Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL MORE PROOF THAT WOMEN ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD EDITION

Two Women, Two Jobs, One Conclusion

I had the pleasure of talking with two fine women on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and state Ombudsman Linda Lord-Jenkins. Both women have tough jobs and are doing them well.

Pretty much everybody in Alaska knows Murkowski. I met her when she was a state legislator and I was an ink-stained wretch. She was thoughtful and hard-working and, for the most part, non-partisan. Oh, she was – and still is – a Republican, but I always thought she was – and is – more interested in doing things the right way rather than the party way.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL OIL TAXES AGAIN. AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN. EDITION

Sean Parnell, Last of the Big Spenders

The Parnell administration is still flailing around, trying to find a pretext for hitting the oil industry in the palm with $1 billion or $2 billion a year until the sun goes out.

The rocket surgeons at the state Department of Revenue have tried a bunch of reasons for giving our money away: more jobs, more state revenue and keeping the trans-Alaska pipeline working. Finally, they settled on – all three. Plus anything else they can think of. Why, I once heard Commissioner of Revenue Bryan Butcher say that if we didn’t support the giveaway, we’d all have bad breath and dingy teeth. I immediately made a vow to switch my position on oil taxes – and floss more often.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL READ SOME OTHER WRITER EDITION

What, oil companies might not be telling the truth?

Dermot Cole, the columnist for the Fairbanks News-Miner, has been doing a bang-up job writing about how poorly the state is doing in extracting information from the oil companies and releasing it to the public.

If that sounds like a discussion that would put you to sleep so fast you’d get a concussion when your head hit the table, here are a couple of things to consider.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE $10 BILLION EDITION

I have started to try to get support for my bill to put $10 billion into the Alaska Permanent Fund. The bill is in the Powerful House Finance Committee, of which I am an insignificant member. I haven’t asked for a hearing yet; I want all the members of the House to have a chance to think about it first.

The bill has about the same chance to pass as a snowflake in Hades. There are many bills that offer us the chance to spend, spend, spend. Since spending is much more popular than saving – particularly in an election year – you can write your own script for poor House Bill 194. It won’t have a happy ending. But I’ll give you my pitch anyway.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL SHAVE THE WHALES – AND GIVE THE POLAR BEARS A HAIRCUT – EDITION

I really like Kyle Johansen. At least this week. Johansen, the Republican representative from Ketchikan, introduced a resolution Monday that was both funny and pointed. We see pointed ones all the time. But funny ones are thin on the ground. Very thin.

Now, resolutions don’t pack much punch. One legislator – I forget who – described resolutions as “letters to ourselves.” Since I’ve been in the Leg, we’ve sent many, many, many resolutions to the President and Congress, telling them to stop doing X or to send us a bunch of money for Y. So far as I can tell, the President and Congress have been impervious to our stern but well considered words about X. Unfortunately, they seem to be sending less and less money for Y, too.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL HE’S BACK! EDITION

Here I am. Again. It appears that the wages of sin are not death. They are 90 days in Juneau.

No, that’s not true. I like Juneau. And I have, for the most part, enjoyed my time in the legislature. It has been interesting and difficult, odd and entertaining. I have made some friends and a few enemies. You’d be surprised which was which. I know I was.

Rep. Doogan in Anchorage: SPECIAL BIG, BIG, BIG BUDGET EDITION

In case you missed it, here’s a Compass piece I wrote earlier this week.

State Budget, Spending Generate a Bunch of Exceptions

I don’t know if you’ve got enough money to be worth talking about. I don’t. But together, we — and every other Alaskan — have a pile of money. Not a Denali-sized pile, but nothing to sneeze at.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL WE’RE DONE! WE’RE DONE! (SORT OF) EDITION

My most recent e-news was last Friday. Saturday, we pulled the plug on the special session. It’s like I’ve always heard: In comedy, timing is everything.

What did we do in 117 days of sessions – 90 days of regular and 27 of special? We introduced 477 bills and resolutions. (Some were duplicates, introduced in both houses.) We passed 40 bills and an equal number of resolutions.

Only the bills really count. (Resolutions are notes we send to the Congress, the federal government and, all too often, to ourselves.) Some, like the capital budget (SB 46), are important. Others, like Alaska Public Gardens Day, less so.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL THIS IS (MAYBE) THE END EDITION; Deep Pockets and Little Shame

There’s some chance that this will be the final e-news for awhile.

That sound you hear is me cheering.

I’m more than ready to go home. We have spent most of the past month engaged in spectacularly unproductive politicking. There are lots of reasons. You can argue about them if you have the time and energy. What do I think? Let’s just say that the people with the most political power have earned the most blame and leave it at that.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: Special Can’t I Go Home Now Edition!

Save It For a Rainy Day? Perish the Thought

We are poised to pass an operating budget today. A mental health budget, too.
(I’ll pause here while you get the legislature-mental health jokes off your chest.)

The operating budget is the big casino, the money to pay for the day-to-day costs of state government. This year’s operating budget is just less than $9 billion – that’s $6.6 billion in state funds, $2.1 in federal funds. Next year’s operating budget, the one we’re working on now, is just more than $9 billion – that’s $6.9 billion in state funds, $2.1 billion in federal funds. That’s an increase of about 4 percent in state funds.