Parnell, Walker meet at Juneau Chamber of Commerce debate

Gov. Sean Parnell and candidate Bill Walker both attended a debate Monday afternoon hosted by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce. Libertarian candidate Carolyn Clift was unable to attend.

Additional funding for continued improvements to the Alaska Marine Highway System is a concern for the chamber.  Walker said he knows how important ferries are to Southeast, but that like all other things funding for improvements would also be on the table when the time comes to tighten the budget. He also said funding Juneau Access, the road out of Juneau, would also have to be considered among numerous infrastructure projects across the state.

Bill Walker (right) addresses a press conference about his decision to join Byron Mallott (left) on a Unity Ticket. (Photo by Anne Hillman/KSKA)
Bill Walker (right) addresses a Sept. 2, 2014 press conference about his decision to join Byron Mallott (left) on a Unity Ticket. (File photo by Anne Hillman/KSKA)

“It’s a great goal,” Walker said. “I look at our fiscal situation, I look at the long-term forecast of deficit spending for the next 10 years, we have to put all of these on the table and find out what can we do? I don’t know that we can do them all.”

Parnell said he supports continued funding for the road and improvements to the ferry system.

The chamber asked the candidates how they would help streamline development projects. Walker said local input is the best way to streamline development and that the Coastal Zone Management program was a way to help with that.

“If we continue to push local input away we’re going to see more and more challenges brought (in the) form of litigation,” Walker said. “There’s no quicker way to slow a project down than to push away local input and that just invites litigation.”

Parnell said that there still are plenty of ways for local governments to comment on proposed development.

“I agree that local input is significant and important and we should not be diminishing it in quality,” Parnell said. “When he mentioned the coastal zone management program that did go away after a legislative resolution and an executive branch resolution was not able to be reached. But local governments and local communities still have a myriad of ways to have local input on permitting issues and disputes.”

When asked about how the lieutenant governor’s office will influence policy decisions, Parnell said he knows that the office  can be a solitary place and that it also can be part of an “inclusive decision making process.”

Gov. Sean Parnell talks about Southeast issues during the Southeast Conference's Mid-Session Summit Jan. 12, 2014. He wants the gas line's benefits to be shared with coastal communities. (Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News
Gov. Sean Parnell talks about Southeast issues during the Southeast Conference’s Mid-Session Summit Jan. 12, 2014.  (Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

“When it comes down to it, the real question is, ‘Whose agenda controls?’ And it comes down to the constitution,” Parnell said. “The governor has the authority of the people to exercise the powers of the office. You cannot have co-governors in this office. It cannot work that way.”

Parnell also questioned the fairness of the Walker/Mallott ticket. He said those who wrote the constitution intended for a system where voters picked candidates from one party and the other.

“I don’t think they ever planned for what just happened with the disenfranchisement of voters who voted in the other primary,” Parnell said.

The chamber asked the candidates if they supported loser-pay legislation to prevent “frivolous lawsuits” when it comes to environmental permitting for major projects. Walker said the he thinks the current law is sufficient.

“That’s the process we have now. In fact we had the opportunity today to go after attorney’s fees on the litigation filed by the Republican Party against us and we said no,” Walker said. “(Just) because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

Parnell said lawsuits aimed at preventing the permitting of a project should be subject to loser-pay provisions. Currently a litigant who initiates and then loses a “public interest” lawsuit is not required to pay the defendant’s attorney fees. Parnell said that should change.

“We have room to improve there,” Parnell said. “There ought to be some kind of cost to filing frivolous lawsuits and it’s worth examining.”

Juneau Chamber CEO Cathie Roemmich said that the questions for the debate were developed by the organization’s government relations committee and were provided to the candidates ahead of time. Roemmich said it was the first year that the chamber provided the questions in advance and did so to make the debate go more smoothly than it has in previous years.

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