By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins spoke at Wednesday’s Chamber of Commerce meeting about the state’s need for fiscal responsibility without draconian cuts or depletion of the Permanent Fund.
While he was critical of many of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s policies, the Sitka Democrat said he was happy about the bi-partisan cooperation in the Legislature. Kreiss-Tomkins, now in his fourth term in the state House, said the current session has been an “all time high in terms of intra-legislative cooperation and general functionality.”
But he went on to say he was “deeply concerned about the governor’s agenda.” He called certain parts of the governor’s budget cuts, such as sudden reductions to senior citizen care and the attempt to shut down the ferry system, as “unconscionable and unforgiveable.”
Kreiss-Tomkins said he would support a tax to help alleviate budget shortfalls.
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. (Sentinel Photo)
He also worried that Dunleavy was trying to stack the state Board of Fisheries, which wields a great deal of power over management of fishery resources, with sport fishing advocates, to the detriment of commercial fishing interests. He concluded that “the balance on the Board of Fish, which has tremendous implications in a place like Sitka and in our economy, is in peril.”
Kreiss-Tomkins summed up the concerns among legislators of both parties regarding the governor’s intentions for the state, as ranging from “serious to existential.”
He described the recall effort now underway as “a freight train hurtling down the tracks.”
“If the recall election were held today, this governor would no longer be the governor,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
He also expressed his belief that the Legislature needs to act to protect the assets of the Permanent Fund from appropriation, noting that only about two-thirds of the fund is safe from spending. The Permanent Fund has two parts, the principal and the earnings reserve, he explained. The principal, which comprises about two-thirds of the total dollar amount of the fund, is constitutionally protected from being spent, while the one-third represented by the earnings reserve is subject to appropriation by the Legislature.
Kreiss-Tomkins said that “whatever the flavor-of-the-day idea is, that cash (in the earnings reserve account) can be liquidated by a simple majority vote” in the Legislature. He noted that this has nearly happened in the past.
Kreiss-Tomkins said he hopes to “make the entirety of the Permanent Fund permanent,” and called the Legislature’s recent approval of the transfer of $5 billion from the earnings reserve into the unspendable principal a “huge victory.”
The Sitka legislator said Dunleavy’s attempts to spend portions of the earnings reserve would “mortgage the future – tax the future of Alaska.”
