By Michael Tavoliero and Catherine Margolin
Eaglexit seeks to incorporate a home-rule borough that restores the proper balance between social power and state power by re-establishing local government as the servant of the people. Beneath every fiscal debate and administrative dispute lies one guiding purpose: return authority from distant bureaucracy to local citizens. Grounded in the Alaska Constitution, Eaglexit recognizes that all governmental power originates in the people and endures legitimately only when it protects their God-given rights and governs by their consent.
Through formation of local government, Eaglexit aims to build governance where laws serve freedom, communities direct their own affairs, and property, education, and opportunity are preserved as expressions of personal liberty. By reducing centralized control and reaffirming the people’s right to limited self-government, Eaglexit represents a peaceful, constitutional redistribution of power, returning it to the people, one person and one community at a time.
The Alaska Constitution reflects and preserves the Jeffersonian synthesis of the Declaration of Independence: the reconciliation of God-given rights with the consent of the governed. Thus, the embodiment of these principles renews a local government founded on liberty, consent, and moral accountability.
#1: Purpose of Government
Our communities seek a small local government to serve, not to rule. The Alaska Constitution affirms that our rights come not from the State but from God. The government’s purpose is to secure those rights, not define or limit them.
History shows freedom thrives when government remains simple, decentralized, and accountable. When laws multiply and authority grows distant, liberty weakens. Therefore, Eaglexit’s purpose is to restore government to its rightful foundation: limited power, answerable to the people, and devoted to protecting liberty, responsibility, and the common good. Sovereignty shall remain permanently with the citizens of local government, and no office or agency shall exercise powers not granted by them.
#2: The Jeffersonian Principle of Limited Government and Local Sovereignty
Restoring government to its smallest effective scale begins where authority rests with the people and rises only by their consent. Power is exercised within families, neighborhoods, and communities, delegated upward only when necessity demands, and confined to clearly defined purposes.
Thomas Jefferson recognized that both liberty and governance depend on the limits of human relationships. The capacity for connection and comprehension is finite. Just as we can nurture only a limited number of close relationships, we can effectively oversee only those governments that remain within the reach of our sight, understanding, and daily experience.
When power grows distant, it escapes public scrutiny and invites waste, fraud, and abuse. Keeping government near and narrow preserves liberty and responsibility.
#3: Fiduciary
Today’s local, state and federal governments suffer from the corruption of fiduciary trust. Citizens’ confidence has eroded under the weight of bureaucracy and preemption. Yet Alaska’s Constitution provides a corrective: it restrains government and limits it strictly to powers expressly granted. The State may act only within those bounds; the people, conversely, retain every right not denied.
As Article I, Section 21 declares, “The enumeration of rights in this constitution shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” This clause mirrors the U.S. Constitution’s Ninth Amendment affirming that government’s powers are restricted, while the people’s rights are infinite.
The fiduciary duty of local government begins when authority is delegated. From that point forward, officials are trustees, not masters. They must use every power and dollar for the people’s benefit, under the oversight of consent and accountability.
#4: Civic Renewal and Education
A free society depends on citizens willing to govern themselves. The Alaska Constitution entrusts all political power to the people, declaring government exists by their consent and for their benefit. This covenant renews civic participation as the heart of public life, allowing neighbors to deliberate openly and communities to set their own priorities while the government remains transparent and restrained.
Education stands at the center of that renewal. Public education bears the purpose of cultivating capable, thoughtful, and responsible citizens; individuals who reason freely, work cooperatively, and act with integrity. Schools must reflect local values, empower parents, and inspire every child toward excellence, curiosity, and civic purpose; nurturing in each student a lasting connection to our communities.
Fostering civic engagement and educational excellence builds competent institutions and a living community of self-governing citizens. Success will be measured not by the size of government but by the confidence of future generations.
#5: Stewardship and Intergenerational Trust
Every act of government carries a duty to those who come after us. That obligation extends to our community’s resources, land, infrastructure, and natural wealth management. All must be handled with prudence, transparency, and long-term sustainability. Stewardship means fiduciary duty carried forward in time; the obligation to ensure that the decisions we make today leave our progeny a community freer, stronger, and more prosperous than the one we inherited.
Is liberty lost whenever power is centralized? Freedom endures only when responsibility is shared; when each person holds a stake in public life and bears the weight of that trust. The vitality of a community flows out from individuals, families, and local assemblies, not down from the state.
Intergenerational trust requires more than budgets or infrastructure. It requires cultivating strong families, honest institutions, and a civic culture that prizes duty over privilege. The model of such stewardship ensures each generation grows in freedom, competence, and belonging. When people govern close to home, they govern with care. When they see their children’s future bound to the land and community they love, liberty ceases to be abstract and becomes a living inheritance.
Conclusion
Eaglexit’s five principles aim to create local government consistent with Alaska’s constitution, not to invent a new system. We insist that government exists to serve, not rule, and must govern only by the people’s consent. Our goals are limited government, lower costs, stronger schools, and a secure future for the next generation.
I hope they are successful in this effort.
They won’t be!!
Only one way to find out.
Unfortunately Eagle Exit does not have enough of their own $$$$ to fund the effort to separate, which should give people a clue.
Doesn’t mean anything if they don’t care and don’t vote. Look who they sent to Juneau.
Will they be like Anchorage and have their own police department? Or will they be like the Mat-Su Borough and let the state troopers do the policing for them?
While they may create their own police department, the current proposed plan is to contract that out to another municipality.
In the action to establish a “Home Rule Borough” is successful, they do not have police powers unless they vote the power in a general election effort. Yes, the State Troopers are the police power. Be aware, the Troopers really don’t want to be there, not in an ugly way, more a budget issue.
When Ketchikan made their last effort to suck the borough into consolidation, this was a big factor knowing the perchance of a government desire to control and grow with any acquisition of powers. It is just a natural outcome of any governmental action. In our case, the Troopers (Management) made it clear that if the consolidation went through the majority of trooper activity and station would be reduced to meet the obligations of government outside the consolidated outcome.
meaning most likely fish and game aspects of troopers would remain with the secondary role of acting as troopers where and when, but not as a ongoing shift assignments of being active road troopers.
The act that Eagle River is attempting is the correct one to achieve local governance. Particularly as it pertains to education, the biggest responsibility of such a move. Good luck and cheers for the effort.
Al Johnson-Past Assembly member-Ketchikan
This is EXCELLENT. Well written and to-the-point. I do hope that it succeeds for Eagle, even though I don’t live there. BRAVO!
Michael and Catherine,
I’ve copied item #4, regarding the purpose of education, and sent it to our school board.
Need to establish a sheriff department in lieu of a standard police model . Honestly, I dont see this exit being successful. Should’ve petitioned to join the MSB.
If Eagle River breaks off, Anchorage becomes a single party (ie Democrat) West Coast city like Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, or Honolulu.
No, Anchorage is not currently a single party city, our last Mayor was a Republican. But without the common sense that Eagle River voters bring to the table, Anchorage is lost.
And Eagle River is not an island. Anchorage does matter to Eagle River residents. Residents of Eagle River work, shop, and regularly travel to and through Anchorage.
Surrendering the most powerful city in the state to the left is a mistake that the state won’t easily recover from.
” becomes???? Its already been there for some time now. Just look at the miscreants on the Assembly look how that Republican mayor fared in office. Every policy, no matter how,beneficial, obstructed by the kooks of the Assembly
As a resident of Chugiak, I heartily support the efforts to get out from under the thumb of the Anchorage Assembly, which often votes in ways contrary to what the people of our communities believe. I am encouraged to see this effort moving forward, and pray that it will succeed.
In the spirit of self-determination, Eagle River, Chugiak, and Birchwood want a divorce from Anchorage due to irreconcilable differences.
Where Anchorage marches to the drumbeat of progressive policies that reward and nurture self-destruction, Eagle River, Birchwood and Chugiak are not yet fully suicidal.
Separation would allow each to go our own way and no longer would the Anchorage Assembly having to endure our endless volleys of logic, reason, fiscal restraint and social responsibility. Anchorage can go ahead and create the Utopia that the existence of Eagle River, Chugiak and Birchwood have prevented for all these years! Omelas can be yours! And we promise not to blow up the bridges.
Ultimately, EaglExit embodies the ideal that prosperity is most easily created when people govern themselves closest to home. Our parting ways needn’t be acrimonious, but it is long overdue.