Rep. Mike Doogan in Juneau - Legislative Newsletter

Apparently we are not going to pass an oil tax bill this session. Fine by me. Maybe the delay will allow Gov. Sean Parnell to come to his senses and realize that giving the oil industry a couple of billion dollars a year because – well, just because – isn’t good public policy.

And maybe monkeys will fly out of my nose.

But what will happen is that the oil industry will spend even more money trying to convince Alaskans it’s really smart to give billions to the richest corporations on the planet. Meanwhile, members of the state Senate will be leafing through fat reports full of incomprehensible graphs and charts, trying to figure out what changing the state’s tax laws will do – aside from creating bigger bonuses for oil company lobbyists.

Then we will reconvene, probably in the fall, and start wrestling with the question again.

If I don’t sound enthusiastic about this, I’m not. One thing I’ve learned in five legislative sessions – and a bunch of special sessions – is that if a bill is passed on bad ideas, no amount of massaging will make it better.

Or, as my father used to say, you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken feet.

Only he didn’t say “feet”.

Just when it looked like the session calendar was moving faster than my concussion bill, HB 15 got its second wind, and it now looks like it’s going to cross the finish line. That will make Alaska the 17th state with a student athlete concussion bill. It’s a good bill that protects young people from potentially serious and lasting brain injuries. It doesn’t cost the state a dime, and similar bills have had excellent results in other states.

It took some hard work and assistance from people on both sides of the aisle, and I’m grateful to all of them. While this isn’t one of those multi-million dollar pieces of legislation that dominates the headlines and sparks heated debate, it is one of the ones that can quietly do a lot of good. So I offer a sincere thank you to everyone who helped me guide this bill through the process.

Under HB 15, if a student athlete is suspected of having a concussion, he/she must be removed from play or practice and may not return until a qualified medical professional says it’s safe. The bill also requires parents, coaches and students complete some simple education about the causes, symptoms and ramifications of concussions.

Hey, kids! Here’s a game you can play at home! Just gather up the most wacky big-ticket items now being considered – no, really, seriously considered – in the Alaska Legislature. The winner gets autographed photos of Gov. Sean Parnell and the four, count ‘em four, co-chairmen of the Finance Committees, plus the capital budget item of your choice.

And here’s a starter set of projects to get you rolling.

· $2 billion a year in oil tax reductions (Hey, it was an expensive year in the Gulf for BP).

· $1 billion for a Transportation Infrastructure Fund (How much asphalt does a billion dollars buy? You do the math).

· $1 billion for KABATA (It’s a small price to turn Downtown Anchorage and Knik Goose Bay Road into one neighborhood).

· $6 billion for the Susitna Dam (Yeah, that’s a lot of dam money).

· $1 billion to $6 billion for an in-state gasline (That doesn’t count the subsidies it’ll take to make the gas affordable for Alaskans).

· $600 million this year to complete the Anchorage Port (No telling how much it will take next year or the year after that to complete the project).

· $50 million for the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension (Because, Willow, Nation’s Freight Handler).

· $80 million for a Fairbanks railroad bridge.

· $50 million to keep Goose Creek Prison from freezing (No telling how much to actually put prisoners in there).

· $125 million for University Engineering Buildings.

· $3 billion for the Road to Nome (Setting the stage for the Iditarod go-cart race).

· $90 million for the UAA Sports Complex .

· $2 billion for AIDEA to spend on energy projects (To keep the lights on when that tax break for oil companies comes home to roost, I guess).

If all goes as planned and the legislature gavels out on Sunday, this will be the last e-news of the year and I’ll be headed home to Spenard.

But, after the events of the past 24 hours, that’s a bigger “if” than it used to be.

House Speaker Mike Chenault took the unusual step yesterday of putting on his ten-gallon hat and giving a speech on this year’s capital budget. OK, I made up the part about the hat. But he did make some good points about the budget.

The Senate version of the capital budget, nearly $3 billion large, is one of the biggest in Alaska’s history and, Chenault said, the Senate, which has been holding onto the capital budget for 88 days, is leaving the House very little time to actually examine what’s in the bill and make an informed decision. Senate Finance co-chair Bert Stedman disagrees with that assessment, so we find ourselves at an impasse.

What happens next? We could stay in Juneau working on the capital budget past 90 days until the job is done. Or, we could end the session in 90 days on Sunday without passing a capital budget. Or, we could pass a capital budget and still end in 90 days. Or, any number of other things could happen.

So, if all goes according to plan, this will be the last time you’ll hear from me until after the summer.

Well, at least it’s nothing if not exciting around here.