EDITORIAL: Repair Work: Legislators Fix Murkowski Damage

By Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Feb. 12–Frank Murkowski left behind his mark, but not the natural gas pipeline or higher oil production he had promised in his winning campaign for governor in 2002.

His mark, if you can call it that, comes from legislators looking to pass new laws intended to block future governors from repeating a couple of Mr. Murkowski’s most notable and troublesome headline-grabbers.

That’s a hard way to be remembered, but it’s deserved.

Just three weeks into this year’s legislative session, lawmakers already are close to passing a new law that would require governors to notify crime victims of a pardon application and give them time and a formal opportunity to comment on the request. The bill also would require mandatory review by the state parole board of all pardon requests, to ensure an independent look at each case.

There is no such law in Alaska, although the provisions seem so obvious. Perhaps there is no law because it never occurred to anyone that a governor would pardon someone of a serious crime the way Mr. Murkowski did — without even bothering to tell the victim’s family.

But that’s exactly what Mr. Murkowski did in his final days in office, pardoning a company convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of an employee. Legislators want to make sure it never happens again.

And after enduring three painful special sessions last year — five total during Mr. Murkowski’s term — legislators have before them a bill that would double the notice a governor must give lawmakers before calling them back to work in a special session.

No more 15-day notice. The bill, by House Speaker John Harris, would require a governor to give lawmakers 30 days’ notice that they need to park their private lives and get back to Juneau for a special session of legislative work.

Just in case some future governor goes special-session happy, legislators would like a little more warning.

Both measures are understandable. It’s just too bad that they’re needed.

BOTTOM LINE: Gov. Murkowski has a legacy, of sorts.

Shaping up

Cruise lines make smart move

The cruise lines that bring almost a million tourists to Alaska each summer got thumped on the head pretty good last August when voters passed a wide-ranging citizens’ initiative imposing several new taxes and environmental regulations on the industry.

It now looks like the industry has learned it’s better to work out problems and improve community relations ahead of time than to wait for another ballot initiative.

Smart move.

The companies have gotten together and formed an Anchorage-based association to work with Alaskans. The Alaska Cruise Association will include the major cruise operators, plus tourism-based companies from around the state. No more relying on the North West CruiseShip Association out of Vancouver, British Columbia, to figure out what Alaska communities want and need.

And the new group has hired a man with impressive credentials to run the operation. John Binkley has served as a state senator from Bethel, has operated a Fairbanks riverboat business and serves on the Alaska Railroad board of directors. He knows tourism, the state and its communities.

The association will look for what Alaskans want from the industry, what the cruise lines can do to meet those wants and whether there are solutions that work for all parties. Mr. Binkley acknowledges that last year’s vote showed the industry it needs to be a better corporate citizen.

It looks to be a good effort, one that is long overdue. Let’s hope this Alaska-based group responds well with communities. And then maybe it can work with legislators to fix some of the problems in last year’s tax and regulation initiative.

BOTTOM LINE: Cruise industry wants to improve its image.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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