Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom on Friday gave two proposed initiatives the OK to begin gathering signatures for the 2024 election and rejected another.
The decision is part of the state’s analysis of whether the proposed voter initiatives are legal under state law and the Alaska Constitution and can be appealed to the courts in what can be a time-intensive process. It clears initiatives restoring campaign contribution limits and another increasing the minimum wage and mandating sick leave but rejects another that would bar the state from supporting partisan primary elections.
The lieutenant governor has been accused of unfairly biasing the review in past election cycles. However, at least one approved initiative covers an issue Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has personally battled against.
Election initiatives
That’d be the voter initiative to restore campaign contribution limits to state races. The state’s previous limits—also set by voter initiative—were ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge because they were too low and weren’t tied to inflation, both fixable problems. Gov. Mike Dunleavy refused to appeal the case and later came out against the Legislature’s efforts to enact campaign contributions, stymying a bill near passage.
A legal analysis by the Department of Law says the initiative is “not clearly unconstitutional” under the precedent set by the lawsuit that overturned the old ones. It notes that the initiative addresses the concerns raised by the judge, upping the contribution limit for individuals giving to candidates from $500 to $2,000 and then indexing it to inflation.
The initiative was brought by Alaskans for Better Elections, a group that helped advocate for the state’s open primaries and ranked-choice voting system. It also brought the initiative to bar the state from using resources on partisan primaries. This move seeks to be a backstop to the Sarah Palin-backed initiative to repeal open primaries and ranked-choice voting. That second initiative was blocked because it unconstitutionally tied the Legislature’s hands by allocating state resources.
Bruce Bothelo, a former attorney general who sponsored both initiatives through his work with Alaskans for Better Elections, told the Alaska Beacon that they were unlikely to appeal the rejection and that efforts were quickly turning to gathering the 26,000 necessary signatures before the Legislature convenes in January.
“I don’t think we suspect there will be much problem in collecting signatures well before the Legislature convenes in January,” Botelho told the Beacon.
Minimum wage and paid sick leave
The second of the approved initiatives would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13 per hour on July 1, 2025, and by a dollar each of the next two years. After that, it would be indexed to inflation, as it currently is, thanks to the 2014 voter initiative that last adjusted the state’s minimum wage. Another provision of the legislation would also require employers to provide employees with paid sick time off, something that’s not currently required under state law. That would accrue at one hour for every 30 hours worked, with the total an employee can bank depending on the size of their business.
The legislation would also bar employers from requiring employees to attend mandatory political or religious meetings.
One of the main drivers behind the effort is former Labor Commissioner Ed Flanagan, who was also instrumental in the 2014 voter initiative. He also expressed confidence that they’d be able to gather the signatures ahead of the start of the 2024 legislative session, noting that the last measure passed with the overwhelming support of nearly 70% of voters.
Legislative action
While the voter initiative process allows voters to enact legislation where the Legislature has failed or refused to act, it doesn’t entirely sidestep the legislative process. The Alaska Constitution allows the Legislature to cut off initiatives by passing legislation that is essentially similar to what is proposed by the initiative. The primary difference between the two outcomes is voter initiatives are barred from repeal or significant changes for two years after they’re passed, while no such protections exist for legislation passed by the Legislature.
That’s been used by Republicans in the past to avoid having uncomfortable issues—like raising the minimum wage—on the ballot against them, only to return to repeal the measure before it could go into effect—as they did with the minimum wage in the early 2000s and attempted again with the 2014 initiative.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
