According to a report in the Alaska Dispatch:
The Alaska Legislature made little headway Monday on its deficit reduction plan after missing its Sunday adjournment deadline, while a House Republican leader introduced an entirely new bill to eliminate state workers' annual and biennial pay increases that a Democratic colleague said could actually set negotiations backward.In response, a loose but unified consortium of Alaskans from Ketchikan in Southeast all the way up to Barrow in the far north have decided there's only one thing left to do: take to Kickstarter and retain a team of brawny, strong dudes (local hires, of course) with jackhammers to annoy the Legislature to the point of insanity such that its members finally decide to pass a budget (among other things) and go home.
"This really is a last resort for us," said Tim Jones, an office manager affiliated with the effort who works on the Kenai Peninsula and just wants something--anything--to happen in Juneau already.
"Our hope is that the sound of 130 decibels of metal-on-concrete hammer blows, combined with the explosive air exhaust of approximately one dozen pneumatic jackhammers operating directly under legislators' office windows for 12 out of 24 hours a day will finally do what testimony, emails, letters, phone calls, and other traditional and generally quieter forms of public appeal could not."
Neither the foreman of the jackhammer crew nor a single one of the state's 60 legislators could be reached for comment. Not because they refused to comment, but because they couldn't hear our questions.
