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Three-term Nikiski Rep. Ben Carpenter is right, the state needs a sustainable, long-term fiscal plan. Give him credit for raising the issue. Talk of a balanced fiscal plan has lingered since 1990 — before several of today’s legislators were even born. The discussion about diversifying Alaska’s economy has lasted even longer, ever since the first oil started flowing from Prudhoe Bay in 1977 and we tried using the riches to expand the state’s economy and job opportunities beyond crude. But unless new business activity produces oil, any new indust...
It’s embarrassing that it took billions of dollars in losses for some legislators to acknowledge that the state’s fiscal house is leaking worse than a broken downspout on a Southeast Alaska roof. It’s too bad Gov. Mike Dunleavy acts like he has barely noticed the growing pool of mud at his feet. Start with the Permanent Fund, which generates investment earnings that have become the largest single source of revenue in the state budget. Last year was painful for most every investor, and Alaska was not immune to the downturn. The fund dropp...
After years of legislative debate over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, reasonable voices are starting to grow louder, maybe even hopefully strong enough to outvote the irresponsible catcalls for an unaffordable dividend. It’s a welcome change. A bill in the House would restore dividend sanity by setting the free-money check at a percentage of the annual draw of Permanent Fund earnings, producing about a $1,300 PFD this year and growing from there. That would be about equal to the average dividend of the past decade, before the e...
It’s bad enough that the world stacks, dumps and burns mountains of gallon milk jugs, water bottles, package wrappers and take-out food containers every day. But after we finish our last bites, many of those plastic bits make it into the oceans, where they break down into small, fish-food-size pieces — enough to choke a seahorse. And without even a side of salsa to season the plastic chips. Technology has figured out how to put a computer on our wrists, store thousands of photographs in a smartphone and create software that can answer com...
The state wasn’t concerned as much about future profits as it was asserting and protecting Alaska’s rights to see oil flow from lands within its borders when it paid millions of dollars for federal leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It was a matter of principle. When the Trump administration rushed to put up the leases for bid in the final days of his presidency in January 2021, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority pulled out its checkbook and made sure to stake its claim to some of the acreage — just in case no on...
Alaska’s senior U.S. senator — and former state legislator — Lisa Murkowski addressed a joint session of the Legislature last week, covering the usual issues of oil and gas, economic development and lots of federal dollars for local projects. Her remarks were pretty routine for anyone who has listened to the annual speeches at the Capitol by Alaska’s two senators over the decades. That’s the comforting thing about Alaska politics — the issues don’t change much. We’re like an old TV sitcom where the characters don’t age and the same problems...
The losers in last year’s elections in Alaska say change is bad. Of course they do. Political losers seldom blame themselves when voters fill in the oval next to someone else’s name. But whether last year’s change suits their own personal views and political agenda should not overrule Alaska’s switch to ranked-choice voting. The change worked, some moderate candidates won election last year, and the world did not end. In fact, the state probably is better for it. Moderation is good for a political world moving too far away from a product...
There might be a way to avoid federal income taxes on the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend. But it would mean admitting that the annual payment to Alaskans is a political decision not at all tied to earnings of the savings account. It could mean changing the name of the PFD to Popular Fall Distribution, to truly disassociate the money from the fund’s investment earnings. If it means avoiding federal income tax on the money, we could learn to call the annual payment most anything. It would mean changing state law. And it would mean discarding the...
Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is easier. At least you can rent a backhoe and move the rock. Getting politically caught between more money for public schools and even more money for the Permanent Fund dividend will be the hardest place for legislators this year. The vote will come down to which is more important for Alaska: A long-needed, substantial increase in state funding for public schools, or the governor’s proposed supersized Happy Meal of a nearly $4,000 Permanent Fund dividend? But putting the dividend first and school...
Wrangell is getting older. Not just the town, but its residents. Which means its labor pool is getting older and leaving the workforce, with fewer younger people to fill job openings. The numbers are not good for businesses, the services they want to provide their customers or the town’s economy. The job notices posted by multiple Front Street businesses, City Hall, the hospital and most everywhere else in town are as constant as rain, and just as demoralizing. “Closed due to staffing shortages” is frustrating for everyone, and far less appre...
The staff, faculty and students at Wrangell’s three public schools work hard and believe in the importance of education. Parents help out with volunteer work, and the overall community pitches in, too. The borough this year is contributing the maximum amount of funding to the school district operating budget allowed under state law. During budget deliberations last May, the assembly boosted the local contribution by more than $300,000 to reach the max for the 2022-2023 school year. And while that local support is enough for this year and p...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has made a political career out of promising more than the state can afford while never supporting taxes to pay the bills, has a new, almost magical plan to help cover his budget deficits. It’s all about collecting so much money for essentially doing nothing that the state could continue avoiding taxes, continue paying the fattest Permanent Fund dividends in history, and continue avoiding an honest long-term fiscal plan to pay for public services. It sounds like a politically induced mirage. The plan? Promise never to l...
For the 10th year in a row, more Alaskans moved out last year than new residents moved in. That’s a draining fact, with no real plan to plug the leak. To confirm the Alaska Department of Labor’s statistics about population and persistent out-migration, drive no farther than U-Haul. America’s do-it-yourself movers reported this month on its annual numbers for traffic into states and one-way rentals leaving each state. The traffic count for Alaska is not good. The state fell 25 spots in the nationwide ranking of growth states, from 16th place...
No doubt liars have served in public office ever since the first candidate printed a handbill and later evolved to taping a radio or TV commercial or clicking on social media. It’s as American as apple pie, and as dishonest as the pie stuffed with applesauce instead of apples. And if the candidates themselves were too honest to tell a fib, their campaign managers or biographers would step in and put out a lie to make the candidate look better. Even the story about how George Washington, our nation’s first president, had fessed up to cut...
It’s been almost 40 years since I read “The Good War,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning history as told by more than 120 participants in World War II. They remembered the fighting, the injuries and deaths, the personal sacrifices at home and even the moments of hope and kindness. They told the author, Chicago journalist Studs Terkel, of their lives and what the war did to them and what it meant to them. Though I was born after the war (1951), I’ve often thought about how strongly America came together to fight its enemies. Many volunteered for military...
I was never a good student. I was easily distracted, especially in elementary and high school, and figured sentence construction, adverbs, adjectives and spelling were for the students who sat in the front of the class, not those of us who sat in the back to hide out. I was especially bad at spelling. So bad, in fact, that I once misspelled my own name on the nametag for parents day at school - my last name. I knew how to spell Larry. But, like with many things in life, I grew up. I now eat...
The world will continue to need liquid fuels refined from crude oil for decades. But it likely will need less in the decades ahead as it transitions to renewable energy sources in hopes of stemming the damages caused by a warming planet. Which means oil companies generally are looking for the least risky projects, the environmentally smartest ones, the ones with the quickest payback to recover their investment. No producer wants to sink billions into a new development, only to find that delays, cost overruns and political or permitting...
More people moved out of Alaska than moved in every year between 2015 and 2021. If not for a healthy birth rate, the state population would have shrunk even more than it did. Wrangell has steadily lost population over the past 20 years, with the decline projected to continue. These are not good statistics. Even worse, these are self-fulfilling projections of future economic troubles. Fewer residents means fewer available workers, which means labor shortages for the goods and services people need. Business across the state already suffer from a...
Former governor, former vice presidential candidate and perpetual self-promoter Sarah Palin now believes the old ways are the best ways when it comes to elections. She was the first Alaskan to sign a petition last week to put a repeal of ranked-choice voting on the ballot. After losing her bid to serve in the U.S. House, Palin is attacking the election process rather than just admitting she isn’t that good of a candidate. It’s like a hockey player who can’t skate, blaming the ice for being too slippery. “Ranked choice voting is the weirdes...
The numbers are not final — that will not happen until the last votes are tallied and ranked-choice tabulations kick in Nov. 23 — but it appears that incumbent elected officials representing Alaska, and Wrangell, will stay on the job for another term. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, state Sen. Bert Stedman and state Rep. Dan Ortiz all appear headed toward re-election. And while the outcomes are not surprising, what’s interesting is to look at how Wrangell voted the same, or differently, than other preci...
Anger is threatening America. It comes from growing hostility over differences in politics, religion, race, education, personal choices and even the meaning of democracy. Anger that borders on hatred. It’s scary, and it’s dangerous. I’m actually starting to wonder if the country can survive all the anger. It seems too many people are willing to step up to and cross the line into violence in pursuit of their cause. That is not democracy, it’s a disintegrating society, encouraged by politicians, bloggers and social media influencers who care mo...
For the second time in my life, I almost walked into a women’s restroom. The first time was almost a decade ago. I was between flights at the Amsterdam airport. Tired after 10 hours nonstop in the air, a little disoriented and confused, and definitely in need of a restroom before visiting the duty-free shops to load up on chocolates for the next leg of my trip. I spotted the familiar stick-figure signs for the restrooms. It looked like a guy to me, and I don’t remember a dress on the stick figure. Maybe it lost something in the translation fro...
Alaskans will elect a U.S. senator, a member of the U.S. House, a governor and several dozen state legislators on Nov. 8. It’s an important vote, with real consequences for the nation, the state’s future, school funding, the ferry system, civil liberties and social justice. And yet, judging from past turnouts in non-presidential election years, maybe half of Alaska’s registered voters will cast a ballot. Which means the other half stayed home — unconcerned, uninterested and unmoved in how their state and country are run. Really, 50% is a good b...
Regardless whether you like harp music, it’s soothing, relaxing, even peaceful. Which leads me to apologize for continuing to harp on Alaska’s Permanent Fund dividend politics, which are anything but musical. They’re more akin to the wordless scream of a heavy-metal song, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But they sure get the audience fired up. Unless you believe in $100-plus oil prices or heavy taxes or large-scale budget cuts, the state treasury cannot afford endless years of $2,500 or $3,000 dividends, especially not the $4,00...
It’s not a headline I take lightly, but it’s scary that almost 300 Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, House and key statewide offices around the country have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election. Not on the basis of proven facts but based on contrived conspiracy theories and marching orders from the candidate who lost the election because 7 million more voters cast their ballots for the other guy. Almost 300 election deniers running for important offices is not an inconsequential or harmless number and many of...
