Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Republicans forbidden from saying ‘slush fund’

As Republicans in the Alaska House of Representatives offer dozens of amendments to trim Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed operating budget, they’re being told “no” by the Democrat-controlled majority on every suggested budget reduction.

They’re now being told by House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Rules Chairman Gabrielle LeDoux that during floor debate they may not use the term “bureaucrats” to refer to state workers, and are censored from using the term “slush fund” to describe the miscellaneous funds that have no particular purpose.

The 2017 budget item was $323,800, which is almost double the 2016 amount of $137,300.

This year, the governor asked for $411,200, a 27 percent increase over 2017’s budget.

The operating budget is riddled with extra funds, but only in Labor and Workforce Development are they labeled in such a vague way. Budget hawks in the Republican minority have been combing through the budget looking for places to cut.

Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Chugiak-Wasilla, flagged this item for reduction in a year when there are not enough revenues to pay for the $4.3 billion budget the governor has proposed. It was voted down in the House Finance Committee but will likely be part of the package of amendments that is brought to the House floor for one last attempt at a budget cut.

Additional sanctions have been placed on Republican House members that prohibit them from making any reference to the $4 billion that House Finance Chairman Paul Seaton moved from the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account, which stripped the Republican minority from being able to use its leverage on the budget.

Instead of calling budget items slush funds, Republicans are now referring to them as “supplemental discretionary spending funds.”

There’s no word yet on what they will call bureaucrats.

http://mustreadalaska.com/censored-republicans-forbidden-saying-slush-fund-on-house-floor/

Funny, my boss chided me for using that word at work recently. He pointed out the common meaning which was different from what I thought it to be.

slush fund
[ˈsləSH ˌfənd]
NOUN

a reserve of money used for illicit purposes, especially political bribery.

In the political sense, it really is an accurate term.

House Democrats cut off budget debate

The House Democrat-led majority says enough is enough: No more budget debate after Friday at noon.

The $4.1 billion budget had 55 amendments as of 1 pm Thursday, most of them cuts put forward by the budget hawks in the Republican minority caucus.

Today, the House majority called those budget reductions a filibuster.

“We just decided basically that enough was enough,” said Rules Chairman Gabrielle LeDoux at a press conference attended by the cobbled together House majority members, made up of mostly Democrats, but also two indeterminates and three Republicans who have thrown their lot in with the Democrats.

“We just spent two and a half hours on an amendment. We have got a fiscal crisis that we’ve got to resolve,” LeDoux said.

“I mean at some point you got to figure out which are the important, the critical amendments, and have a robust debate on those instead of having a few things dribbling here and dribbling there.

The House has more important things to attend to, she said, such as developing new revenue sources from taxes on working Alaskans and oil producers to pay for the bloated budget that the majority is ready to approve.

“We actually have a fiscal crisis and we need to be doing other stuff,” LeDoux said.

The House minority that has fought for lower government spending was loaded for bear.

At their own hastily called press conference this afternoon, they said that if the majority wants to take $4 billion out of the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve to pay for government operations, then there’s nothing more important than combing through the budget first looking for cuts.

ARMED TAX COLLECTORS STOPPED BY HOUSE BUDGET HAWKS

During that fine-tooth process, Republican House members pointed out that a proposed funding transfer from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Revenue had created armed Revenue tax collection agents.

The funding transfer that would arm tax collectors was voted down, 31-9, when it was pointed out by the House minority.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon told the press, “We’re now on day four debating, in the 25th hour of debate. We made the decision to basically say look, we’ve had enough and the public has had enough. It’s time to move onto other important legislation in the building.”

Millett said that her caucus was doing its job, not filibustering. Neither she nor former House Speaker Mike Chenault could remember a time when budget debate was simply cut off.

“The budget has not changed, except it has gone up,” Millett said. “There have been no cuts in Finance Committee or on the floor, except for today on per diem.

“We have heard from the public they would like to see a sustainable budget. My caucus is not comfortable with the levels of spending,” she said.

Tempers in both the majority and minority caucuses were noticeably elevated today and the contrast between the two caucuses couldn’t have been more clear. From the Democrat majority press conference, members took the microphone and one by one stated their solidarity:

“It’s a filibuster,” said Democrat Les Gara of Anchorage.

“Time is money,” added Democrat Justin Parish of Juneau.

“It’s time to get on with the State’s business,” said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks.

And in the minority press conference:

“We have pointed out line by line fundamental flaws — and that is our only job,” said Minority Leader Millet.

“Our new Rules chair has been stifling debate,” she said. “We cannot use the word ‘slush fund,’ and can’t use the word ‘bureaucrats.’ We can’t talk about the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve transfer. We should not be rushing this process.”

Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, said she had turned in her amendments last week and was ordered to withdraw them, but she refused.

“We could have done them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but they waited until Monday at 11. They weren’t ready,” Wilson said.

“The budget is constitutionally the only thing we have to do while we are down here,” said Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Kenai.

Friday at high noon will be the final chance House minority members will have to present their budget reductions. By Friday afternoon, many legislators will be on Flight 65 bound for Anchorage.

The debate cutoff coincides with the time legislators need to get to the airport to check in for their flights home.

http://mustreadalaska.com/house-democrats-cut-off-budget-debate/

This is somewhat misleading.

The house is made up of 21R, 17D, 2I. The democrats have not held an actual house majority in AK since 1995.

The democrats have not held a majority in the AK senate since 1978.

The last democratic Governor was 2002.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_Alaska

"FY 2018, the state of Alaska is slated to pay out roughly $20 million more in tax credits than it is estimated to receive in production tax payments."
There was a time when AK actually made money from the oil and gas belonging to the people of AK.

http://akhouse.org/2017/03/02/news-...alaska-in-favor-of-giveaways-to-big-oil/

But it's still the democrats fault.

Once you start paying attention, you'll find there's a number of rinos in the republican mist. They have aligned themselves permanently in the democrats corner.

One way to keep your head above water, is to watch which way they vote.

I can guarantee there would be money saved by getting rid of Alaska State Trooper Boyd Branch. He is one and the same person as the one here:

http://www.ktoo.org/2013/05/02/trooper-arrest-investigated-after-youtube-post/

And also the same as the one who directed a 70 year-old, rather frail little lady to be arrested by a local "officer" who has regular brushes with the law of his own. (When he could have asked the local DA to make exception to the arrest like they did for the Anchorage dude who went on to shoot up the Florida airport last summer.)

He's the same dumbass who hunts waterfowl with locals from a moving boat and with a 22 rifle.

He's the same douche who arrested our daughter last fall on a bench warrant for which she had previously posted the required bond - at least five months previous. And, at state expense, she was transported to Nome, lodged overnight so that the court could direct the jail to "Release her. She isn't supposed to be in there!" When AST employs idiots who won't even check their records when the accused points out the obvious to them, those idiots probably aren't giving us their money's worth. But hey, who really cares if they just wasted a couple more dividends needlessly when they're smaller?

State of Alaska, are you listening? Sending worthless fools out to the more rural parts, hoping they "might learn" is as smart as sending pedophile priests out to remote places and hoping that "it won't matter" somehow. And don't forget you've got unbalanced folks like the father/son duo from Tanana a couple of years ago who are just waiting for idiots - like Branch perhaps- to push them over the edge.

She sure was an an annoying little heifer.

If I see that Party Jumping Jim Jeffords wanna-be, Paul Seaton with his stupid hat walking down the bike path again, I may lose control of the pickup and put the new grill guard to work.