Primaries for state offices races are less than a month away. The Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce hosted a candidate forum for Senate District O Wednesday, with Republican incumbent Peter Micciche and his challenger Ron Gillham fielding questions on everything from health care to the Pebble mine to how to use the state’s permanent fund.
Experience seems to be what most separates the two candidates seeking the Republican nomination to represent the Central Peninsula in the state Senate. Micciche has six years in Juneau, plus time served as mayor of Soldotna. Gillham is the newcomer, but he says experience as a small business owner has him primed to handle the state’s budget issues.
“As far as putting budgets together, I know that you can only work with the money you have. I will not max out our credit card. I can only spend the amount of money I have. When you start seeing money spent that doesn’t belong to you, that’s not the way to go.”
Micciche says he was sent to Juneau to help fix the budget mess that resulted after a downturn in oil prices and the national economy, but keeping the oil, and the money, flowing from the North Slope will take more changes in the capital.
“There are some folks we need to replace in Juneau, but they’re not the conservatives that have been the most productive on getting us down the road where we need to be. We passed things that will control the growth of government in the future, which has got us in this position year after year after year. We need help. We need the House to turn, we need to keep the good people we have in the Senate majority that have managed the only functioning body in this state. We need to manage our costs and provide opportunities for Alaskans in the future.”
On AK LNG, the issue was framed around the legislature’s lack of support for giving the state the ability to bring outside investors into the project. Gillham says in its current form, he doesn’t support the project.
“I was told to research the AK LNG project, and I really don’t agree with it. People think that they’re going to get a shoot off of this gas line and if we’re not going to get anything out of it, I don’t agree with it. As far as the state being involved, I think it should be privately owned, not state owned.”
Micciche explains why he doesn’t support a move, giving what’s called receipt authority, that could allow more private investment into the project.
“The administration simply has no idea what the exposure is to the state on the deductions that companies can take that invest in the pipeline. We have to understand what those deductions are going to cost, because if this project kicks off, we could have zero revenue for the first five or six years. We’re largely supportive of the AK LNG project, but we have to understand that exposure before we give receipt authority.”
The primary election is coming up on August 21st.