Gov. Bill Walker and other new governors are meeting today with President Obama and members of his Cabinet. According to news accounts, he will join six other newly elected governors, both Republican and Democrat, at the White House. Walker is the only independent governor elected last month and the only one who has been sworn in so far.
Here’s a description of the meeting that I received from Walker’s spokesperson:
The day will begin with lunch and discussion with the Vice President, followed by 30 minute briefings and discussions with Cabinet Members. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, among others, will participate. The day will conclude with a discussion with the President and other senior White House officials.
Cindy,
Below is a link to the KTVA report of Parnell’s actions. The report states a personal invitation was issued by Obama. No mention in the KTVA report of the Governor having to sit in the bleachers or not being allowed to shake hands with the President (restrictions one usually doesn’t find included in a personal invitation) . Couldn’t find your “sit in bleachers” or “can’t shake the man’s hand” restrictions in any other reports. Perhaps you could support your claim with some documentation?
Link to the KTVA report:
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/1179082/gov_parnell_skips_meeting_president_obama
Folks should get their facts straight before leaving untruthful comments. Gov. Parnell never “snubbed” the President. He wanted to welcome the President to Alaska on the tarmac – he was told no by Obama’s people; he offered to shake his hand in line at the event – he was told no by Obama’s people. The Governor was told he could sit back in the bleachers with everyone else if he attended the event. So consequently, the Governor felt his time could be spent better elsewhere. As to the NCAI Conference – yes, there was a representative from the Governor’s Office – John Moller, the Rural Advisor.
Ah,
Sorry, I should have said state resources “blocked by federal lands”. That said, I understand we are reimbursed some amount for resources extracted on federal lands, even if in the form of payments to offset the need for additional state and local services. Also, even if we don’t realize the direct revenues we might from state owned resources, exploiting those federally controlled resources does produce jobs for Alaskans. My point was that Walker is being wise to not go out of his way to antagonize the Federal Government at this point in our history.
Speaking of federal land access, that, by the way, is another failure of the last five years. What work was done to further identify transportation corridors linking the major regions of Alaska and begin the process to gain the necessary easements and accesses. Perhaps the road crossing the Isembek Reserve is the best known example.
I fear your idea of the individual states being able to create discriminatory legislation regarding citizens of the other states or to levy taxes on federal assets without consent is a non-starter. Read the history of litigation surrounding the Federal Constitution Commerce Clause and the Supremacy Clause to see the problems that approach presents. The PFD flirted with that prohibition of commerce already which is, I understand, why everybody gets the same amount regardless of length of residency. In any event, I would not single out service members for “special treatment” only. I would like to see clarification and then strict enforcement of the principal that you are not to apply unless you intend to reside here year round for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, this PFD eligibility problem will be “self resolving, because soon enough the lure of PFD will be gone as every dime of the earnings from the Permanent Fund will be required to fund state operations. If not ended outright I would venture that the PFD will be reduced to a very nominal amount (say $100) or even an “IOU” that might be redeemed by those who remain residents at some future time.
@Nance, The proper term is Co-Governor.
Come on Lynn, you can’t have it both ways. on one hand you claim the fed owns most of our state (correct by the way) and then in the next breath insist that ‘we’ need access to ‘our’ resources, even those on ‘Federal Lands’…
Either the resources are owned by the Feds or they are ours.
Perhaps what we ought to do is begin to heavily tax all activities that occur on ‘Federal Lands’… Visiting Denali? $100 access fee. Visiting Glacier Bay via cruise ship? in order to do that you have to sail through state waters… for this highly desirable location we charge $500 per passenger plus a flat rate of $10,000 per vessel. Require access to a Federal Facility but need to cross non federal property to get there? Pay the Access fee….we can negotiate these on an individual basis. Want to license a Federal vehicle in the state of Alaska? Surly this must be worth at least $2500 per year. In this case we offer a cheaper alternative: lease one from a locally owned vendor and we will throw in the license fee. Military member? want to go hunting? No more Mr. nice guy here. Since an E-6 over 6 years in service is taking home more than $70,000 a year I’m pretty sure that he (or she) can afford to start paying Non Resident Rates for Hunting and fishing licenses….. Speaking of Non resident status, How about that PFD? sure, you can have it, IF you are in your first enlistment and were a resident of Alaska when you enlisted and have maintained Alaska as your home of record. Active Duty? Want to Vote? better check with your home state… we are no longer accepting military members for residency unless they have been discharged from active duty and remained in Alaska.
Waaahhhhhh……..Wahhhhhhhhh
Give it a rest already.
There were 2 major faux paus that Zero committed while he was Governor. The first was to snub the President when he was in town, the second was not sending a representative to the recent NCAI conference in Anchorage. I can understand a conflicting schedule, but he didn’t even send a person to represent him.
Walker exudes so much more class than Zero, Sean Parnell isn’t even qualified to hold Bill Walker’s jockstrap for Christ’s sake.
I voted for Walker because I was sick and tired of Parnell’s do nothing management style and the callous manner in which he allowed DHSS to deal with the health care provider community. Many small businesses suffered significantly because of Parnell’s lack of action. I’m hoping Walker is better.
Well, at least Governor Walker didn’t openly snub the President of the United States as Governor Parnell did. It is only good politics to meet with the President while it is just plain stupid to not meet with him when both of you are in Anchorage as was the case with Governor Parnell and President Obama.
I am always amazed at the self-centered attitude of some Alaskans who insist on acting as if we are a state that “counts” like New York, Texas, or California.
Remember a few truths about us. We have a state population about the same as that of Memphis Tennessee. We are net consumer of federal tax dollars, The Federal Government owns most of our state, We over- spent our revenues and now are facing a fiscal crisis that may well have us going “hat in hand” to the Feds. We need access to our resources including those on federal lands yet that access could threaten similar resource production or jobs in other states (e.g. Keystone Pipeline). Lastly, while we have two Senators we have only a single congressman which amounts to 1/435th of the House of Representatives.
Now is not the time to ignore the Federal Executive Branch………
You would think that Walker would be busy and wouldn’t have time to run off to DC to meet the President. Well, I guess he can because, I forgot, that Byron Mallott, the associate governor or whatever, would ve hnadling things in Walker’s absence. I remember on the campaign trail theu said that the first thing they were going to do was to expand medicaid. Did Walker tell Obama? Walker indicated that he was going to submit Parnell’s budget. Did he forget that he needed to add medicaid expansion money or was it all just an empty campaign promise? Or, should we be crass enough to call it a lie maybe?
Hopefully, Walker will be able to be more articulate about his agenda there than he was during the campaign. I’m still wondering how, as Walker-Mallott said during the campaign, they will expand Medicaid, move all state workers to Tier 1, provide affordable energy in the Bush, increase school funding and cut the budget by 16 percent. Maybe Obama will have a good answer like, “do it all by executive order like I do.”