Area Representatives Find Legislative Session More Bear Than Bull

Courtesy of Ron Niebrugge.

Representative Mike Chenault (R-D29) expressed his frustration with the first session of the 30th Legislature to members of the combined Soldotna-Kenai Chambers of Commerce Wednesday.

Chenault was Speaker of the House from 2009 – 2016, setting a record for the leadership position. 

2017 saw a power shift from the Republicans to a coalition of Democrats and Independents, and the installation of Representative Bryce Edgmon D-District 37 of Juneau as Speaker.

Representative Mike Chenault: “We did get a capital budget and an operating budget passed, which is important for the State of Alaska, but I think we are starting to see different directions with people want to attempt to head down as far as any new revenue streams or ways to increase the revenue that the State of Alaska gets to be able to fund the budget that Alaskans seem to want.” 

District 29’s other Representative, freshman Gary Knopp, found the lack of statesmanship of his colleagues challenging. 

Representative Gary Knopp: ” We could have talked about this in the first 60-90 days and been done, but they like to play the political games and holding someone’s good bill and hoping they can get theirs.  It just doesn’t work like that. It just didn’t work out.”