Last Minute Wrangling Mars End of Session
Caucus pleased with successes despite flawed process

Juneau - While praising passage of landmark legislation that could eventually lead to an Alaska natural gas pipeline, members of the Senate Republican Caucus expressed disappointment at end-of-session conflicts over funding for revenue sharing, education and the retirement systems that snarled an orderly adjournment.

“Unfortunately we ended with what the media labeled ‘legislative chaos of the worst kind.’ This seems to have stemmed from a lack of communication between the Senate leadership and the House of Representatives and is likely to overshadow some of the good work that was accomplished this year,” said Senate Minority Leader Gene Therriault, R-North Pole.

Caucus members were pleased with passage of a comprehensive ethics package that addresses lobbying and disclosures laws in both legislative and executive branch ethics statutes, and with enactment of an omnibus anti-crime bill that makes a number of statute changes relating to the state’s legal, correctional and public safety systems.

Members of the caucus voiced concern over the size and sustainability of the capital and operating budgets.

“We can whistle past the graveyard, but the fact is, we are going to pay the piper here very soon, and we need to figure out how we are going to fill fiscal gaps. Those will come sooner than later if budgets grow at 20 or 25 percent,” said Sen. Gary Wilken, R-Anchorage, who served from 2003 to 2006 as co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Escalating budgets also give rise to the need for a long range fiscal plan, which was proposed by Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, but stalled in the Senate Finance Committee this year.

“I was very disappointed that the Senate chose not to discuss or implement a long-term fiscal plan. With the information we now have, we know that we are probably going to be in a deficit budget situation at least a year from now, and I consider that to be irresponsible,” Dyson said.

Equally disappointing was the lack of legislative action on a bill that would have required school districts to define “unexcused absence” and provide interventions for truancy.

Senate Bill 31 was pre-filed by Sen. Con Bunde, R-Anchorage, in January, but never moved from its first committee of referral.

“Reducing truancy is important not only because we want our children to stay in school, but it’s also closely related to juvenile crime. The attorney general’s office informed me today of the strong correlation between truancy and the rate of murder because so many truants are also vulnerable as runaways. I have great hopes that next year the committee process will work and we’ll be able to move the truancy bill forward.”

Also left on the table was Senate Bill 80, which would have prevented oil companies from deducting costs of repairs due to lack of maintenance or improper maintenance of property or equipment.

“We fought the good fight and we didn’t get the bill cleared through the process, we’ve got next year, maybe we’ve got a special session, we’ll just have to see what comes down,” said Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Anchorage.

Therriault also noted that a bill he pre-filed in January that would have tightened security measures pertaining to personal information and addressed the increasing risk of identity theft never received a single hearing.