Ballot initiative reform

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell told the Resource Development Council’s annual conference Nov. 18 that his administration is fighting, and will continue to fight, to ensure the Endangered Species Act is used to protect species, not as a tool to prevent development in Alaska.

There is another tool being used to shut down Alaska’s resource development, he said: the ballot initiative process.

The governor said the ballot initiative “was meant to provide a safety valve for the public if they think the Legislature and executive branch fail to respond to public concerns.”

But ballot initiatives are not just used as “tools of last resort; they’re also at times the first tools reached for by interest groups with an agenda.”

Parnell said money for ballot initiatives has come from both inside and outside the state, but Alaska law doesn’t require online financial disclosure, “so Alaskan donations and expenditures aren’t known until well after the votes have been cast.”

“Ballot initiatives are powerful tools; they change public policy.”

He said Alaska voters have a right to know where the funding comes from before they vote, and said he would be supporting ballot initiative reform, with “a strong focus on financial disclosure.”

“The right to information on the money behind the campaigns is the very least Alaskans should expect.”

—Kristen Nelson