Alaska
The Anchorage School Board voted Monday to oppose the anti-corruption initiative expected on the ballot this August. School Board President John Steiner says the initiative would make it harder for the district to explain its concerns and needs to lawmakers because it would bar, in part, government from paying lobbying groups.
The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an initiative requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion will be on the August primary ballot. Planned Parenthood had argued that more than 36,000 voters who signed the initiative petition failed to receive key information on sign-up sheets, for example that physicians could be charged and imprisoned if they failed to properly inform a parent.
A ballot measure facing Alaska voters in August claims to be opposed to corruption, but Alaska Municipal League’s Kathie Wasserman says it is actually an attack on citizen participation in their government. Wasserman told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Thursday that a ballot measure deemed the “anti-corruption” initiative isn’t what it appears. “This initiative sounds on the outside like something we’d all back,” she said.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen has decided to remove herself from a position to decide on the lawsuit to invalidate a ballot initiative that would require doctors to notify parents if their minor child seeks an abortion. Years ago, Christen had served on the board of Planned Parenthood, the group that brought the suit, and The Alaska Family Council, an anti-abortion group, sent out e-mail alerts telling its members to contact judicial officials and object to an alleged conflict of interest. A “barrage” of messages ensued.
A statewide ballot initiative is getting some attention from Fairbanks politicians and union leaders who are opposed to it. A rally was held Saturday at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers headquarters in Fairbanks to oppose Ballot Measure 1. The ballot initiative aims to tighten restrictions on campaign contributions and publicly funded lobbyists. Opponents say it goes too far, impeding free-speech rights and important government functions.
As the 26th Alaska Legislature wrapped up its 2010 session late Sunday night, making it harder for citizens to use the state’s already-restricted initiative process was at the front of lawmakers’ minds.
Alaskans can find out who’s financing ballot initiative organizers far sooner under a bill the Legislature passed late Sunday. Rep. Kyle Johansen’s bill now goes to Gov. Sean Parnell. The Ketchikan Republican says past initiative campaigns had been heavily financed by out-of-state interests. They didn’t have to report their finances until after the question had been certified for the ballot.
A campaign finance disclosure bill for those organizing and influencing Alaska ballot initiatives is headed to the House floor. The House Finance Committee passed Rep. Kyle Johansen’s bill Tuesday. Current law requires disclosures, but a Johansen aide says that’s after a process that can take up to a year and includes having the ballot question’s language certified and cleared by the attorney general; signatures gathered and the measure approved for the ballot.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, a Superior Court judge has ruled against the legal challenge filed by Planned Parenthood of Alaska against a ballot initiative that would require doctors to notify a parent if a daughter under the age of 18 is seeking an abortion. The challenge was based on a previous Alaska Supreme Court decision that an earlier parental notification law violated patients’ right to privacy. Although the court decided this new initiative (set to go on the Aug.
An Alaska judge has ordered the lieutenant governor to rewrite ballot language for a proposed abortion initiative. But Superior Court Judge Frank Pfiffner stopped short of ordering the measure be kept off the ballot this year. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and ACLU of Alaska argued the language used in circulating petitions for the parental consent initiative was misleading.
In Alaska, House Bill 36 says it will make the state’s initiative process more transparent and open. It always seems that when those two words start flying out of the mouths of government officials the results will be anything but open and transparent.
A bill that could change the ballot initiative process in Alaska is making its way through the legislature. House Bill 36 was the topic of discussion at the Anchorage Chamber’s Make it Monday forum this week. Industry leaders spoke in favor of the bill that claims to create an open and transparent process, but opponents say it would make it harder for individual Alaskans to enact legislation that concerns them.
A legislative task force says the 90-day limit imposed by Alaska voters on how long the Legislature can be in session is too short and should be overturned by lawmakers. The new report cites reasons ranging from legislators saying they aren’t getting enough sleep to complaining they don’t get to talk enough with their constituents over the three months. The report is from a subcommittee appointed in the state House to study the impact of the shortened session. It’s led by Homer Republican Rep. Paul Seaton and includes Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage, and Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham.
The Alaska Supreme Court again blocked a ballot initiative aimed at getting Alaska residents to vote to secede from the United States. Scott Kohlhaas first tried in 2003 to get a ballot initiative asking Alaska voters if they wanted the state to secede from the union. The lieutenant governor refused to place the initiative on the ballot, and the superior and supreme courts agreed that the effort was unconstitutional.
Supporters of a hoped-for ballot measure to secure a bigger tax exemption for homeowners say they’re a few thousand signatures shy of their goal. The deadline to get a question on this year’s statewide ballot was Friday. The 2012 election looks to be the next best thing, said Mayor Luke Hopkins of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. “We have to ensure that we have enough signatures,” he said. If the initiative becomes law, it would allow municipalities to ignore up to $50,000 of the value of residential properties when imposing taxes.