If the gas line deal that Gov. Bill Walker just made with the Chinese is going to be built, we should all be giddy.
If a shovel goes in the ground and this gas line construction begins, Gov. Walker will be elevated to Alaskan sainthood. Walker will stand in Alaskan history with Wally Hickel, Bill Egan, Ernest Gruening, Bob Bartlett, Judge Wickersham, Joe Juneau and Frank Reed.
I believe in telling people to their face what I think. I like Walker very much. I think he is the most decent governor we have had in a long time. He is a decent man. He is who we want at the helm of government. He is not a divisive rabid ideologue. He truly cares about each man, woman and child in our state.
I do not like it that he was left with a fiscal mess and has taken half my PFD. I stand with the thousands of us who have been screaming “What part of permanent don’t you understand?” and “Why do the oil giants get millions of dollars in cash payments, when the milk and rice and beans are cut from every man, woman and child in every village and town in the state?”
Walker has been in a fix, caught between every legislator who serves their oil masters and we Alaskans who actually own the oil and gas and gold that is in the ground.
Walker has done the near impossible. He has allowed himself to be the villain for making a very unpopular decision. He believes that to save the state, he needed to take our money away from us. I disagree.
He also has done something that every other politician has only promised to do. Walker got us a gas line deal. If this gas line actually begins, and we actually see a shovel go into the ground, we should tear up the constitution and make Walker governor for life. Can you imagine the added monies that will go into the permanent fund from our gas line? This certainly will bring our PFDs back to the levels that will reflect the ownership every Alaskan has in our natural resources.
I’m rooting for you, Bill!
Stephan Patterson,
Palmer