Publisher’s Notebook: Gov. Walker to candidate Dunleavy, ‘It’s a terrible thing to run from the people’

** Editor’s note: Gov. Bill Walker met with Frontiersman staff the day prior to the resignation of former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

Gov. Bill Walker took a break from the campaign trail to visit with the Frontiersman editorial staff on Monday. It was our first face-to-face visit since my column titled “Go ask the Governor why he’s killing Alaskans” was published. The governor was very gracious in our interview and forthcoming in his answers to our questions. Depending on which poll you want to believe he is sitting in second or third in the race for governor.

We discussed a couple of the issues covered in the previous column, particularly roads and his relationship with the Mat-Su Valley legislative delegation.

Various legislators in the Valley have told audiences at town hall meetings that they can’t work with the current administration or the House majority; that there is a real disconnect. I asked the governor if he felt that Valley legislators were just playing martyrs.

“No I don’t. It’s interesting that you ask that. The only legislator whose father I call on his birthday is Representative (Mark) Neuman. I’ve done that two years in a row now,” Walker said.

The first year the governor called Neuman’s father who lives in Wisconsin, he hung up on the governor.

“He thought I was Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin, so he hung up,” Walker laughed.

Walker and Neuman’s father had conversations the past two years. Neuman and his interaction with Walker’s liaison, Darwin Peterson concerning the Knik-Goose Bay Road expansion was at the crux of the previous column. I expressed to Walker that another legislator reached out to me and said he’s had the same type of negative interaction with Peterson. According to these legislators, Peterson has told them that unless the legislators vote for some kind of tax or Permanent Fund Dividend cut then their projects will not be approved.

“I wasn’t in the meeting so I can’t really comment on that,” Walker said. “We have three offices in Alaska and one of them is in the Valley, so we aren’t playing favorites. This is the largest-growing area in the state so we have a presence here.”

Walker also pointed out that on his latest trip with other Alaskans to China, the Mat-Su Valley had the largest delegation.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity here. I’m a fan of Port MacKenzie and what can happen there. I pay taxes in the Valley. I own property in the Valley. I don’t have any issues or with the delegation that’s here at all,” Walker said. “I’ve accepted all meetings and all phone calls and anyone that wants to meet, we do.”

Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey asked the governor what would change in the next four years from the last four years if he is re-elected?

“Well, now that we have our house in order as a result from SB26, it’s time to finish building Alaska,” Walker said.

Walker expanded on his answer, stating that the state of Alaska has $4.7 trillion of resources in the ground, resources that need to be developed to create jobs.

“Obviously, the lowest hanging fruit is the gas line. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) will make the decision on where it’s going to go. It’s going to go to Nikiski or here. Or maybe they’ll pick their own. I know that it’s a little bit contentious right now but they have the ultimate decision on that... I play the hand I’m dealt. I inherited a process that had the site selected. They evaluated 22 port locations. I have no idea where all the 22 would be,” Walker said.

When I pointed out that the evaluation here was for Point MacKenzie instead of Port MacKenzie he said, “Yeah, I spoke with (Mat-Su Borough Mayor Vern Halter) about that…that’s pretty glaring. I thought it was pretty interesting. (The Mat-Su Borough) asked if that was going to slow it down. They raised their hands and said, 'hey, what about us?' It’s got to go somewhere. So we’ll see. If FERC comes out and say it goes to Port MacKenzie then I’m all about Port MacKenzie. I’m agnostic as to where it goes as long as it goes,” Walker said.

How does the governor clear his biggest hurdle with the Mat-Su voters when the majority will clearly go to Mike Dunleavy?

“I think what I do is I explain what we are faced with. When you are in deficit situation…here is what we accomplished. We’ve gone from 90 percent dependent upon oil to 30 percent dependent. Having an economy that is 90 percent dependent on any one commodity is risky. We made that shift,” Walker said.

Walker went on to give background on the Permanent Fund, explaining that then-Gov. Jay Hammond was trying to create a fund that would turn a non-renewable resource (oil) into a renewable resource (money).

When reflecting on the plan to pay for the budget Walker said, “There were multiple plans out there but every plan had some sort of draw from the permanent fund. A slice of the earnings from the plan, which had to be a structured draw. If you draw too much you’re going to turn the fund upside down. It would be like having a 4. If it earned 5 percent and you are drawing 12 percent then you’re going to have a problem. That was the situation we were facing. Unfortunately we were waiting for (the legislators) to make the decision they ultimately made. The Senate majority voted for a structured draw, but the House didn’t. During that waiting period they drew down $14 billion dollars in savings. I just look around the state and at all the almost finished infrastructure you could have done with the $14 billion dollars. You could have finished all the unfinished projects, paid for all the deferred maintenance and the PERs and TRS. Instead of sitting back and wait and wait. Finally, they made the decision but we have $1.8 billion dollars left in the constitutional budget reserve. That would have been nice if that $14 billion dollars would have been used for something else, but you can’t change yesterday.”

The governor went on to say that his administration reduced spending by $1.4 billion.

“We closed 40 state facilities, eliminated funding for 3,000 positions, we eliminated or modified a hundred state programs. Someone in the Senate majority came into my office and said we want to cut until it hurts. Well who exactly are we trying to hurt? He said well I just want to make sure it hurts. I told him come on in to my office and I’ll give you a stack of phone messages and you can return some calls to people that are hurting.”

Can we move forward in Alaska without an income tax?

“Well we have to have some sort of broad base revenue, whether it’s going to be a sales tax or something that’s going to fill that gap,” Walker replied. “We’re the only state in the nation that’s disconnected in the services we provide, unless it comes out of a barrel of oil in a certain area of Alaska. (The Mat-Su Borough) has property tax. The property tax helps to pay services of the government. We don’t have that on a broad-base basis. I don’t like any form of taxes, but I also don’t like deficits. That’s the difference between me and the others. They seem to be comfortable with deficits. This year we will have the first balance budget since 2011.”

“The year before I came in the budget was 7.8 billion dollars and Senator Dunleavy voted for it. We had a 1.6 billion dollar deficit. Then we came down into the fours on the budget and he voted against it because it was too high. Wait a minute, you voted for the 7.8 but against the 4.5 or whatever it was?” Walker continued. “What kind of Alaska do we want to be? Do we want to have more Troopers? We’re down to 52 Troopers. My increase of a 7.5 percent raise for the Troopers makes us competitive with other places in the Lower 48. We just need more Troopers here.”

What about the Mat-Su Borough adding police powers?

“I thought (Mayor Halter) made a good point. If they bring on 10 troopers, then we would lay off 10 troopers. So I understand his zero-sum game for that one. Our goal is to have enough troopers. I just came from the Trooper academy a week ago and they have a good-sized class and we believe next year we will have enough folks trained up that we’ll be at full capacity with the Troopers,” Walker said.

The governor stated that SB91 has been significantly modified with four different bills but some modifications didn’t pass particularly for tougher penalties on traffic violations.

Are we in a state of emergency when it comes to sexual assault on children?

The governor touted Erin’s Law that equips the schools to arm kids with knowledge on what is appropriate and what is not. He also discussed Bree’s Law, which teaches what is appropriate with dating relationships. An app and tip line are coming that is modeled after the state of Utah’s program so that tips can be called in but do not go directly to the police. This will give time for other agencies to reach out to the caller and can disarm the situation. This includes suicidal calls.

When referring to the rash of arrest for child sexual assault cases the governor reflected with the following, “It is an epidemic. It’s absolutely horrific. I have five grandchildren that are at a similar age of the cases you described and I cannot imagine…can’t imagine them going through that. It comes through education and giving them… we’ve seen it where people will come forward and say that guy did the same thing to me.”

The governor believes we have to educate to arm victims to come forward.

The governor closed our interview with sharp criticism for Mike Dunleavy, the Republican candidate in the race for governor, and his repeated absence from debates and interviews the other candidates are participating in.

“It’s a terrible thing to run from the people. It’s disrespectful,” Walker said. “I think it’s incredibly disrespectful. I have never seen a campaign in the state of Alaska that has a candidate that won’t show up. What does he have to hide? You can tell a lot about a person how they are going to govern by how they campaign.”