Governor and Anchorage mayor mend fences

Gov. Sarah Palin and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich did not see eye-to-eye on her capital budget vetoes last summer.But the two political heavyweights are talking constructively after an hour-long meeting in the Capitol Monday.

The meeting came soon after complaints from other mayors that the governor has not been sufficiently accessible.

She says her door is open and Mayor Begich said he was pleased with the discussion, although he did not get commitments for everything that was discussed.

Begich also met with the Legislature’s Anchorage caucus to discuss his priorities for the session.

He wants some road projects, has some public safety issues and wants state help in the form of revenue sharing and payments toward unfunded public pension liabilities.

The governor and the mayor say they did not discuss Palin’s vetoes of capital projects in Anchorage last year.

But they both talked about the need for clear communication this time.

“It’s clear to me that she really wants to figure out how to work this out, so it’s not kind of a confusion of what issues are vetoed, what ones aren’t and why, but that there’s a clear understanding,” Begich said. “I’m not going to revisit the past, but I want to know what the criteria is and how we work together, so when we work hard down here, when our community presents these lists and they’re truly community lists, that she recognizes that.”

“It’s important that we communicate what the state’s priorities are, what this administration’s priorities are, which again, I thought last year we repeated it so many times it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Gov. Palin said. “But it’s transportation, basic solid infrastructure, it’s education and public safety, reiterating what the criteria should be when requests hit our desk.”

Palin says she gets different messages from a community’s local officials, legislators and citizens groups about what the priorities are.

Others in a different constituency are raising concerns about some of the governor’s recent actions.

Three Native members of the House of Representatives gave brief speeches on the floor Monday complaining about the governor’s nominations for the Board of Game.

It wasn’t about any individual the governor picked, but what Rep. Mary Nelson says would be the first Board of Game since 1976 that included no Natives or residents of the Bush.

The governor says she considers Tok and Sitka sufficiently rural and she says race is not a factor in her decision-making.

She says she would take offense at any suggestion that she’s racially insensitive, noting that the first gentleman, Todd Palin, is Native.

The Legislature will vote on the governor’s picks for the Board of Game.

Source: KTUU

by Bill McAllister
Monday, Feb. 4, 2008