SPECTRUM: It’s the Legislature that’s been disrespectful

Our Frontiersman editor seems to believe that respect is a person’s due regardless of the treatment you have received at that person’s, or body’s, hand.

In this case, the House Finance Committee Coalition representatives are harvesting their sowing of total disregard for the consistent messages delivered them by a large number of independent and organized Alaskans over the past 2.25 years. That message was and is: cut the budget, don’t touch the Permanent Fund and no new or increased revenues (taxes, fees and fines) until Alaska’s entire budget is at $8.3 billion. Though you may have seen or heard disrespect, what was demonstrated was frustration and disgust at a governmental body which is ignoring a long-running, consistent and carefully considered message regarding the well-being of Alaskans.

HB 57 goes above and beyond an increase in the cost of government by taking money from us, our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren ad infinitum. It reduces the funding for the Permanent Fund itself; our statewide savings account. Since most people do not understand the Permanent Fund and/ or Earnings Reserve and PFD, these pieces of statute can clarify the point we are trying to make: AS 37.13.010(a), 37.13.020, 37.13.140, 37.13.145 and 43.23.025. Reading them may further illuminate why we are so frustrated and disgusted.

Additionally, HB 57 has evolved in a manner similar to the nation’s Affordable Care Act in that it was written in secret, was not brought before the full Finance Committee for deliberative consideration and contains much that the public did not have an opportunity to read or understand. In short, it threatens the fiscal health of the state as a whole and has not been fully debated. It is also the ultimate and entire raid on the Permanent Fund. We now understand why the Governor keeps saying the Earnings Reserve will be gone in three years; because he and the Coalition are taking it.

We know that UAA’s ISER 2016 message to the 29th Legislature (including Rep. Seaton) explained the differing potential impacts of reducing the PFD, instituting a broad-based tax and increasing/ decreasing the cost of government on Alaska’s private economy. Every picture painted by ISER was dark and dreary. ISER’s most important message was, “… do this slowly and incrementally, don’t do everything at once.” We already understand what HB 57 is most likely to accomplish; the demise of Alaska’s fiscal security.

The Coalition-run House Finance Committee, in the form of HB 57, has proven their disregard for the well-being of Alaskans. ISER’s message was delivered before it was announced that we are in a recession. Several economists have written in Forbes, the Economist and other sources against taking money out of the private economy during a recession. That fact alone doubles-down on the Legislature’s responsibility to take less money out of the private Alaskan economy. Our point in this debate has always been that our government’s budget is over-bloated for the size of our populace. We need to be frugal and not profligate. The Coalition members of House Finance have totally ignored us through HB 57, and they showed little interest in hearing from us by scheduling the hearings in the middle of a work day. As you noted, the preponderance of testimony was timely for elected officials, governmental employees and students asking for more money and offering nothing in the way of savings/ reductions.

So, when the Frontiersman’s editor calls for respect for our elected officials, the message needs to be a two-way street. The legislature needs to give respect to the populace in order to receive respect from them.

Beth Fread is a Palmer resident