Editorial

"Governor and Legislature" by John Davis - KSRM, Radio Kenai - Think About It…. March 6, 2002

Well our governor and the legislature are really at work hidden away down in Juneau, and looking over all the different bills that the house and the senate are considering, you can readily tell that very few representatives are thinking about ridding our state budget of any spending.

Check out some of the bills that are in the hopper this year. Here’s one in the House by Moses. He wants to tax every resident, non-resident and part-time resident with an income tax up to 15% to 20%.

Moses, Lancaster and others want to spend up to $89 million for municipalities. Money to come from Permanent Fund Reserves if needed.

Rep. Scalzi and Hudson want an income tax limited to 2.5% of income.

Rep. Croft and Hayes want a State Sales Tax limit of 5%.

Rep. Scalzi and Hudson want a 2% tax on all business gross receipts.

Rep. Lancaster, Fate and Whitaker want a Sales Tax limited to 6%.

Rep. Scalzi, Mulder and Stevens want to distribute income of the Permanent Fund for general government operations.

Senator Randy Philips wants to spend $102 million on Alaska Homeland security.

Senators Donnelly and Kelly want to make a $9 million donation to the tourism industry.

And of course the list goes on and on.

The dedication shown by Tony Knowles and most of our legislators to continually work at increasing our state operating budget, in spite of facing an insurmountable billion dollar revenue shortfall, is most remarkable. Obviously just knowing that billions of dollars are waiting to be tapped in the Permanent Fund and the thinking that Alaskans can really do without a PFD anyway, keeps almost all of our leaders away from any consideration
or work on ways to bring our state spending in line with our income. Now, more than ever in this election year, when the Governor and almost every legislator in the state is up for election, its important to remember, and choose trustworthy and responsible citizen legislators who are focused and dedicated to fiscal responsibility.

Think About It……

JCD/2-27-2002

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