WEEKS BEFORE IT’S DUE, HE’S LAYING A POLITICAL TRAP — IN PUBLIC
Gov. Bill Walker is the featured speaker at the “Make it Monday” Forum on Nov. 26, a weekly event produced by the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.
Walker’s topic?
The Walker Administration’s 2020 budget. The one he will not be implementing.
No governor has ever tried to paint the incoming governor into a corner the way Walker is about to do on Monday. He’ll likely give every group and constituency a going-away gift and set the stage for discord. He’s already told the Alaska Travel Industry Association that the budget will contain $12 million for the association — a promise he cannot keep.
The budget is not due until Dec. 15. Generally, a simple working budget is left by the outgoing administration for the incoming one to work with.
For Walker to make a presentation about his budget seems to be his way of sandbagging Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy, perhaps not for the last time.
When Walker took office in 2014, outgoing Gov. Sean Parnell left him a budget to work with, but did not attempt to back him into a corner by rolling it out in a public fashion. It was a “work in progress” budget that was handed over to the new administration privately as a deliberative document. Walker had two weeks to work with it before it was statutorily due to the Legislature. Rather than use that time and format a budget, Walker just filed it on Dec. 15 without his endorsement.
“As part of our commitment to having an open and transparent government, we are releasing the Parnell administration’s Work-In-Progress budget,” Walker said back then. “We appreciate the effort that the previous administration put in to giving us a starting point.”
Walker further indicated that he would make significant amendments to that Parnell budget, which were due in February. By then, he had eliminated most of the capital budget, including the shovel-ready Juneau Access project.
“Make it Monday Forum” is held at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage on Nov. 26, starting at 11:30 a.m.
I just can’t wait for this guy to go away already. He is very much dwelling in a cloud to not realize all the harm that has been done to this state under his lack of leadership.
Walker budgets have been rife with omissions and errors from the beginning. His OMB Director was the least competent since statehood, and Finance Committees let her get away with it. Walker protected state jobs over hard hat jobs in every budget yet the AFLCIO stood by him (so who really cares about any Walker budget anyway?). Alaskans have given Mike Dunleavy a mandate, and drastically reducing the Walker operating budget is completely aligned with that mandate. Walker cut unfilled positions and called them lay-offs. Walker signed budgets into law knowing new money was needed as soon as the legislature arrived in Juneau the coming year. The state CAFR comes out later every year, and the FY 2017 CAFR was latest in the US; later than PR! The duck has come up lame.
A couple of months ago Walker was promising the State Troopers pay raises for retention. Funny… he never said where that money was coming from either. With just about the lowest national rating as a Governor, he should have known he wasn’t getting re-elected. Tootles, Valdez can have you back, Thank God!!!!!
It will be hard to ever find a Governor worse than Walker, all he cared about in his time in office was all he cared about before it…a gas line that is not economically viable. Now instead of doing what is right and what was afforded to him when he came into office he will show himself as the little boy that he is.
Walker doesn’t care about this state or the people in this state, and he never did.
Good riddance.
Billy, please put about $50K aside for rehabilitating child sex predators who hold high office. Stipulate that the rehabbing will take place in the correctional facility in Seward (max unit) with the general population. And dont forget to turn off the lights on the Third Floor.
Really great comment. I also see this as a golden opportunity for the AK Native community to save its culture an fix it at the same time.
Yes, it is a great comment and needs to be properly addressed by the press. When is the Alaska fake news press going to tell us the full details about Byron Mallott’s plunge into child sex abuse and pedaphilia? This IS an important story. Alaskans deserve a full accounting of the immoral behavior of the Lt. Governor. Child safety issues are important to the people of this state. To hide it, cover it up, and ignore it is just SO wrong. Bill Walker should man-up and give a full accounting of this miserable episode that came under his watch. Please do a follow-up story, Suzanne.
Turning off the lights on the Third Floor of the State Capitol won’t save much money for Alaskans. It would be a better idea to spend some money and completely defumagate the stench Bill Walker and Byron Mallott left behind on the Third Floor.
If Mallott disappears with no consequences, then the law is an ass. And the fake news press is a bigger ass for letting him get away with it.
You’re belaboring the obvious – of course they’re donkey-eared democrats… protecting one of their own.
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