Representative Gail Phillips Responds to the
Governor's State of the State Speech
January 23, 1997

The Homer News recent editorial praising the governor's recent State of the State speech is noteworthy only in what it omits.

The morning before the governor gave his annual State of the State speech the Republican-led leadership in the Alaska State Legislature unveiled legislative goals for the session.

We call our plan our "Commitment to Alaska" for a smaller, smarter government.

Our goals include:

• continuing our 5-year plan to close the fiscal gap
• protecting the integrity of the Permanent Fund
• promoting jobs for Alaskans
• pursuing education reform including mandatory standards for graduation
• protecting our state's rights especially given the recent court decisions related to tribal sovereignty
• addressing our long-term maintenance needs
• promoting legislation to foster safe neighborhoods

We outlined our detailed plan in a lengthy news conference that received extensive statewide coverage.

Every news organization in Alaska commented on the remarkable similarities between the plan put forward by the Republican-led leadership and the governor.

It is refreshing to start the legislative session with similar goals. The public process will outline our differences in how to achieve these goals, but at least we have started down a similar path.

The News' characterization of our "lukewarm enthusiasm" for the governor's speech is a very narrow, short-sighted intepretation of the events leading up to and after the governor's speech.

Your praise for the governor's agenda should have been coupled with an analysis of the Legislature's plan. Your readers deserve to know what is going on in Juneau - from all three branches of our government.