State Senate does right thing in budget debate

The state Senate has taken its share of knocks in recent legislative sessions for stubbornly insisting on its own way, often in the face of overwhelming public opposition. So it was refreshing this past week to see the chamber take a stand against House amendments to the supplemental budget bill.

In particular, a $3 million appropriation to an Oregon public relations firm drew the concern of senators. The appropriation, inserted in the House without a single committee hearing or any input from the public, is part of a package to ramp up efforts to get ANWR open to oil exploration and drilling.

In the past, millions in state money has gone to the lobbying firm Arctic Power, which has focused solely on the issue of opening ANWR. The new appropriation represents a shifting of strategic gears, since it is earmarked for Pac/West Communications. Depending on whether you talk to Republican or Democratic legislators, the company intends to use the money for either &#8220voter education” advertising or to &#8220aggressively target” federal lawmakers who are opposed to drilling with in-district ad campaigns designed to get them defeated.

Whichever way the PR campaign is spun, there is no denying that it will involve the kind of political advertising that Alaskans are almost universally turned off by - out-of-state interests attempting to influence an in-state election.

From a moral standpoint, this is bad enough. But considering the failure to date of any meaningful large-scale attempt to put the state's huge surplus to work helping regular Alaskans, this appropriation is especially troubling.

Comprehensive aid to rural Alaskans struggling to keep up with runaway energy costs? Nope, can't afford it. Help to senior citizens in the form of a return of the longevity bonus? No chance. Reinstatement of municipal assistance or revenue sharing programs? No way.

Yet, somehow we can afford to send $3 million out of state to fund the kind of manipulative and often shady tactics of political advertising that Alaskans despise.

The state Senate has recognized the questionable message that is being sent with this kind of budgetary shenanigans. Showing it is capable of overcoming the often bitter partisanship it has fostered in recent years to do the right thing for the people of Alaska, the Senate voted down the House version of the supplemental budget bill by a whopping 18-2 margin.

Mat-Su Sens. Lyda Green and Charlie Huggins, it is worth noting, were among the 18, and they deserve the thanks of their constituents for keeping a sharp eye on the public interest. Green has an opportunity to continue to defend that public interest as a member of the conference committee that, ultimately, will work out a compromise between House and Senate versions of the budget bill.

Kudos to the Senate for demanding a closer look at this and other appropriations inserted by the House. It bodes well for a final version that works for all Alaskans.