Homer Alaska - News

"I'm pleased with the way the bipartisan working group is holding together," Seaton said. "We don't have the party animosity — there are very few party-line votes in the House."

The Alaska Legislature could change if a proposal to add four seats and increase the House to 44 members goes through — a move that would require a constitutional amendment. Such a proposal would keep House districts at a ratio of about 15,000 people to one representative, Seaton said. The population of Seaton's area, District 35, hasn't changed much, but Southeast and other districts are expected to lose population in the 2010 census.

Sharon Whytal, coordinator for the Southern Kenai Peninsula Communities Project, made a pitch for health care issues. She urged Seaton to support making the state Youth Risk Survey an opt-out rather than an opt-in survey. If children need parent's permission to opt in, they often lose or don't return permission forms.

"I want to make a pitch for getting good data," Whytal said. "We have to piece together service trends."

One visitor asked what citizens can do to support their legislators. Seaton said at the U.S. congressional level, citizens get heard better than legislators.

"You have more influence on your congressman," Seaton said. "They like to hear directly from their constituents."

On that subject, Seaton said the best way to contact him is through e-mail. His aides read all e-mail and can work with citizens to respond to concerns, but they also forward e-mail to Seaton. Keep messages short and on one subject, he said.

"It's really important for people to not write a three- to four-page e-mail," Seaton said. "People need to ask the question you want us to respond to."

On the issue of public safety, Seaton noted the difficulty in getting rural law enforcement. One bill being considered adds 15 new village public safety officers. Almost all current Alaska State Trooper vacancies have been filled, so the troopers are up to full force in terms of positions funded, Seaton said.

Another public safety issue is Gov. Sean Parnell's push on reducing and responding to domestic violence. Parnell is asking for more Alaska Department of Public Safety resources on top of current trooper levels to respond to domestic violence. The governor is looking at enforcement and protection, Seaton said.

"But we really need to be working on the prevention side," he said. "It has to be a community decision, community wide, that this is unacceptable behavior."

Kachemak Bay Campus Director Carol Swartz asked Seaton about Parnell's Governor's Performance Scholarship, or GPS. Parnell proposes awarding scholarships to Alaska colleges and technical schools based on merit. Swartz said she was glad to see an amendment adding a needs-based component to GPS and that the program would allow for vocational and technical education. Swartz said KBC has technical courses, but they're expensive, like one welding class.

"We have a lot of people who want to take it," she said. "They can't afford the $600 tuition and $600 materials fee."

GPS might not make pass this session, however. The House Finance Committee this week stripped funding for Parnell's plan to fund merit scholarships.

Swartz and Darlene Hilderbrand, Hospice of Homer director, also raised concerns about a new $50 office visit fee being charged by Homer Public Health for tuberculosis tests. TB tests, required for Hospice volunteers and for nursing and public health students, cost $8 for the test itself. The $50 office visit fee on top of that adds an additional cost for volunteers.

A big topic was oil taxes, particularly recent publicity about the potential loss to state revenues if oil and gas taxes remain linked.

"It's been a huge subject down in Juneau," Seaton said.

Because the state oil and gas tax structure is connected, some legislators have noted that the state risks losing oil revenues if companies write off natural gas development against oil and gas revenues, as might happen if a gas pipeline is built. Seaton said when the Alaska Gas Incentive Act was first discussed, budget scenarios showed this link.

"As far as I'm concerned, we knew this when we were going in," Seaton said. "I thought it was a reasonable incentive to get a gas line in."

Seaton said it makes sense to tax the total profit from oil and gas production, since often wells to tap oil also tap natural gas, with natural gas pumped back into the reservoir to maintain oil flow. ACES, or Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share, Alaska's tax structure that some oil companies maintain has cost petroleum jobs, makes sense, Seaton said.

"When we're taxing the profit, I don't care if it's on oil or gas," he said.

The Legislature has gotten some criticism over an amendment to an ethics bill that would raise the threshold lobbyists have to report when buying legislators meal. Currently, if lobbyists spend more than $15 on a meal, they have to report that to the Alaska Public Offices Commission in lobbying activity reports. The amendment would raise that amount to $50. Seaton admitted that he has benefitted from a lobbyist buying him a meal — but it's only been once in three years, and the lobbyist bought him a bowl of oatmeal.

"To me, they ought to take that whole section out of there," he said of the amendment to the ethics bill.

Seaton said he hasn't heard from constituents about a recent compromising of 77,000 state worker records when an accounting firm that had a copy of current and former employee records lost control of those records. Seaton recommended workers take up the state on its offer to do a credit check or pay for a credit freeze — something Seaton and his wife Tina had coincidentally done before the compromise was announced. For people who don't anticipate needing a credit check, a credit freeze is a good security measure to make sure a credit identity isn't hacked.

Seaton's Web site is at www.RepPaulSeaton.com. He can be emailed at Rep.Paul.Seaton@Legis.state.ak.us.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com.