The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-04-01
vET0f5 KILL AMENDMENT
 OF 7 LAWS
Insurance Nof Exempted from Bid-Mine lease
 Tax Unchanged
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be discriminatory in creating two classes of taxpayers. those who had made leases on mining property before the expiration of the 90 days and those who make them in the future.
 This is the type of tricky joker by which valid, desirable, and hon. estly conceived legislation is de- liberately ruined.'
 The Governors statement on veto of the amendment to the bid law was as follows: |.
 Statement by the Governor
 T have vetoed House Bill No. 46 entitled, An Act to amend Chapter 86 of the Session. Laws, of Alaska for 1889 to provide for the exemption of purchases of insur- ance and fidelity. bonds from the requirement of obtaining b i'd $ therefore; for the place of delivery Iof all purchases in excess of. Fifty Dollars t$5o.oOl by the Territory of Alaska; the qualifications for ,bid- ders on contracts for such purchas- es and to provide differential, not to exceed ten percentum (10ss) of the contract price, in 'fa- vor of bidders owning and operat- | ing establishments and businesses in the Territory of Alaska ...s There are several, valid reasons for vetoing this bill. First: The provisions of this Act shall not ap- Iply to the purchase of food. cloth ing, medical supplies, insurance and | fidelity bonds as .f,s,.s,4.o sr. Recently the question of renew ing the insurance on the Pioneers Home came before me as Chairman Of the Board of Trustees. Policies for $143, TOO on the main building and $26,320 on it's contents were expiring on February 19. The expir- ing policies had been written by the following five agencies: Tn e Shattuck Agency, Juneau, to the extent of $50.O20; Shepard and Son of Juneau, $46.000; Charles of Ket- chikan, $23,O00; Davies and John son of Ketchikan, $23,000; and the Juneau Insurance Agency, $20,O00
 Boards Consulted
 "The question arose whether the insurance should be automatically continued in the same proportion with the firms that had written it, whether bids should be opened on this considerable amount of insur- ance, or what method should be pursued. It seemed to me to in volve an important question of Ter ritorial policy, and I therefore called meeting of the Territorial Board of Administration to ask it's views and to secure a determina- tion of policy by what I should have been glad to be bound The Board of Administration, however, took the position that this was problem confronting the Board of Trustees of the Pioneers Home and that this Board should make it's decision. Therefore. I, as Chairman, with MT. VanderLeest, the other Juneau member, concurring, decid- ed that we would call for bids and notify every one of the 76 insur- ance agencies in the Territory that this insurance on the Pioneers Home was about to be let. My view, which MT. VanderLeest shared, was that this was the proper procedure when Territorial funds were in- volved, that no agency or group of agencies should have any in side track and that, other things being equal, the lowest bidder should receive the award.
 Tn response to a Territory wide notification 16 agents submitted bids. Twelve of these, including the Shattuck Agency, Davis and John son, The Charles Agency of Ket- chikan, which had handled the in surance that was expiring, submit ted identical bids of $543.10 on the building and approximately $174.5O on the contents. By far the lowest bid was submitted by the Juneau Insurance Agency which made a bid of $365.82 on the building and $12948 on the contents. After sat- isfying ourselves that the bid of the Juneau Insurance Agency rep resented no inferior quality of pro- lection, the Board of Trustees of the Pioneers Home awarded the insurance to it, thus saving the Territory the sum of $222.30. Such saving seems worthwhile, and the method pursued under the circum- stances fully justified.
 Method Called Desirable
 HI. B. 4G. introduced that very day by Representative Shattuck, would forbid that method; would forbid the purchasing of insurance by the Territory by opening bids I think it clear that continuation of the bid method is desirable-as the saving effected in the case of the Pioneers Home demonstrated that the letting of government con- tracts for purchases of any and al kinds, including insurance and fi- delity bonds, should be performed in the open, and that everyone in