Kerttula looks back on legislative session

Beth Kerttula
Representative Beth Kerttula speaks to the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. KFSK file photo.

Alaska’s House Minority Leader calls the just completed legislative session the worst ever.

Representative Beth Kerttula says there were a few bright spots. But overall, the Juneau Democrat was frustrated and angered by much of what lawmakers did this year, especially the decision to cut oil taxes. She believes the impact to the state’s bottom line will be devastating.

“History will show that this was the worst session and that the oil tax giveaway was the worst problem that the state faces,” Kerttula says.

House Republicans, who have a three-quarters majority, offered a different take, expressed by Majority Leader Lance Pruitt (R-Anchorage) the day after adjournment.

“It’s just been a dynamic year. I look forward to being able to tell my kids years from now that I was a part of the legislature that did the things that we did this session,” Pruitt said.

Supporters say the changes to the state’s oil tax system are aimed at encouraging more development in Alaska. But they’ve also likened the chances of that happening to a crap shoot.

Kerttula is one of the sponsors of an effort to get a citizen’s referendum on the ballot to overturn the oil tax cuts.

“The history of our state is one of people coming in and taking our resources and leaving,” she says. “It’s been the gold and the copper and the fish and the fur. And we can’t let that happen with the oil.”

“It’s our constitutional duty to mandate the benefit to our state and we’ve just done this without one shred of evidence or guarantee that we’re going to have more production or that we’re going to have a benefit for Alaska,” Kerttula says.

She’s also frustrated lawmakers failed to pass a long-term plan for education funding. Just at the end of session, they added a one-time injection of $21 million for school security, energy relief and other fixed costs. She says that’s not enough.

“What I want to see is an overall plan of how we reduce class size,” Kerttula says. “We put the money back in the classroom and we do it in a consistent, dependable way rather than just this a pittance here, a pittance there.”

Kerttula says she’s proud that the twelve member, bipartisan Bush Caucus joined the House Minority in opposing a measure that could pave the way for a school voucher system in Alaska. Senate Joint Resolution 9 remains in committee. It seeks voter approval for a constitutional amendment to allow the use of public funds to help pay tuition for students in private schools.

“I don’t have any problem with a family saying we want to pay for or have our children go into private school,” she says. “But that isn’t even realistic in rural Alaska, even if you wanted to do it. So, if this voucher system happens, it’s a real undermining of public education, particularly in rural Alaska.”

Kerttula was glad lawmakers also held up a measure Governor Sean Parnell proposed to streamline the state’s permitting process for development. House Bill 77 also would allow the government to take away people’s filings for water rights. It was held up in the Senate, where it currently lacks enough votes to pass.

“And that happened because of the dedication of quite a few, even former, legislators, who came in and said this just can’t happen,” Kerttula says. “You can’t turn it over wholesale like that, there’s just too may issues about what happens to people’s rights, their ability to a public process. And we saw a number of bills like that that were coming through very quickly.”

Kerttula says she was relieved that a House and Senate conference committee restored $550,000 that had earlier been cut from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Southeast port sampling program which is used to manage the region’s salmon fisheries.

Along with downtown Juneau and Douglas, Kerttula’s new legislative district this year includes Petersburg as well as Skagway, Gustavus and Tenakee Springs.

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