Sign of the times--"Peggy, prospects look dim. Hollis." A special session day six message sign held up in front of a Gavel-to-Gavel scene of an empty Senate chamber by Sen. French. The frugal Anchorage Dem saved a few cents with the sign. No long distance call home to his wife to give an update.

That protest stinks--The Kenai Peninsula Clarion reported Sunday that the self-proclaimed mayor of Clam Gulch (aka "Brother" Tom Patmor) and a buddy stood on a road in downtown Kenai protesting the governor's push for a jet. They held a sign saying "Governor's Jet Stinks" while a radio-controlled skunk sprayed water from, as the newspaper delicately reported, "its backside" onto a cardboard jet model.

Prove it--At a press conference last week the governor added a worker's comp bill to the not-so-special session agenda. The governor claimed we needed to adopt his worker's comp reform bill rather than the bill worked out by a business/labor group because of abuses in the system. He told the story of a fish crewman who fell off a barstool and collected worker's comp. If true, that would be pretty outrageous. But fishermen aren't covered by worker's comp--they're covered by the Fishermen's Fund. Even if they were covered, that guy couldn't get anything if he wasn't trying to catch fish off that barstool. The governor's press secretary said later the governor was telling an "allegory". That's different than a fib.

Better latte than never--One legislative office will have its coffee pot shipped north via DHL after it was yanked from the truck carrying legislative office paraphernalia north. It was removed from the truck after it was discovered the coffee pot wasn't empty. The pot was removed and the box resealed. The mailroom will repackage the pot and DHL it north. It might have been cheaper to just buy another pot when the office is re-established up north.

 
Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Email:
Senator.Kim.Elton
Jesse.Kiehl
Paula.Cadiente
Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

     It's day nine of a special session following the 121-day regular session. We still don't have a budget. The House and Senate leaders aren't talking. The governor's crooning the Sinatra standard 'I'll Do It My Way'.
     We're 130 days out from pre-session optimism. The stars aren't aligned as the Alaska GOP's leadership continues to crow. In astronomy terms, what we have instead is a string of black holes.
     This is my 11th session and I've seen nothing like this. At the end of my first 10 sessions, I've gritted my teeth as the majority leadership blamed Democrats for using the ¾ constitutional budget reserve vote to drive up spending by eight or nine million dollars for things like schools or children's services. For eight of those 10 years they also slathered blame on a Democratic governor for driving up spending and driving down comity.
     Now, all on their own, the so-called 'stars-are-aligned' (or
S-A-A politicians) crafted an operating and capital budget that right now totals about $5.1 billion in state funds (general funds, bonds, and various other state dollars). That's about 50 percent higher than the average of the last 10 years (in the neighborhood of $3.3 billion per year). It should be noted that eight of the previous leaner years, were years which were shepherded by Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles. He looks like a budget hawk now. Chop off inflation over the last 10 years and we're still talking big bucks this year for the S-A-A crowd.
     And forget about comity. That's at an all-time low. The house and senate leaders and governor aren't working together. If they were in charge of NASA, they couldn't coordinate the landing of an astronaut at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage using a commercial airline. 
     I guess the upside of this lack of leadership is that we haven't done much harm--so far. Despite a corrosive legislative culture that treats public employees as budget costs instead of professionals, we've not yet turned pension checks for future troopers and nurses and teachers and child protection workers into lottery tickets by shifting from a defined benefit (DB) to a defined contribution (DC) pension plan. 
     That's good because over the last two decades, state government payroll per worker has dropped 31 percent after adjustment for inflation. Given the erosion on the paycheck side, we're lucky some legislative leaders haven't yet been able to do a DC hit and run on the pension side during this special session. Their pension deform instead of reform will make it very difficult to attract and keep bright, committed public servants.
     There was an Alaska bumper sticker a couple of decades ago that proclaimed: "We don't give a damn how they do it Outside." Alaska politicians pushing the radical DC plan probably have that one stuck to the back of their plush office chairs. Pension reformers Outside are retreating from DC plans. Two of three other states that shifted from DB to DC pension plans later pulled back because they couldn't attract and retain quality public employees. And, unlike Alaska, those state's public employees have Social Security as a safety net.
     The experience of those two states proves pension experts are right when they say the DC plan pushed by the governor and the senate majority is wrong. Not only that, but the wrong-headed plan does not add a penny to underfunded pension funds. Shifting costs and risk to future employees does nothing more than shift costs and risk to future employees. 
     I voted an emphatic 'no' on the floor during the regular session to the DC pension deform plan, worked to slow the pension deform freight train in conference committee during the special session, and led the senate floor fight on the third day of the special session against the conference committee report that pushed the radical DC plan.
     We're counting on a majority in the House to listen to pension experts instead of fellow politicians. Last night, they went with the pension experts and voted 'no'. We'll see if they stick with the experts.
     But public employees weren't the only Alaskans dissed. Public school students also got a cold shoulder. This governor and legislature most likely will fall $15 million short of funding K-12 schools at a hold harmless level. If their school budget prevails in this special session, almost every school district in the state will cut even deeper than they have in the past. The legislature inflated this year's budget to the size of the Goodyear blimp but can't find a little gauze to stop classroom bleeding.
     Most legislators promised to do better on education funding during the campaign season. But, during the legislative season, the notion of being true to our schools flew out the window.
     One good thing did happen during the special session. I served on the conference committee that stripped odious provisions from an elections bill that allowed special interests to dump truckloads of cash into Alaska's political parties. Alaskans applauded seven years ago when we banned soft money from political parties and should be happy we thwarted efforts to sneak special interest money back into the political process. 
     Soft money for politicians is like lettuce for rabbits but, in this instance, we didn't eat the lettuce. Thank goodness! It means I can end this dispatch from special session purgatory by following advice from my mother--always try to say at least one kind thing each and every day.