Legislature move gains traction

An attack on Juneau's role as the capital of Alaska took a step forward Thursday, when a key House committee passed a bill to build a new legislative hall, almost certainly outside Juneau.

Dismayed Juneau representatives said they still expected to stop the bill, either keeping it from leaving the House of Representatives by voting it down on the floor or later in the Senate.

"We are going to fight it tooth and nail on the floor," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, House Democratic leader.

House Bill 54, sponsored by Rep. Mark Neuman, R-Wasilla, allows communities to bid against each other to become the home of a new legislative hall. A city or some other entity would build a hall to the Legislature's specifications and lease it back to the state for $1.

The bill offers as much as 1,000 acres of state land for the site of the new hall.

The measure passed 6-4 by the House Finance Committee on Thursday, with Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks, casting a key vote in favor of the measure. He'd earlier made comments suggesting he'd oppose moving the capital to Anchorage.

"In many states around the nation they seem to shy away from the largest city," he said.

After the vote, the committee members signed the bill report, with five members, including Kelly, recommending that other legislators "do not pass" the bill. Only two advised "do pass." Kelly was in meetings all afternoon Thursday and unavailable for comment.

Following the committee's vote, the group's recommendations in that report will be featured more prominently during the debate than the committee's actual vote.

Kerttula said this bill report may indicate Kelly and other Republicans in the majority caucus were pressured to support a bill backed by powerful members of the House leadership.

"I don't know what their caucus decided," she said.

Neuman maintained that his bill would let any community around the state compete fairly for the new legislative hall.

"This bill is about all Alaskans," he said.

Other observers said the specifics of the bill means it will almost certainly be in the Anchorage area. The legislation sets up criteria that would be almost impossible for any community except one in the Anchorage area to meet.

"It ends up being Anchorage," Kelly acknowledged.

"Obviously, this bill is designed to bring the Legislature to Anchorage," said Win Gruening, chairman of Juneau's Alaska Committee, the city's capital-retention effort.

The House Finance Committee on Thursday amended Neuman's bill to remove provisions that would have repealed the FRANK Initiative, a voter-approved requirement that the public know and approve the costs of a capital move.

Juneau advocates had considered that provision of Neuman's bill one of its biggest weaknesses politically. Had it remained, it would have meant that those who voted for it were explicitly overturning the will of the voters.

The committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, that would have made no city but Anchorage eligible to be chosen for the site of the new legislative hall.

Gara is an opponent of the capital move and move-backers called his amendment a "poison pill" and voted it down.

If the Legislature were to leave Juneau, the rest of state government may not be far behind. Gov. Sarah Palin said if the Legislature moves, she'd likely move as well.

"I'll be where the people of Alaska and the lawmakers would need me," she said.

Top executive branch offices, such as the governor and cabinet members, would need to be physically close to the Legislature, she said.

Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, has fought a series of capital move bills in committee and watched the debate Thursday in the Finance Committee.

"I frankly think this is pretty serious," she said after the meeting.

Kerttula said she was dismayed at the committee action, but said it wasn't the first time the Juneau delegation has had to mobilize to fight for the capital.

"This is not over," she said. "We have a lot of friends."

But she added, "'Do we have to be worried?' Yeah."

• Contact reporterPat Forgey at 586-4816 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.