Sen. Elton's Off the record

The governor, the jet and right or wrong

In politics, we too often focus on right or left rather than right or wrong. This column is all about right or wrong.
Jet You decide:

Is it right or wrong that the governor had his state jet drop him (and the first lady) off in Bellingham, Washington so they could meet up with their yacht?
Is it right or wrong that he had his state jet pick him up in Port Hardy, British Columbia when he got off his yacht?
Is it right or wrong that the governor used his state jet in a blitz to fly to Fairbanks where he announced he's running for governor, then Anchorage where he announced he's running for governor, then Kodiak where he announced he's running for governor?
Is it right or wrong for Alaska 's newspapers, radio stations, and television stations to not report on his use of his state jet?

     Can't make up your mind on these questions? Here are some details:
     On the yacht trip, the jet flew the governor and first lady from Anchorage to Bellingham May 12. The jet later picked up the governor from Port Hardy and flew him to Juneau . Total jet cost for these trips was $8,704.37. As a footnote: while the governor was jetting and yachting, the legislature was in the special session he called to deal with his energy tax bill and his gas pipeline contract.
     On the "I'm running for governor" barn-storming trip May 26, the governor hopped his state jet in Fairbanks (after announcing in the Golden Heart City), then flew to Anchorage for another campaign announcement, then flew to Kodiak for another announcement event, and then flew back to Fairbanks. Total jet cost for the round-robin announcements: $4,490.46.
     The costs are airtime only costs for crew, fuel and insurance for each hour the engines are fired up. All other costs for the jet are not part of the trip totals.
     These, of course weren't the only trips for the jet during the last 30-day reporting period. The jet spent 61 hours in the air for a total airtime cost of $106,149.76. Prisoner transport accounted for just over half that time and occurred during a five-day stretch in the 30-day reporting period.
     The only other jet trips of note occurred between May 22 and May 24 when the governor and first Wheel lady flew to Billings, then to Salt Lake City and back to Anchorage and a May 19 trip to Ketchikan then Petersburg where the governor got off to catch his yacht for a trip from Petersburg to Juneau. The Montana/Utah trip costs were $15,661.44 and the Juneau/Ketchikan/Petersburg trip costs were $2,784.56. The trip to Ketchikan and Petersburg coincided with a gas line hearing in Ketchikan and the Little Norway Festival in Petersburg .
     Back to questions 1-4 posed at the beginning of this column: I'd answer the first two questions this way: it was wrong to use the jet to drop off/pick up at the yacht's ports of call. I think question three is still open. If the governor pays back the $4,490.46 in jet costs on his announcement blitz, it edges toward being right instead of wrong.
     The answer to question 4 is absolutely, the press ought to monitor jet use. A few months ago the Associated Press did do one story about how the jet is being used but other than that it's been pretty quiet. The press ought not be focused just on the politics of right or left (conservative or liberal) and which side prevails. They also ought to report on activities of elected officials in a way that helps Alaskans make up their minds about whether the actions of folks they've hired are, quite simply, right or wrong.

Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Kim Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801

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Capitol Undercurrents

Fishy Somethin' fishy?-- One of the big sticking points for me in the gas pipeline contract the governor has negotiated with the multi-nationals is that we'd take our gas taxes and our gas royalty payments in kind, instead of in value (we'd be paid what's owed in raw gas rather than cold cash). Treating and selling gas is a quintessentially private sector function--not a government function. Taking what's owed to Alaska in kind rather than in cash when it comes to gas taxes and royalties seems as much of a non-starter as taking fish taxes in fish or mineral taxes in minerals. I can't see it being in the state's interest to take a fish, process the fish and then sell the fish in order to collect a fish "tax". Neither can I see us taking ore, smelting the ore and selling the mineral as a good way to handle taxes on the mining industry.

What's that?-- I spent a good portion of last weekend with many of my former classmates from the Manure JDHS Class of '66 (motto: Catch us if you can). Forty years ago and we all look just the same. That same weekend my mother attended an all years reunion with students of Valier ( Montana ) High School. She graduated 61 years ago and Valier is about the same size now as it was then--500 residents. As part of her reunion celebration, the former students had a parade through Valier and one of the floats was a flatbed truck loaded with manure. Gotta tell ya--my classmates would never, ever, even think of something like that.

I'd like to see that polling-- A full-page ad in the Juneau Empire railed against Ballot Measure 2 (the cruise ship passenger head tax initiative). But read through the whole ad and you'll not find the words cruise or ship or passenger. A friend in Anchorage told me she'd heard a radio ad and she said the radio ad also does not mention cruise or ship or passenger. I'm sure sophisticated polling played a part in the wording in print and for radio. Cruise/ship/passengers must not be as 'likable' as 'visitors'.

Award For a job well done-- Kudos to Marc Wheeler, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Alaska. Marc has been honored as 2006 CEO of the Year during the BBBS national conference in Indianapolis . A nationwide panel of staff peers and volunteers judged the awards, and used criteria such as growth in numbers of children served, revenue growth, and program quality. Under Marc's leadership as CEO, the number of children served regionally has quadrupled. BBBS of Southeast Alaska served 560 youth in one-to-one mentoring relationships in 2005 in the communities of Juneau , Sitka , Ketchikan , Yakutat, Hoonah, Haines, Skagway , Klukwan and Metlakatla. There are 424 other BBBS agencies in more than 5,000 communities across the country.

Fluffernutter angers legislator-- A Massachusetts legislator wants to ban schools from serving fluffernutters to students. A fluffernutter is apparently a regional phenomenon--a white bread sandwich of Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter. He was, he said, outraged that his son's school offered the sandwich as a main meal. He said he'll propose legislation to prohibit schools from offering the delicacy more than once a week as the main meal of the day.