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Since there
are no contested races affecting Kodiak on Tuesday's primary election ballot,
there might not be much interest in voting. But there are also two ballot
initiatives to be decided.
Ballot
Measure One has to do with property tax exemptions, and Measure Two attempts to
reestablish a coastal management program in Alaska.
Kodiak
Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby is one of the founders of the Alaska Sea
Party, which collected the signatures to put Measure Two on the ballot. He says
it's vital for the state and especially coastal communities to turn out to pass
Measure Two.
Opposition
comes from Governor Sean Parnell and multi-national resource developers, which
have spent heavily to back the "No On 2" campaign to get the measure defeated.
Selby says
accusations by the measure's foes that coastal management wasn't
business-friendly and would stifle resource development are not accurate:
-- (Coastal 1 29 sec "It's pro-development, but it's ... it eliminates
lawsuits.")
Selby says
reinstating a coastal management program would allow local and state input on
projects on federal lands and in federal waters along Alaska's coast:
-- (Coastal 2 28 sec "This vote is really about who ... it's the big
corporations.")
One of the
arguments of the No On 2 group is that the ballot initiative would not actually
recreate the Coastal Management Program as it was when it expired last year.
Selby says that's correct - up to a point:
-- (Coastal 3 17 sec "It's the way Jay Hammond set it up ... had envisioned
it.")
Since
coastal management expired last year, neither the state nor Alaskan communities
any longer have a say in what happens in federal waters. Selby says it's
conceivable that salmon farms could sprout up outside state's three-mile limit.
-- (Coastal 4 30 sec "Before, when we had a coastal ... no coastal management
program.")
Since it
expired last year, Alaska became the only state in the union that does not have
a coastal management program.
The primary
election is on Tuesday.
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