Picking up speed

We've got just more than a month left in the regular session, and the pace is beginning to accelerate. Committees are moving more bills and, on Friday, we put three bills and two resolutions across the floor on nearly unanimous votes. By the standards of the session so far, that's heavy lifting.

Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

In fact, 30-plus days might not be long enough. The big unknown is whether the House and Senate can pass, and then agree in conference on, Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. There is opposition to key provisions of the bill in both the House and Senate, and any real battle could easily spill past the 121-day session limit. One problem is that, so far, whatever political apparatus the governor might have at her disposal has not been working the bill.

Just give me the money

Groups continue to trek through my office. Most of them are looking for money. Wednesday, it was the Alaska Travel Industry Association and the Governor's Commission on Vocational Rehabilitation. Thursday, it was the University of Alaska student government. And so on. Since I'm not on the Finance Committee, talking with them probably helps me more in terms of information than it helps them in terms of moolah.

A lot of money, honey

Somewhere in the Capitol Building, someone is working right now to put together this year's capital budget. The rumor is that it will contain what is known as "discretionary capital," money that legislators get to dole out in their districts; more or less the legislative version of Congressional earmarks. Good government people hate discretionary capital because the spending bypasses any review by either the executive branch or the legislative committee process. I would deplore it, too, except that as a kid staffer down here in the 1970s, I was in on the birth of discretionary capital. So, like Claude Raines, I could be shocked, shocked that such things go on in this building. But I think I'll give the phony outrage a rest.

Money, that's what I want

The legislature is, at the moment, completely wrapped around the axle on financial assistance for senior citizens. A bill that would have replaced the longevity bonus with needs-based payments got pulled off the floor when House members wouldn't agree to repeal the bonus. Then the Senate passed a bill that gives less money to fewer needy seniors. And while the longevity bonus program still breathes, there is no money to fund it in any piece of legislation in the building. As Yosemite Sam might say, Jumping Jehosephat!

Best Wishes,