Contributed by Bruce Walden
It’s time to begin choosing new leadership and a new direction. We waste money on the unnecessary and spend nothing on the things that are necessary.
I’m going to go through a few things that I hope to do if elected, and if the people elect an assembly that will work with me - and for you:
1. The Mat-Su Borough had about 5,000 people when we became a second-class borough in 1964. We now have over 100,000, and we’re the second biggest population center in the state. It is time that we grow into our clothes and become a 1st-class borough. This will put you the voter in charge of who makes the decisions and will take that out of the hand of appointees such as the borough manager. And I promise and will sign a contract to that effect that I will NOT accept a dime more in compensation than the current mayor is paid.
2. Audit the Borough: I want to bring in volunteers to ruthlessly go through the books and point out every single dime wasted by this borough. If I lose my job, it is my responsibility to find another one. It is not the responsibility of the taxpayers of the Mat-Su to pay for the upkeep of jobs that have no real purpose. Refer to paragraph 1.
3. Public Safety: I was recently in a borough meeting to identify fixes here in the Mat-Su and very quickly, I realized that the purpose was to make citizens feel like they are part of the process, but it occurred to me that the borough is going to do what it pleases, regardless. This was made very clear when the current mayor pushed for police powers for the borough, but declared a sheriff’s department would cost $30 million - then gave no reasons why. My estimates are a fraction of that, and at a later date I’ll hash that out for you. Bottom line, they want a police department that answers to them, not a sheriff who answers to the Constitution and the people.
4. Jobs: If elected, and if you give me an assembly with whom I can work with, we are going to make the Mat-Su a place where industry will be welcome. Coal, gypsum, timber and a thousand small manufacturing jobs… yes, we can do that. Do you know anyone who does not have a good idea for a business? I don’t think I do. And I don’t mean book stores or coffee shops. I mean real industry - new stuff.
5. Education: As I have said many times, we do not prepare our kids for the post-high-school world. We set them up for failure. We throw more money at education than any other state, but we rate right at the bottom overall. We can and must do better… If you will elect two school board members this year and more next year, who understand that the schools are about the students, I believe we can fix it. Sorry, folks. You who are teaching because you love teaching will understand that. The rest will not.
6. Infrastructure: The president is pushing a trillion and a half dollars into infrastructure. I hope Alaska gets her fair 50th of that, and if so, and the borough gets its fair share, we can do some great things here - things that are needed.
7. I will champion moving the capital to the Mat-Su: Don’t trust my figures. Take your calculator, paper and pencil and look at the price of construction, multiply that by seven as this should be high-end, and see what you get. It comes to around $480 million, not the $4.5 billion you’ve been told.
8. I will push to build the Knik Arm Bridge as I tried to do while on the Planning Commission: If the president pushes the $1.5 trillion into infrastructure as he has promised, and we get our share, that bridge is a must. We need it. We want it. And the only people I hear saying, “No,” are those living on Government Hill in Anchorage. I’d also ask our congressional delegation to push for another lane each way on the Glenn.
9. Farming: We need to make the Mat-Su the breadbasket of the state again. We produce a handful of veggies now, but we can do better. I’m told we have less than a week’s worth of groceries on the shelves here in Alaska at any one time. We’d better take farming and green-housing seriously.
10. A thing we might consider is asking for the 2026 Winter Olympics: Billions of dollars flow into an area with the Olympics, and what if we built an Olympic City that looked like - I don’t know- a capital city? Hmmm?
Neighbors, It’s time for changes. October’s coming.