Thinking About Ways to Categorize and Evaluate Bills

In checking up on the large number of bills submitted in the Alaska Legislature compared to the small number passed (about 11 to 1 last week), I've been trying to identify different types of bills and different reasons legislators introduce them.  There are a number of different ways we could organize this.  One way is to develop scales of different factors, and bills probably fall all across the spectrum:

1.   High impact  .............................................................Low impact
Some bills, like many that deal with oil and gas taxes and pipelines can have an enormous impact on the future of the state.  Others, like declaring February 2 Marmot Day probably have relatively minor impact.

2.  High Controversy...........................................................Low  Controversy
 Bills that touch ideological conflicts - development v environmental protection,  labor v business, regulation v. free enterprise - are on one end and issues where there is bi-partisan support (in concept if not in approach) - support for veterans, opposition to alcohol and sexual abuse - on the other end.

3.  Substantive ....................................................................................Symbolic
Substantive legislation makes real changes in how the state does things - the campaign expenditure bills which would require disclosure of independent expenditures by corporations and unions or the bill that limits mandatory overtime for nurses.  Symbolic legislation makes a statement but has relatively little actual impact.  Declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness month, adopting an official second verse of the state song, and divesting state investments in companies doing business in Iran are more on the symbolic side.  Symbolism can be important or unimportant - but that is measured by Factor 1.

4.  Political...........................................................................................Non-political
I differentiate this from Factor 2.  This is more about how voting on a bill affects the next election.  It appears, for example, that in this legislative session, Republicans are giving the governor's legislation a difficult time because many are supporting an opponent of the governor in the primary and do not want to give the governor 'wins' going into the election.  I could, of course, be reading that entirely wrong. 

5.  Private Interest bills ...................................................................Public Interest bills
Private interest bills are written to benefit a very specific private entity.  These are harder to call because the sponsors almost always minimize (if they can't hide) the private benefit of the laws and promote them by identifying public benefits of the law.  The bill that would have required everyone to have winter tires (not all weather tires), HB 322,  would have clearly benefited the constituent who got a legislator to sponsor it - Johnson Tires.  The head of the company even said it would increase the number of people he employs from about 125 to 800.  But the bill was touted as a bill that would save lives and lower insurance bills.  And both claims could be true.  The bill to cut the cruise line head tax will surely benefit the cruise lines and less clearly benefit the general Alaskan.

6.   Procedural bills ........................................................................Substantive bills
Procedural here, in contrast to Symbolic in Factor 3, refers to bills that make the rules or processes clearer or more efficient.  They don't necessarily change the goal of a program, but rather the intent is to make it work better.

7.  Long term bills.........................................................................Short term bills
Long term bills anticipate the future and try to plan for it in an orderly way.  SB 220 sets up some structure for developing energy policy and stimulating alternative energy projects.  Bills putting money into budget reserve funds look to the future. 

8.  Proactive bills ...............................................................................Reactive bills
Proactive bills, like long term bills, anticipate some problem or opportunity and develop ways to avoid the problem or take advantage of the opportunity.  Reactive bills respond to some problem that already exists.  There is much talk about having more prevention in the Governor's sexual assault initiative and less reaction.   My belief is that the more people anticipate and prevent problems the less they have to react.  But there will always be situations that can't be anticipated. 

9.  Do Good ............................................................................................. Do Harm
I add this one, not because I can determine this, but to remind everyone that while some of the labels on the scales sound like 'good' things - say big impact or long term - they may have big negative impact and long term harm.  Even a bill aimed at benefiting a single company or individual may be seen as a good bill if it is to make whole a company that was unfairly harmed by some state action. 


These thoughts have emerged after spending almost three months watching the legislature. I'm sure others who have been around longer could come up with more critical factors.

It might be interesting to apply these scales in different ways.  A couple of examples: 

• Compare the legislation that passes to the legislation that doesn't.  (I'd guess there is a fair amount of symbolic, non-controversial, low impact legislation that has passed.)
• Look at the legislation introduced by each legislator.  Are there patterns?  Do individual legislators sponsor similar types of legislation each time?  Are there significant differences among legislators? 

Of course, there are a lot of other categories of bills to be considered such as bills that allocate money and bills that mollify specific constituents or interest groups.  And there are other 'measures' such as resolutions which are used to introduce Constitutional Amendments or  declare the opinion of the legislature.