April 9, 2015 Voice Your Opinions! Letters to the editor make a difference. You can send a letter of up to 200 words (shorter letters are more likely to be accepted) to the Alaska Dispatch News by email (letters@alaskadispatch.com); or by fax or mail (call them at 257-4308). Send letters to the Anchorage Press via e-mail editor@anchoragepress.com or by mail to 540 E. Fifth Ave, Anchorage, 99501. Feel free to call us if you need factual information to help you write a letter. Contact the Governor. The Governor can be reached at 269-7450; or www.alaska.gov. Contact us. My office can be reached at: 733 W. 4th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501; by phone: 269-0106; visit my website at http://gara.akdemocrats.org; or email: Rep.Les.Gara@akleg.gov

Dear Neighbors:

Since I asked for this job, I can’t say, at the weirdest Juneau moments, “Help! Get me out of here!” I actually love representing you in Juneau. Things are a bit frantic at work.  But I want you to know what's happening. You are heartily invited to write letters to the editor to get the public activated, if you feel that's appropriate.

That Shiny New Anchorage Legislative Office Building:  I like work, but I don’t need an office in a shiny, expensive new Anchorage Legislative Office Building with glass elevators when I am not in session.  The building we had on 4th Avenue cost us $685,000 a year.  Through a sole-source contract it was replaced with a new glass one at a cost of $4 million/year?  That’s a roughly 500% increase in cost.

I opposed it then, and voted and sponsored an amendment to do everything I could to save costs on this excessive luxury.  We knew we’d have a budget problems last year, and, well, we have worse ones than we thought.  The Walker Administration is offering space in the Governor’s/State building on 7th Avenue at a fraction of the cost.  And the Legislative building includes a lease term requiring “Legislative Approval,” which it never received – and certainly not from me.  It is my hope that there are the votes in Juneau to get Alaska out of that ill-conceived, high-cost lease, and move into more modest, much cheaper space when we are in Anchorage, and not in session.  Stay tuned and chime in.

Education.  The current GOP Senate proposal is, well, “not so awesome” in my view.  Last year HB 278 was passed, and included a proposal for next school year that will cause more significant cuts in the Mat-Su, Juneau, and Fairbanks School Districts and others.  Anchorage WAS “sort of” spared because they keep reserves for lean times, and were able to as Alaska's largest School district. 

But the latest budget will cause roughly 140 teacher and staff losses. I and other Democrats think we need smart cuts - the Governor proposed a soft landing with his cuts of $250 million - cuts that aren't so deep that they drive the economy into a recession.  I think a number in that range, or modestly larger, would work.

Right now the state is not only failing to keep school funding even with inflation, even if the Legislature honored its promised 2015-16 school year funding passed last year, but the Legislature is doing way worse by our students. There is now a cut of $79 million below the funds promised last year.  The school cuts will be deep and, more importantly, harm academic opportunity for many students significantly.

Here is a link to a more detailed note I wrote recently. We can’t run a state, and build an economy by damaging a child’s academic potential.

Fish

I know budget time is an odd time to talk about fish. If you haven’t noticed, I think about fishing a lot. Below you will see a letter I wrote with Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-Ketchikan) challenging a proposal to dewater and dredge 11 miles of a prized salmon stream, the Chuitna River. A Canadian developer wishes to take coal from this salmon stream bed, ship it to China, and supposedly rebuild the stream in 30 years. As we wrote in the letter, fishing streams aren’t Doritos. You can’t just “make more.”

As always, call with any questions or thoughts.

My Best,

Kimberly Sager
Department of Natural Resources
550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1070
Anchorage, Alaska 99501-3514

Re: Chuitna In Stream Flow Application: Necessary To Prevent Unacceptable Damage to Wild
Salmon Habitat

Dear Ms. Sager:

We are writing because the idea that an outside coal developer would be allowed to dewater, and strip 11 miles of streambed from the Chuitna River drainage is not acceptable or consistent with protecting our fisheries. As you know, the proposal is to dig up 11 miles of salmon stream bed, strip-mine coal, kill off wild salmon, and destroy wild salmon habitat. That is a 1920’s approach to mining. Responsible mining is fine. Mining that kills off wild salmon, and dewaters a wild fish drainage is an outdated, dangerous, and unacceptable practice in the 21st Century.

We support the Chuitna Citizens Coalition’s in stream flow application, which would guarantee that necessary water remain in a stream the developer wants to de-water. Fishing streams are not like Doritos. You can’t just make more. And destroying important wild salmon habitat that is important to sport, commercial, and subsistence fishermen, unacceptable by itself, is even more unacceptable when done by a foreign company to sell coal to China.

Allowing this stream to be dewatered - and fictionally “repaired” 30 years from now as is proposed, takes Alaska’s resources and the benefit to Alaskans from our resources, and gives them away in a manner that violates the Language and spirit of our constitutional mandate that resources, including “waters” be developed and “conserve[ed]” for the “maximum benefit” of Alaskans. Alaska Const. Art.8, Sec. 2. Read with the Alaska Constitution, Alaska law requires that the in stream flow applications be granted to protect this fisheries resource, and not sacrifice it for little Alaska benefit.

The Chuitna River is home to all five species of wild Pacific salmon, and will be drastically affected by the removal of 100 percent of the water from Middle Creek, which is especially important to Coho salmon.

We urge you to not create terrible fisheries precedent in a state that has been working to restore damaged wild fisheries from the Yukon to Southeast.

Thank you for considering our comments.
Our best,
Rep. Les Gara
Rep. Dan Oritz

cc:
Mark Myers, Commissioner, Department of Natural Resources
Marty Rutherford, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Natural Resources
Trout Unlimited
Alaska Center for the Environment
Alaska Conservation Voters