The chants were audible for blocks around: \u201cDo your jobs!\/So I can do mine!\u201d<\/p>\n
The trouble was that there weren\u2019t many people to hear them.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, rallies organized by the AFL-CIO took place in Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage as part of an effort to encourage the Alaska Legislature to pass a budget and fund it. The rallies took place three weeks before a crucial July 1 deadline. If lawmakers don\u2019t act by then, Alaska\u2019s state government will all but shut down.<\/p>\n
Despite the stakes, statewide interest seems low.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat scares me,\u201d said Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau and one of the speakers at Sunday\u2019s rally. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re really paying that much attention and it\u2019s more fun to go fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Juneau, one-sixth of the city\u2019s year-round workers will be laid off. The Alaska Marine Highway System will shut down. Business licenses won\u2019t be issued. Death certificates will be unavailable. Even cigarette and pull-tab sales will be affected. Every man, woman and child in Alaska will endure the consequences.<\/p>\n
There has been ample comment on social media, but far fewer Alaskans appear willing to translate thoughts into tangible action.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, only 136 people \u2014 including organizers and legislators \u2014 gathered to hear the speeches and join in the chants in front of the capitol. That\u2019s the third-largest protest in front of the capitol this year, but its audience was hundreds fewer than the Women\u2019s March and the March for Science, which each attracted almost 1,000 attendees.<\/p>\n
Organizer Nadine LeFebvre said the goal of Sunday\u2019s rallies \u201cis to encourage the Senate and the Legislature to come together with a balanced budget before the end of the fiscal year and a sustainable budget. This is just not the best plan, to always go to the brink of failure and come up with a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome, attended the rally and wrote on Facebook, \u201cWe are marching straight for a government shutdown that will be so devastating to thousands of families including hundreds in my district. \u2026 My district realizes how serious this is, as do I.\u201d<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t clear how many others realize that seriousness.<\/p>\n
In 2015, state employees were warned of a possible government shutdown after the Legislature passed a partially funded budget before June 1. Lawmakers agreed upon the rest of the funding on June 11, the same date as Sunday\u2019s rallies.<\/p>\n
In 2016, lawmakers agreed upon a budget on the last day of May, hours before warnings were scheduled to go out to state employees.<\/p>\n
This year is the closest the state has come to shutting down, and a new record is being set daily. Lawmakers have not even agreed to partially fund the budget, and the Legislature appears \u2014 to use a word from Gov. Bill Walker \u2014 to be in a \u201cstalemate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that a lot of folks are sort of discouraged with government in general and where we\u2019re at,\u201d said Rep. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, who attended Sunday\u2019s rally. \u201cI think that that\u2019s sort of translated into a lack of enthusiasm to come out and shout at us more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poor weather may have contributed to low turnout Sunday in Fairbanks and Juneau, but public apathy also appears \u2014 or rather, doesn\u2019t \u2014 in the opinion pages of the state\u2019s newspapers.<\/p>\n
The Juneau Empire has seen no significant upsurge in letters to the editor about the shutdown, and Scott Bowlen of the Ketchikan Daily News said \u201cthere hasn\u2019t been a surge in local response to the prospect (of a shutdown).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside of Juneau, it seems like it\u2019s been oddly muted,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, said his office has been getting plenty of emails and notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on correspondence, there\u2019s some concern for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner opinion editor Tom Hewitt said his newspaper is receiving twice to three times the normal number of letters, but a proportion of that surge is due to national politics, not state interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration has been so very polarizing,\u201d Hewitt said of his experience.<\/p>\n
Hewitt said he thinks there will come a time when Alaskans pay attention to the shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with other aspects of the state\u2019s fiscal crisis, I think it\u2019s something people are only going to pay attention to when it happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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