Alaska
Proponents of restarting a coastal management program for the state say their ballot initiative is on track to go before voters in the August primary, but that doesn’t mean the issue might not be resolved sooner.
The “Alaska Sea Party,” a group of coastal town legislators, and officials say the 26,000 signatures they got to put their initiative on the ballot is a good sign the people support their plan.
The citizen’s ballot initiative to restore Alaska’s coastal management program has launched a concerted effort to gather signatures in the Ketchikan-Saxman area. Petition booklets will be available this Friday and Saturday, January 6 and 7, 2012 at the Plaza Mall in Ketchikan from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The initiative is sponsored by the Alaska Sea Party, a group of municipal officials, local leaders, and interested voters committed to Alaska involvement in coastal development decisions. It is endorsed by the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Aleutian-Pribilof Islands Community Development Association, the Alaska Conference of Mayors, the North Slope Borough, United Fishermen of Alaska, the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and many other individuals and organizations.
Alaska voters will be asked to sign petitions reinstating the state’s Coastal Management Program and once again giving the state and local communities an official say in what happens in federal offshore waters. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell Tuesday certified the petition, using the full 60 days in which he was given to review it.
With less than a month before voters decide the fate of a ballot proposition that introduces penalties for heavy air polluters and bans certain devices, two groups are gearing up on opposite sides of the issue.
Healthy Air Now helped craft and introduce Proposition 2. It and Interior Alaskans Opposed to Prop 2 are busy forming campaigns, refining stances and raising money for a heated debate.
Today, the group Alaskans for Bristol Bay announced that it has gathered enough signatures for a local ballot measure that the group says could put the brakes on the proposed Pebble Mine. The move would put an inititative on the Lake and Peninsula Borough’s ballot in October.
Lake and Peninsula Borough citizens filed an application to have the Save our Salmon Initiative to appear on the next municipal election ballot, according to a press release. The Initiative, sponsored by 24 Lake and Peninsula Borough residents, will prohibit any large-scale resource extraction activity, including mining, if that activity could destroy or degrade salmon waters.
Alaska voters will decide in 2012 whether local governments can give homeowners a bigger tax break by increasing property-tax exemptions. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported the initiative sponsored by Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblywoman Nadine Winters has been approved by the state and will appear on the ballot during the next primary election.
Alaska Attorney General John Burns, and his predecessor, Attorney General Dan Sullivan, have each rejected anti-abortion ballot measures submitted by Anchorage’s Clinton Desjarlais. Now, the anti-abortion activist says he intends to go to court to get a measure on the ballot to ban abortion and stop the government-sanctioned taking of human life.
Alaska voters will decide in 2012 whether local governments can increase property tax exemptions. An initiative that started locally has been recently approved by the state and will appear on the ballot during the next primary election. The proposition would allow cities or boroughs to give homeowners a bigger tax break.
A controversial issue from the August primary ballot made its way into court Friday. Ballet Measure 2, which passed, and is now the parental notification law, would require minors under the age of 18 to notify a parent or guardian before getting an abortion.
After blogging yesterday about traffic enforcement cameras in Ohio, a reader pointed me to this excellent breakdown of red-light and speed camera votes around the country from TheNewspaper.com. According to the article, the cameras have never survived a public vote: they usually lose by margins of two-to-one.
Among the five additional communities to ban cameras is Houston, Texas - America’s fourth largest city:
Last week Citizens in Charge Foundation - a partner organization to Citizens in Charge - sent a letter to Secretaries of State and Attorneys General in 12 states asking them to stop enforcing unconstitutional restrictions on ballot initiative rights. In light of recent legal action in which Kansas officials agreed with petition advocates that the state’s law against petition circulators from other states was unconstitutional, Foundation President Paul Jacob asked officials to “do the right thing” and stop enforcing similar
Fairbanks Borough voters face two propositions on Tuesday’s municipal election ballot. Proposition A would prevent the borough from banning, or fining residents for using polluting heating devices. It’s aimed at an air quality ordinance passed by the assembly in June that includes nominal pollution fines, and a ban on purchase and installation of non Environmental Protection Agency approved wood stoves and boilers. The borough is trying to get into compliance with E.P.A.
Alaskans on Tuesday approved a controversial voter initiative requiring parents to be notified before their teen age 17 and younger receives an abortion. Ballot Measure 2 was one of the most fiercely contested items in the primary election, with total spending by both sides combined nearing $1 million. Tuesday’s vote marks the first time Alaska voters confronted the abortion issue at the polls.
Alaska voters will decide Tuesday whether a parent or guardian must be notified if a pregnant girl under 18 seeks an abortion. A second ballot measure seeks to ban municipal governments and school districts from spending public money to lobby.