Gov. Parnell’s new budget sticker price is a shocker: $10.5 billion. That’s billion with an explosive “B.” The size of this figure should give rise to fear and trepidation in the hearts of every conservative Alaskan out there, and the rest, also. Out of $10.5 billion, less than .5 percent builds anything. The rest goes to state government to maintain the social state that Alaska has become while drunk on oil revenues.

When has there been any desire to build anything since Bill Eagan’s second term in the early 1970s? All state government does now is grow and make excuses for why we cannot do anything anymore.

Worse, why has the state government grown with the Palin/Parnell Administration? As it turns out, Palin was no conservative. She sold us a load of bilge on that promise, and Parnell has yet to pump out the bilge water that is the growth in state government since Palin/Parnell came to power. The current increase of 8.6 percent over Palin’s last budget shows that Parnell is no fiscal conservative. An example of the expansion of state government is Palin/Parnell’s Climate Change Sub-Cabinet. A state executive cabinet that is managed by a federal Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) employee. This management is contrary to the Palin/Parnell stance and rhetoric in Parnell’s state of the state address about maintaining and protecting the state’s sovereignty. This cabinet is no longer needed with the admission of climate change being manufactured science to a political end. This sub-cabinet is also an expansion of government whose function was already covered by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) on the emergency response side, and other state agencies. Worse, it is administered by Climate Change Strategies (CCS), a Non-Government Organization (NGO) that promotes the false science of man-made global warming.

Another duplication of effort and money, to the tune of $7 million this year, was the creation of the Pipeline Czar position under Palin and continued by Parnell. We created the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority (ANGDA) in 2002 by an overwhelming majority to do exactly what Harry Noah and now Bob Swenson were appointed to do. Why is this bureaucracy and expense necessary? What does it do that ANGDA could not do, especially in the face of former Sen. Gene Therriault’s appointment as the governor’s oil and gas adviser? Seems to me that between Therriault and ANGDA, the situation regarding gas pipelines was covered.

DMVA continues an interesting structure that is contrary to our republican tradition in government. The military always has a civilian head. In Alaska, under former Gov. Frank Murkowski, an experiment was tried. The commissioner of DMVA and the position of the Adjutant General were combined. The purpose was to put the two top jobs, military and civilian under one hat. While good in theory, it put the military in control of DMVA, or more particularly, the National Guard Bureau (NGB). The reorganization also resulted in the two top positions being out of state at the same time. With then Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell’s numerous trips to Mongolia, Iraq, and Afghanistan as the Adjutant General, DMVA’s remaining leadership was incapable of making any decisions while the Commissioner/TAG was out of town. The DMVA commissioner should be a civilian, and the TAG should be military, as two separate positions. NGB fuels DMVA. The combination of TAG and commissioner under one hat gives the feds too much influence. Parnell, as a long-time legislator, should have had the moxie to correct this situation. The military should always have civilian leadership. Even the Russians know better.

Under Parnell, we have bigger not better government. We have more money spent with less to show for it. We are in a recession, not a period of growth. There is no pipeline or other major construction on the Parnell plate with an anticipated start date planned. It is time to wipe the slate clean of Palin/Parnell and elect a new governor.

Check out the Division of Elections website to see who is running. Then, go to the candidates’ websites and read up on them.

We cannot afford another round of Palin/Parnell.

Larry Wood is a 57-year Alaska resident working in environmental reclamation and mining.