Spotlight on Juneau

March 27, 2002

My Fellow Alaskan Voters,

Why has our Legislature failed to produce a long range budget plan? Would an accurate long range budget plan show their current fiscal policy is doomed to failure? Would it show that our government per capita spending equals the next two highest states spending combined? Are we really THAT much different than other Americans?

Why has the Legislature and Governor adopted this policy of deficit spending? Is it because they wish to continue spending even greater amounts of money? Even with a huge budget deficit our legislators have introduce new spending bills, this session totaling in the Billions, while our Governor overspends the State budget by hundreds of millions! We could not run our business or household like this and have any financial future. Why is our State government different?

Why has the Governor and Legislature failed to make the cuts needed to control cost? Is it because Bureaucrats are really in control? Maybe this would explain why snowplow drivers, teachers and troopers are the first positions to be cut. The Bureaucrats know for a fact that few tears would be shed by cutting deadwood hiding in state office buildings around Alaska. Do we really need all those invisible people drawing big salaries, benefits and pensions to produce absolutely nothing? Maybe this was an acceptable practice at one time, but can we afford to continue supporting it forever?

Why is the Legislature not listening to voters? Could it be they are under tremendous pressure to spend by all those high paid lobbyists and special interest groups? Why are we not supporting those few legislators who are trying to make needed changes? How can we really complain if we don't get involved in the process?

Why are these elected officials positioning our state for failure? It seems there are many questions and few answers. We need to get those answers BEFORE its too late! We need to keep track of those who want to tax and spend or voted to save us money. At election time it will be our duty to remove those who do not share our concern for the future of Alaska.

Our state government was built and maintained with revenue generated by the massive North Slope oil fields. With oil production now in steep decline (click on Unrestricted Petroleum Production Tax & Royalty Revenue Forecast, FY 2002-2010), the amount of revenue from this source is also rapidly diminishing. The current political philosophy, with few exceptions, is to continue or even expand government spending as if the North Slope was still producing at 100%. Our legislators must feel that the citizens of Alaska can make up for these lost revenues by paying new taxes and giving up our permanent fund.

In the short term, these proposed new taxes and raids on the permanent fund will keep our
government whole. In the long term we will soon reach a point when the permanent fund is completely gone and there will not be enough people working in Alaska to support a government even half the size of what we have now. The question that begs to be asked is, “Why don’t we make the cuts needed NOW to ensure a sustainable government well into the future, while we still have the money left to pay for it?”

Representative Vic Kohring proposed a well thought out ten point plan that could take us in the right direction. Everyone should review this plan, then discuss it with your legislator. This is the only serious attempt at a long term fiscal plan currently on the table, so let’s openly debate it.

Until the next time remember to keep those POM's and Letters flooding into Juneau. Contact your legislator! We must keep up the pressure now, or pay a BIG bill later. The choice is clear. We must manage our Legislature because we can NOT afford to let them manage us!

Please forward this message to concerned family members, friends, neighbors and business
associates. Ask them to do the same. If they choose to join, we will add them to our mailing list and they will automatically receive future issues. Together we CAN and WILL make a positive difference!

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