Politics

Well, Alaska Appears To Be On Fire, Legally Speaking

The governor is getting blinded by so many lawsuits he probably can't even see Russia anymore.

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I could have also gone with a picture of a salmon. (File Image)

I don’t know much about Alaska. I imagine it’s a cold place filled with bears and white people who go out to hunt for fresh oil on the weekends.

But I do moderately understand how laws are supposed to work, and I think that knowledge makes me more qualified to be Governor of Alaska than the current Governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy. I’m sure I could learn what to do when my dog-sled team leader pulls a hamstring on my way to work. Dunleavy seems incapable of learning what to do when his state legislature objects to his policies.

Governor Dunleavy has been sued three times THIS WEEK, over his attempts to slash-and-burn the Alaskan state budget, line-by-line. From Courthouse News:

An unprecedented call by Dunleavy for the Legislature to meet in special session outside the state capital ended with a split of 22 legislators meeting in Wasilla and 38 in Juneau, quashing any attempts at reaching 45 votes needed to override the vetoes. That action produced the Tuesday lawsuit from the Alaska Legislative Council…

The Alaska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the most recent lawsuit Wednesday in Anchorage Superior Court, claiming one of Dunleavy’s 182 line-item vetoes is an unconstitutional and retaliatory move against the state’s court system.

The ACLU seeks injunctive relief to reverse the $344,700 cut to the Alaska Court System by declaring it illegal under state law and a threat to the separation of powers…

And on Monday, Anchorage attorneys Kevin McCoy and Mary Geddes sought to invalidate Dunleavy’s choice of Wasilla as the location for the special legislative session, and the implementation of his 182 line-item vetoes.

“No previous governor has ever called the Legislature into a special session outside of the capitol,” that complaint states. McCoy and Geddes say that in doing so Dunleavy improperly intruded on the independence of the Legislature.

Here’s the complaint objecting to the Wasilla location, here’s the complaint objecting to the attempt to stop the veto vote, and here’s the complaint over Dunleavy’s retaliatory budget cuts aimed at the courts.

And that’s just the law; on policy, Dunleavy’s line item cuts include:

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  • a 41% cut in funding ($155 million) to the University of Alaska; University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen said that would cut 1,300 jobs;
  • a 30% cut to Health and Social Services, including a $271 million cut (40%) to Medicaid;
  • a 25% cut ($334 million) to K-12 schools;
  • a 38% cut to the Department of Transportation ($97 million);
  • a 100% cut to public radio broadcasting ($2 million).

Look, if you ask me, line-item vetos are bad and unconstitutional to begin with, and I’ve thought that since back when Bill Clinton was asking for one. Here, it appears that Dunleavy is making all these cuts to preserve a campaign promise, increasing the oil dividend provided to each Alaskan from $1,600 to $3,000 per person.

Yeah, I just learned that each Alaskan gets an oil handout from the government. See, I can do this job. Unlike Dunleavy, I’m willing to study up about things I don’t understand.

Alaska in Turmoil Over Slash-and-Burn Budget [Courthouse News Service]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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