All watered down

By
Suzanne Downing
-
3

By THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

You have to wonder sometimes what lawmakers in Juneau possibly could be thinking.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy in February offered a tough criminal justice bill. Instead of using the opportunity to make Alaskans safer, the House Majority watered down the measure, and then rushed to pack it with amendments and other bills over a few days, before calling it good and sending it to the Senate.

Almost unbelievably, there were page upon page of amendments at the last moment and Republican testimony was limited and no time was allowed for the minority to read the majority’s changes. To its credit, the House GOP minority did not buy in and voted no.

Apparently the ‘yays’ were not paying attention during the last election when Alaskans sick of crime and the state’s revolving door criminal justice system said they wanted changes, real changes in Senate Bill 91, a measure blamed for much of the crime surge in Alaska.

Despite the problems, there are some in the Legislature who cling to SB91, now law, and are trying to salvage it because its aim was to save the state money.

House Bill 49 may or may not save money, but it does Alaskans little good.

It is just something else to remember for the next election.

http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. “because its aim was to save the state money…”
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    Respectfully disagree…
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    It’s not about saving the state money.
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    It’s about the (expl del) in our so-called (expl del) legislature knowingly and deliberately allowing crime to increase to the point that only an income tax and a sales tax and a crime tax and some other kind of tax will solve the problem…
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    because after all it’s not a crime issue, it’s something that only paying more money to (expl del) state government will fix.
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    REALLY? Tell me something different!
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    BUT no worries… the Great Alaska LeDoux Vote Experiment and every other (expl del) thing like it assures productive Alaskans will be safe from (fill in the blank), no?.
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    Damn… you so-called legislators make me sick… can’t help but wonder how much of your self respect… assuming you had any… you had to sacrifice to ( expl del) us and satisfy your buyers.
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    Oh well, we’ll figure out something to get through it in spite of you (expl del)!
    .
    Starting with jury nullification…

    • You nailed it! Just like Healthcare legislation is not about giving people access to health care, it’s about making them dependent on the government. Bait and switch

  2. The Alaskan legislative cabal is nothing more than a lib/dim/wingnut platform to misinform, deceive and misrepresent the Alaskan conservative citizens. Nothing could be more obvious. The “bastardization” of the Alaskan political process is nothing more than a means to an end for the lib/dims. An unjustified assault on any opposing (conservative) view is underway. It will continue until conservative Alaskans decide to “inconvenience” themselves by voting. I am positive that there is a majority of Alaskan conservatives with the ability to take Alaska back from the supposed “representatives” currently in the majority in the state legislature, if only they will vote. C’mon, Alaskans, do what’s best for Alaska and Alaskans in the next voting cycle. Vote these liberal/socialist/pseudo representatives out! Take Alaska back! If we don’t, it’s our own fault for not putting out the effort to exercise our right to vote. Last cycle, only 47 percent of Alaskans voted. Shame on us, for letting the dims take our state away from us.

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