Gatto: ‘Industry owns this place'

March 25, 2007

By MARK KELSEY/Frontiersman JUNEAU - An ongoing attempt in the Legislature to weaken the cruise ship initiative just passed by voters in August has one Valley legislator hot.

House Bill 164, recently crafted and passed by the House Transportation Committee and now awaiting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, removes a provision of the initiative that the cruise ship industry found especially distasteful - a requirement that independent marine engineers, or “ocean rangers” - be on board all ships in Alaska waters to monitor compliance with environmental regulations.

Rep. Carl Gatto, a third-term Republican from Palmer and longtime advocate of tighter state regulation of the cruise industry, is a fierce opponent of House Bill 164. He says the Transportation Committee, which includes Valley lawmakers Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, and Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, overstepped its bounds by changing the requirement for onboard rangers to on-shore rangers, with the justification that voters didn't understand what they were voting for in the initiative.

“When you have a vote of the

people, you can have no better indication of what the people want,” Gatto said. “‘Onboard' means onboard. It couldn't be any clearer.”

Gatto tried two years ago to get cruise industry legislation passed that was similar to, but less restrictive than, the voter-approved initiative. His proposal had little support, something he said was not surprising given the influence industry executives and their big-bucks campaign contributions have.

“The cruise industry owns this place,” Gatto said, speaking from his office in the Capitol.

Rep. Mike Doogan, a first-term Democrat from Anchorage, was the only Transportation Committee member to oppose HB 164. According to records filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, he received no campaign contributions from the cruise industry.

The five members of the Transportation Committee who did not oppose HB 164 received a total of $11,300 in campaign contributions from cruise industry interests in the last election cycle, according to APOC records. Rep. Kyle Johansen, a first-term Republican from cruise industry-reliant Ketchikan who chairs the committee, led the pack with $3,900 in contributions from industry interests, despite having no opponent in the November election.

Johansen's financial disclosure report also lists about $2,800 in income from a cruise industry-related job he held in 2006.

“He thinks no one will notice,” Gatto said. “He's wrong. He's new, he doesn't know.”

Johansen did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story, although the staffer who answered his phone was quick to ask if the query was about the ocean ranger bill.

Kohring, however, said campaign contributions do not influence how he votes.

“There is no connection. I had very limited contact with industry people on this bill,” he said. “I think they know they can't expect me to vote in their favor just because they gave me money.”

The seventh-term lawmaker, who took in $2,425 in industry contributions in the last election cycle, acknowledged that industry has been generous and helpful to him in his campaigns. But he said that such financial support is recognition of his own support of the tourism industry and his belief in non-interference by government in business.

Kohring said he struggled with his yes vote on HB 164 because it altered something voters had already approved. But he said, ultimately, his concern about the cost of the ocean ranger provision prevailed. He cited a $5.6 million tab to implement the program that falls $3 million short of the amount the new cruise tax would supply for the ocean ranger program.

“This was a very tough vote for me. It's recognition that the public doesn't always have full information,” Kohring said. “I have a feeling if they were aware of more of the specifics, there wouldn't have been quite the same support for (the

initiative).”

Neuman, who received $2,000 from the cruise industry during the last campaign, also cited the cost of ocean rangers as part of his reason for not opposing the bill.

But Gatto wasn't buying it.

“They're just trying to inflate the number,” he said, pointing out that the ocean ranger program had a clearly calculated $2.5 million cost.

HB 164 is scheduled Wednesday afternoon for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jay Ramras, a Republican from Fairbanks. APOC records show Ramras received $2,850 from cruise-industry interests in advance of the 2006 election, in which he was unopposed. Records also show that Ramras bought an undetermined amount of stock in both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines on May 26, 2006.

For his part, Gatto said he will fight for the original initiative as far as he can.

“It's unbelievable,” Gatto said. “I look around here at a lot of people who look ordinary and honest. Now, some of them look at their shoes when I talk to them about ocean rangers.”

Gatto said anyone who is party to overturning the voter mandate should step down. If voters didn't know what they were voting for with the initiative, he said, then maybe they were wrong about the lawmakers they elected, too.

Gatto said he has a message for his colleagues who don't support the initiative: “If (the public) voted right in voting for you, then they voted right on the cruise ship initiative,” he said. “We cannot violate the will of the people.”

Frontiersman reporter Russell Stigall contributed to this story. Contact Mark Kelsey at

352-2268 or mark.kelsey@

frontiersman.com.