Saying that the proposed initiative to ban commercial gillnets and set nets from non-subsistence areas proposed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance goes against the state's constitution barring appropriation of a state asset, Lt Governor Mead Treadwell rejected the initiative on Monday.

The state’s 60-day deadline for making a decision on the proposed ballot initiative that was filed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance on November 6th, was reached on Monday, and on Monday, Lt Governor Treadwell released his decision stating that the initiative will not appear on the ballot.

Treadwell said in a January 6th letter of denial to the ballot initative’s founder, Joe Connors, that even though the Division of Elections determined that the initiative application had enough sponsors at 195 of the 209 submitted, that the Department of Law recommended that he “decline to certify this initiative on the grounds that 13 PCAF makes a prohibited appropriation under Article XI, section 7 of the Alaska Constitution.”

The Department’s 12-page opinion on the proposed initiative “was based primarily on the Alaska Supreme Court’s 1996 decision in Pullen v. Ulmer, a case holding that salmon are assets of the state which may not be appropriated by initiative and that the preferential treatment of certain fisheries may constitute a prohibited appropriation.” according to Treadwell.

The Department of Law’s opinion letter also states, “Were this type of initiative permissible, voters could continue to reallocate stocks to any fishery simply by eliminating specific gear or particular means and methods of catching fish – for example, the next initiative might propose to eliminate purse seining, trawling, dipnetting, or catch-and-release sport fishing in particular areas to increase harvest opportunity for other types of users. This would ‘prevent … real regulation and careful administration’ of Alaska’s salmon stocks, contrary to the purpose of the prohibition on initiative by appropriation.”

AFCA Executive Director Clark Penney called Treadwell’s decision “puzzling,” and said in a statement released after the decision, that the group is “reviewing the Lt Governor’s decision and evaluating a possible legal challenge.”

The Alaska Salmon Alliance, who opposed the initiative, was happy with the Lt Governor’s decision. That group’s Executive Director, Arni Thomson said in a release after the decision, “Though it was highly unlikely to ever pass, the Set Netter Ban would have instantly destroyed the jobs of more than 500 Alaska families who set net to make a living.” Thomson continued by saying, “We are happy to see it dead on arrival.”

The bill’s sponsors have thirty days from Monday, January 6th to exercise their right to judicial review under Article XI, section 2 of the Alaska Constitution and AS 15.45.240.