Vic Fischer’s birthday ‘bash’ of the governor

By
Suzanne Downing
-
6

The last surviving signer of the Alaska Constitution used his birthday trip to Juneau to appear in front of a Democrat-controlled committee and bash Gov. Michael Dunleavy’s proposed constitutional amendments.

Vic Fischer, who was the second youngest member of the 55 members of the 1955-1956 Constitutional Convention, appeared at the request of the House State Affairs Committee Chairman Zack Fields, an Anchorage Democrat.

“It’s not the governor’s responsibility to put constitutional amendments before the people,” he told the committee. “The constitution says two thirds vote of the membership of each house.”

Dunleavy has asked the House and Senate to approve sending three constitutional amendments to voters that he believes will stabilize the financing of government going forward:

  1. Spending cap
  2. No taxes without a vote of the people
  3. Enshrine the Permanent Fund dividend calculation method in the constitution.

Fischer, who is somewhat of a living oracle for the Alaska Constitution, said he was “appalled” by the idea that voters could put limits on taxation and tie legislators’ hands. Putting the Permanent Fund dividend formula in the Constitution is “preposterous,” he said.

The concepts the governor has put forth in three bills require two-thirds support from both the House and the Senate to be placed before voters, an unlikely scenario, given this year’s makeup of the legislative bodies.

Watch a section of his testimony here.

As Fischer turned 95 (on May 5), he was feted in an evening reception in his honor at the Capitol today, attended by many legislators and staff members. Fischer served as a state senator as a Democratic the 1980s.
Vic Fischer, 95, talks with Sen. John Coghill, son of the late Jack Coghill, who was also at the constitutional convention. The two chatted during a birthday party for Fischer. Jack was born in 1925, Fischer in 1924.
As a partisan Democrat, Fischer in 2013 called for the impeachment of Gov. Sean Parnell, due to his signing tax reform legislation SB 21 in 2013, a measure that was passed by both the House and Senate, and later was supported by voters who turned down a Democrat-led referendum to overturn it.
True to his core, Fischer was a loyal supporter of Bill Walker and was named to his transition team when Walker won election in 2014. But in 2018, when Mark Begich challenged Walker for governor, Fischer quickly turned his support to Begich.