Legislature has option to trim level of hypocrisy by cutting $10 million gift to Mat-Su

This is a tale of two budget amendments in the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.

“I am all for smaller government,” said Sen. David Wilson, the Mat-Su Republican who claims to be “a principled, common-sensed and liberty-oriented conservative.”

On Tuesday, the liberty-oriented Wilson wanted to expand state government by restoring a third deputy commissioner position in the Department of Administration, a position that is now vacant and scheduled for elimination.

The principled Wilson wanted to spend $212,000 on the extra deputy.

The job is empty, but Wilson said the the state should think about getting rid of the job next year or the year after that, not now, with reorganization work to do.

Much larger departments make do with one or two commissioners, so this job was ripe for elimination and is a prime example of government bloat.

Former Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka, who also claims to be a supporter of small government, wanted to add a fourth deputy, but that exercise in empire-building was rejected by a Senate subcommittee, which also cut the third deputy.

To its credit, the Senate Finance Committee rejected Wilson’s amendment to add the job.

That brings us to a second amendment in which Wilson showed that there are limits to being a principled, common-sensed and liberty-oriented conservative from Wasilla.

He defended the plan by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to give $10 million to the Mat-Su borough to spend on whatever road projects it fancies, as long as the money does not go to landscaping.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski did not propose eliminating the $10 million, but said it should be made contingent on giving Anchorage $10 million to spend on whatever road projects it fancies.

Wilson said Mat-Su deserves the $10 million because other parts of the capital budget did not provide enough money for his district. He gave a long-winded defense of the Dunleavy plan.

“The roads in the only growing area of the state, in the only area that we can have expansion, is that area in the Mat-Su, and this is actually the Mat-Su borough has worked with the state in terms of contracting, with contractors and doing state maintenance projects that the state just don’t have the time or the capability to handle in sort of that manner. And this will help expedite some of those projects that we could have,” said Wilson.

He said Wielechowski should show what Anchorage needs for roads and Wilson would support it.

“If the member had road projects that we can help fund in terms of Anchorage, that meet those similar standards, I would have no problem doing that, but contingency language I don’t think is appropriate,” he said.

There are no limits in the bill or standards, contrary to Wilson’s claim.

Sen. Donny Olson, who lives nearly 500 miles northwest of Wasilla, said it is a “little self-serving” for Dunleavy to stuff the budget with things for his own district. He’s wrong. It’s not a little self-serving.

Wilson then changed his justification for why the Wasilla area deserves the money from the state, abandoning the idea that this is all about an equal division of pork—it is all about safety, he claimed.

“If you also look at the number of fatalities or collisions that end in some type of hospitalization or injury, I do believe Mat-Su has the highest per capita versus any other district,” he said.

“And so this is more of a life-safety-health issue than anything else. And sort of trying to pick favorites of where people may or may not reside or trying to play favorites, I truly believe this is a life safety issue. And I would be more than happy to take members out and put their lives at risk and travel down some of these roads.”

The finance committee first voted 4-3 to approve the idea of making the $10 million gift to Mat-Su contingent on getting a $10 million gift for Anchorage. Then Sen. Lyman Hoffman flipped his vote and joined Wilson and Sens. Bert Stedman and Click Bishop in approving the $10 million for Mat-Su with nothing for Anchorage or other regions.

A principled, common-sensed and liberty-oriented Wasilla conservative wouldn’t have it any other way.

In 2020, Wilson voted against increasing the state’s gas tax, which has remained unchanged for a half-century and is the lowest in the nation.

“We need to have a realistic state spending cap before we add any new taxes. A spending cap will help to address our long-term budget issues,” Wilson told the Frontiersman newspaper when he was running for re-election last year.

Cutting the state gift to Mat-Su in the final version of the budget would be a good step to take, one that would decrease the degree of hypocrisy by exactly $10 million.

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