When in doubt, create a task force

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said it would be a “knee-jerk reaction” to subsidize child care providers as some legislators are proposing to keep more providers in business and make the service more affordable for families struggling to care for their kids while working outside the home.

“I’m not going to support $15 million in child care because we don’t even know what the child care is that we’re talking about,” Dunleavy complained Thursday.. “What does it look like? Is it focused on infants? Is it focused on toddlers? Is it focused on other age groups?”

Instead of acting, Dunleavy chose his preferred reflexive behavior—he created a task force to study how to improve child care and pay people more to care for children.

Announcing a task force gets you some headlines—other with little or no followup—and creates the illusion of action.

The child care task force is to get its final report to him by July 31, 2024, which means that legislative action would be delayed until 2025.

That’s too long to wait for something the governor’s office should have been working on with real proposals the Legislature could act on this year.

We could use a task force on task forces to identify what’s wrong with this model.

I wrote here Thursday about the two food security task forces and the imaginary state “Office of Food Security,” which has no website, budget, address or contact information for the public.

The first task force completed its report in March, but the Dunleavy administration failed to publicize or promote the document.

The final report of the 22-member food group says “there remains a sense of urgency in the need to take action.”

That Dunleavy and his alleged “Office of Food Security” didn’t announce that the task force had completed its work or arrange for it to be posted prominently on the state website does not reflect a sense of urgency.

A new 36-member food task force, created by legislation approved last year, has many tasks. The new group, called the Alaska Food Strategy Task Force, is to “continue the efforts of and review and, when applicable, implement the recommendations of the Alaska Food Security and Independence Task Force established by Administrative Order No. 331.”

Thirty-five members have yet to be named to the new food group, which was supposed to begin working two months ago.

Elsewhere in task forces, Dunleavy created the Alaska Energy Security Task Force in February and March, “to develop a comprehensive statewide energy plan that will evaluate energy generation, distribution, and transmission for the State of Alaska and its communities.”

The 20-member group is to have its initial report to the governor by May 19 and “recommend a statewide energy goal, a plan to achieve it, and identify additional work that may be required to refine this vision.”

Last September, Dunleavy announced the creation of the “Office of Energy Innovation” in the governor’s office, saying the new office would use “existing personnel and monetary resources” to “develop policies that enable Alaska to capitalize on its vast energy potential in order to lower the cost of energy and enhance the stability of energy delivered to Alaskans.”

This appears to be an imaginary office similar to the Office of Food Security. Search for the Alaska Office of Energy Innovation and all you can find is the press release and the order announcing its creation before the election.

Before the election, he also created a recreational marijuana task force. The 13-member group submitted this report. There are minutes and reports on the state website that go into this in some detail.

Dunleavy has also had a broadband task force. Its report can be found here. And a bycatch review task force. Its report can be found here.

There was an Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Work Group, which was not a task force, but a reshaping work group. Its report can be found here.

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