Stall tactics by legislator hurt Alaska

As the state Legislature enters the final week of its short session, expect a flurry of activity as lawmakers hustle to try to push legislation through.

Adding to the usual end-of-session hubbub is the fact this is the first year lawmakers have had the abbreviated session — it had been 121 days until voters approved the 90-day term. It is also the tail end of a two-year legislative cycle where any bills not passed by the end of session will die.

Gov. Sarah Palin didn’t please many in the Legislature last year when she used her pen to line-item veto projects and expenses from the state budget, and it seems Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman is allowing his dislike for Palin to cloud his judgment. As co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, he’s stalling about 15 bills requested by Palin and seems willing to let them die in his committee.

While Stedman tells the Associated Press that Palin’s bills are among more than 100 the Senate Finance Committee is considering and vows they all will be considered equally, we wonder why some of Palin’s legislation, over which he’s had purview since Feb. 8, are only now in line to be considered at the last minute with dozens of other bills.

“The unfortunate thing is, for whatever reason, Senate leadership is still sitting on those bills,” Palin tells the Associated Press. “We haven’t seen any progress there. It’s going to be a rush job in the last week and a half. There’s still a lot of work to be done. A lot of our priorities, hopefully, will still be addressed.”

We hope so as well.

Among Palin’s bills in Stedman’s in-box is Senate Bill 224, which provides for issuing general obligation bonds to pay for state transportation projects. Those of us in the Mat-Su Valley can attest to how immediate the state’s needs are in addressing and upgrading its transportation infrastructure.

Another is House Bill 326, which authorizes the governor to organize militia to fight wildfires and to authorize paying Alaska National Guard personnel called into service to fight wildfires at rates established for other emergency firefighting personnel. With 2008 already off to a busy wildfire season, this is also legislation that deserves consideration.

Governor Palin is not omniscient; she doesn’t have all the answers and we won’t argue all of her proposals must be passed by the Legislature. That said, she is our governor, elected by the people of Alaska, and it would be a shame if the fate of any bill, whether proposed by the governor or other lawmakers, falls victim to the political pouting of one state senator with a bruised ego.