion by government and respect for private property. Sens. Dunleavy and Huggins should think long and hard about whom they represent before they support this proposed law.

This session showed Mat-Su residents we need to keep close watch on our legislators. There are dozens of high-paid lobbyists in Juneau, and apparently it is easy for Sens. Huggins and Dunleavy to forget who they represent while they are down in Juneau for the state legislative session.

Beverly Serrano

Wasilla