Dunleavy says he heard what Alaskans had to say; what he heard was sound of recall

Instead of attending the Alaska Municipal League conference last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy attended a Republican Governors Association gabfest in Boca Raton.

According to a tweet from the RGA, Dunleavy and three other first-year GOP governors spoke about “their tremendous accomplishments in their first year in office.”

Dunleavy submitted this short video to the meeting of local government leaders in Alaska, portraying himself as a guy with great hearing.

“We heard you and we heard Alaskans. We heard you when it came to funding for the University of Alaska. We heard you when it came to senior benefits and homelessness programs. And we heard from you on the petroleum property tax and business fisheries tax, both of which we will not be advancing this year due to your feedback,” Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy certainly heard complaints for months about his bills to confiscate $470 million from local governments, money generated by the petroleum and fish taxes that they rely upon. This was the foundation of his so-called fiscal plan.

As to what else Dunleavy heard and when, let’s keep the record straight.

Had he been listening, he would have heard opposition starting in February to cutting the ferry system, dismantling the University of Alaska, cutting schools by $330 million and reducing health care services for poor people by $700 million.

The Legislature blocked his plans, but he decided to rule via the veto in late June, knowing he had a small group of Republican allies who would stick with him.

As temporary budget director Donna Arduin put it at the time, “Everything that he vetoed was just vetoing back to his proposals” released in February.

“These vetoes should not come as a surprise to Alaskans as they have been part of our proposal since February,” Dunleavy said on June 28.

After that, the veto-happy Dunleavy didn’t want to hear a thing about the recklessness of his plan to cut the University of Alaska by $130 million. Or cutting senior benefits, homeless programs, etc.

Yet there did come a time when Dunleavy heard what was happening in Alaska.

The Legislature forced a second budget through the process and Dunleavy reversed himself on $150 million in vetoes. He began to listen for one reason only.

He heard what happened on Aug. 1 when about 10,000 Alaskans signed the recall petitions on the first day.