Senators back ocean rangers
A Senate budget subcommittee has decided to heed the voters and restore part of the cruise ship initiative the House stripped out.
It's good to see them play by the rules.
The senators approved $2.5 million to the ocean rangers program, which would put state pollution monitors aboard cruise ships while they're under way. They approved a two-person staff to get started, and adopted rules to provide just one ranger per ship -- in the cheapest available berths.
The rules make sense, and comply with the spirit as well as the letter of last August's voter-approved initiative, which called for onboard pollution monitors to make sure cruise ship crews abide by discharge limits. The initiative imposed a new $4-per-passenger tax to pay for the program, estimated to raise close to $4 million a year.
The subcommittee's action is a far cry from some in the House who say the onboard monitoring program is redundant, expensive and too difficult to implement. The latest proposal, backed by Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, calls for using $1 million of the $4 million to pay for port checks by monitors, limited random checks on the water, and then using the remaining $3 million to fund annual grants to nonprofit marine groups for research, education, youth programs, wildlife protection and environmental cleanup.
Using any leftover funds from the new tax for grants to nonprofits makes some sense, especially if the option is spending more than necessary on too much bureaucracy. But the first order of business should be to set up a comprehensive and adequately funded pollution monitor program. That's what the initiative requires.
The Department of Environmental Conservation says it's working to get ocean rangers aboard ships for the early May start of the cruise season. Lawmakers should be helping that effort, not looking to create escape clauses.
Alaska law blocks legislators from repealing a voter initiative until two years after passage. Until then, they can amend an initiative's provisions -- with the courts likely to decide how far lawmakers can go in "amending" before it becomes "repealing."
Legislators should appropriate the money and approve any laws necessary for a pollution monitors program. Then, and only then, see if any leftover money from the new passenger tax can go to worthwhile marine programs.
BOTTOM LINE: Senators show the way to heed voters' decision on cruise ship ocean rangers.
