We’ve lived in Alaska for 50 years and have never seen anything like this.

For the first time, we attended a meeting with the governor and had to have a security check and had no opportunity to have an open dialogue with our public officials — and had screened questions by the Americans for Prosperity (a group funded by the Koch brothers worth $99 billion).

In spite of lavish promises of giant PFDs, they didn’t tell us that they would gut our world-class university system, destroy K-12 education, health care for many, cut the ferry system in Southeast, and destroy our fisheries system by taking money from borough governments to fund their naked handout to the greedy who take their personal largess more important than making our state a better place to live.

We believe our government has a fiduciary responsibility to take care of citizens and fulfill constitutional charges. We feel this governor has broken promises and is waging a fundamental attack on what’s made our state great and unique. Using terms like “predatory taxes” and “government has its hands in your pocket” does not lead to a useful dialogue about important state services.

— Bud and Sammy Crawford, Kenai