Once More Unto the Committee
The Judiciary Committee spent a lot of the last two weeks hearing the governor’s wish list of rewrites to the Alaska Constitution. You probably remember he wants to put the PFD in there. You may not recall he also wants a spending cap so tight we have to cut the budget just about every year forever, and to make it almost impossible for anyone to pass a tax. Ready for a peek?
SJR 5 would re-write the spending cap Alaskans adopted in the early 1980s. To be fair, that cap never accomplished much. But that’s kind of the point. After the pipeline boom when our economy crashed hard in the 1980s, the legislature and governor cut the budget. It was hard but it happened. Then again after the state had money and met a lot of pent-up needs in the late 2000’s and early teens, the legislature reduced spending by billions. No constitutional cap needed.
SJR 5 would rewrite the constitution so no matter what future Alaskans want, need, or can afford we could only look back at an average of the preceding three years, adjust it for population growth or inflation (not both!) and spend no more. Even if the state was growing like gangbusters and inflation were high (which is exactly what happened during the pipeline boom.)
So how to meet Alaskans' needs if it passes? Like squishing a limp balloon, future Alaskans could distort things in weird ways to let off a little pressure. We could borrow every possible nickel, since bonds are exempt. We could create a bunch of new state toll corporations to run the roads, airports, prisons (funded through inmate labor?), &c. because public corporations are exempt. Or we could slide almost all the cost of education and public safety over to local governments to free up room under the state cap. Just... try not to think about the property tax bills.
Next up: SJR 6 is the attempt to constitutionalize the PFD. It's not crazy, but the execution is a little strange. The bill sets up a Percent of Market Value approach to the fund, which is good. But it doesn’t limit the draw. Instead, it lets the legislature set the draw percentage by statute. So future legislators could take 7% per year. Or 10%. Regardless of what the fund earns. That’s not safe.
It also says there would have to be a portion of the draw for dividends. The governor’s idea locks in whatever split between checks and services is on the books when the voters approve the amendment. He has a bill to go to 50/50. You’d need a vote of the people to change it—up or down. Mind you, his bill wouldn't need a vote, but future ones would.
Last but weirdest is SJR 7. It says the Alaska Constitution doesn’t like taxes. I mean, there are more words, but that’s it in a nutshell.
With SJR 7, if the legislature creates a tax, not only does it have to get past the governor’s veto pen (and the highest veto override threshold in 50 states) it then has to be approved by the voters in a plebiscite. Our constitutional referendum power already lets voters void laws they don’t like, but this would have to happen every time.
Before you assume SJR 7 is a ‘trust the people’ thing, it goes on to say if the people create a tax by initiative, it has to be approved by the legislature. So: we can’t trust legislators to tax, we have to go ask the voters. But we can't trust the voters to tax, they need permission from the legislature. Oddly, none of these hurdles apply to deleting or reducing a tax.
The bill somehow manages to be anti-republican (small ‘r’) and antidemocratic at the same time. A rare feat. (It's also so broad it can't be done with a constitutional amendment. It's a revision that has to go to a constitutional convention. But that's another story.)
I keep searching for a coherent theory of government that would explain all of these. After all, a constitution is supposed to set up the system well enough to run itself from adoption to the ending of the world. But I'm stuck.
These boil down to: Government services bad, taxes bad, government checks good. Oh, and elections should only matter when they go my way.
I don’t think that’s a strong foundation for Alaskans to build a healthy, prosperous state.
