Note from Rep. Gara: End of Session, Pre “Unspecial Session” Update - The Good, Bad and Ugly.
April 17, 2012
Well, a flurry of bills passed the last 24 hours of the regular legislative session. I’ll give you the highlights and low lights, and a short preview of special session.
I’m able to write now that my blood pressure is back to normal. What caused the rise? The few legislators who pride themselves on blocking good legislation out of pure partisanship and animosity. Would anyone outside the Legislature (or Congress where the same stuff is done) really make the state a worse place just because you’re trying to block legislation by an “opponent” – or trying to make your opponent’s election chances worse? It’s a sick part of the legislative process that, I’m happy to say, most legislators don’t tolerate. But the few that do make life, and the state, worse for the rest of us.
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Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL HERE WE GO AGAIN EDITION
April 16, 2012
Just an hour away from a clean getaway
The legislature starts a special session Wednesday, the eighth in the six years I’ve been a part of the circus. There’s a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about this, especially among the freelance commentators, a surprisingly large number of whom can actually spell simple words. Unfortunately, all they have to offer to the discussion is spleen, and we’ve got plenty of that already.
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Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL I’M THINKING ABOUT MAKING A RUN FOR IT EDITION
April 6, 2012
Four bills Nine Days = Chaos
Nine days from the scheduled end of the session and we’re sending House bills to the Senate. Not to be too inside about it, but that means one of two things: 1) those bills are D-E-D dead; 2) we are going to be here longer than 90 days.
All the talk here is about option #2. Here’s why.
There are four important bills left: the operating budget, the capital budget, the bill to greatly expand the power of a new agency to build an in-state gas pipeline (HB 9) and the bill to hand more money to the oil industry (SB 192).
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Note from Rep. Gara: The End (Of Session) Is Near. Or It Isn’t. An Update Anyway.
April 2, 2012
We have a number of priorities that have passed, may pass, or are on life support but could pass in the next 14 days. One of our priorities is NOT an extended Special Session that takes us past the voter-approved 90-day session. And when I say “special,” I mean it in the way an irritated woman in a bar calls an annoying drunk guy with unending and bad pickup lines “special.”
I think we can get our work done on time, but I’m one of sixty votes. I won’t detail these bills, but this week there will be a constitutional amendment to provide state money to private and religious schools – something I think will detract from needed support for public education, and will vote against.
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Rep. Kerttula’s Juneau Newsletter: Coastal Management Program Ended, Plus: Juneau Fares Well in Budget Vetoes
July 1, 2011
At the end of an eventful week, there’s bad news and good news. First, the bad news. The special session that started on Monday this week ended with the House failing to pass an extension for the Alaska Coastal Management Program. The good news is that Juneau escaped relatively unscathed in the capital budget vetoes announced by the governor on Wednesday. More about both are discussed below.
Thanks for reading my newsletter. I enjoy hearing from you, so please stop by the office, call, write or email.
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