 Senate Contemplates Constitutional Switcheroo By Senator Kim Elton April 08, 2002
This change to our constitution proposes to turn any high school civics curriculum upside down by giving Alaska's legislature the power to: implement an executive branch hiring freeze; approve executive branch employee promotions; and stop transfers of executive branch employees. This is a breathtaking breach of the separation of powers doctrine. Congress doesn't overreach in this manner and no other state legislature has the right to insert itself into executive branch duties in this manner. Thomas Jefferson said nearly 200 years ago that "the constitution intended that the three great branches of government should be independent of each other. As to acts, therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no control to another branch." Jefferson also warned "if the three powers (the executive, the judiciary, and the legislative) maintain their mutual independence on each other our government may last long, but not so if either can assume the duties of the other." One has to ask why Alaska's legislature must be unique in the American experience; why our legislature must assume the duty of the executive? Why do we question the judgment of our founding fathers and 200 plus years of experience in these United States? It's counter-intuitive to suggest that Alaska is unique in the nation, that circumstances here mandate that the legislature muddle around in the executive branch in a way that no other state does. It's counter-intuitive to suggest that the Alaska legislature give itself powers that Congress does not have. It's not like the legislature is doing such a good job on growth in government. In the last five years, our legislative workforce grew 10 percent. In addition to that growth, in the last four years we've executed 77 contracts to hire individuals or groups to supplement the legislative workforce, adding another $6 million plus to our growing payroll. Many of the contract employees have, as their sole job description, the responsibility to oversee and secondguess decisions made by executive branch officers. Just this month, the legislative affairs agency established an Office of Citizenship Assistance and hired a director even though the bill that authorized the new office never made it out of its first committee of referral. The position, which is not in the budget for this year, costs over $55,000 a year. This new legislative position provides a deliciously ironic counterpoint to the debate over SJR 37 because the main force behind this new legislative hire, a hire not authorized by legislation or funded in the budget, is also the prime sponsor of the constitutional amendment to constrain the governor's ability to hire, promote or transfer employees. It's a "good for the goose, good for the gander" kind of irony. Beyond the threshold question
of whether we do violence to the separation of powers doctrine
by passing SJR 37 is the simple question: why are we doing this?
Is it legislative pique because the governor isn't doing what
the legislative majority wants? Is it because majority legislators
believe a hiring freeze is a good response to the budget The Senate majority rejects the pique motivation and argues that a hiring freeze is needed to avert budget disaster. But it's time we admit that the budget gap they decry didn't happen overnight and it can't be fixed by a hiring freeze. Our budget gap is not the result of a sudden drop in revenues. Put simply, to avert a budget disaster we need new revenues to replace declining oil revenues. We don't need the placebo of a hiring freeze. We've known the "Prudhoe curve" is more than a theoretical concept for two decades-oil production peaks then falls off as the giant oil field is drained. But the response of the legislative leadership for the last ten years has been mostly cosmetic. They advanced a "five-year budget plan" that combined budget cuts and new revenues but just did the cuts. The result is a budget gap of $800 million this year and over a billion-dollar shortfall projected for next year. A hiring freeze is not a fiscal plan. When we fall behind by a billion dollars a hiring freeze is the fiscal equivalent of white noise because, at best, a hiring freeze is gap neutral. At worst it can hurt because of increased overtime and loss of service. There is a cost to not hiring the biologists, engineers, oil and gas experts, revenue workers, hearing officers, and social workers. It's not like Alaska's governors
don't have the ability to implement a hiring freeze. They did
in 1986 and 1999. Both times in response to sudden plunges in
revenues. That's also when the chief executives in other states
have used hiring freezes-in times of sudden, temporary SJR 37 overreaches. We do violence to our constitution and the precepts of the founding fathers by suggesting that the legislative branch control executive branch hiring decisions. Then we bludgeon those precepts further by giving the legislative branch power over executive branch promotions. And then we pummel the precepts yet again by giving the legislature power over executive branch transfers. SJR 37 is on the Senate calendar Monday [April 8,2002]. Hopefully the Senate majority will get real before then.
Note: Kim Elton (D-Juneau) is an Alaska State Senator.
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