Astounded by the Gov.'s Remarks By Glen Thompson February 10, 2014
I just listened to Governor Parnell interview with KRBD in Ketchikan regarding an unplanned visit to our fair city. I was astounded by his remarks. After over six years of appeals to the legislature and the administrations of both Governor Parnell and Governor Palin, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough filed a last resort lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of state statutes that require a local contribution for schools. What was astounding was that a sitting governor, who is running for re-election, publicly announced that Ketchikan’s court challenge will likely reduce our future chances of state funding. A powerful governor, who proposes budgets and holds line item veto, publicly threatening retaliation against his citizens exercising their rights is downright chilling. Whether you agree with Ketchikan’s lawsuit or not, this should give all Alaskans pause. The message, “don’t challenge us or you will suffer”, is not only arrogant and threatening but should there be actual retaliation, it is probably grounds for another yet another constitutional legal challenge or possibly even impeachment. Equal protection is also guaranteed by the state constitution, “...all persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law; and that all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the State” (Article 1, Section 1). Much of what the governor said in the interview also just isn’t true. He implied that Ketchikan had the same choice as the unorganized areas of the state whether to become a borough, which is simply false. The legislature, in 1963, mandated formation of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough (and others) with a promise that doing so would not penalize us. He said that folks in unorganized boroughs choose to forego the benefits of being organized which I guess is code for not paying local taxes since state funds are certainly spent in unorganized areas of the state. Perhaps the Ketchikan Gateway Borough should petition to dissolve instead? He characterized the local contribution as a way for local folks to connect with their schools, which strangely would imply that folks who live in the unorganized boroughs have lesser quality educational opportunity given their lack of such a connection. That would be a dereliction of duty by the state to provide a quality education would it not? And finally, he completely ignored the fact that if the state didn’t shirk their responsibility to fully fund basic need, our so-called “connection” could be even stronger given that we could actually contribute more money to our schools (called funding to the cap)! This governor and the legislature have congratulated themselves for fiscal responsibility for building up the budget reserves over the years on the backs of local taxpayers, over $12 billion by latest count yet they are freaking out about where to find $217 million in the budget annually when Ketchikan wins its case. Perhaps the reserve accounts would not have ballooned so much had the state been fully funding schools as required by the constitution. Perhaps the state hasn’t done such a stellar job after all especially given that the state operating budget over the past 10 years has also ballooned out of control, more than doubling to over $8 billion per year, yet they can’t seem to find an additional 2.5% to fully fund schools? Change is needed in Juneau methinks! Glen Thompson About: Glen Thompson is a member of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. Received February , 2014 - Published February 10, 2014 Listen to the Full Interview:
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