Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been traveling a lot to Asia, Houston and Washington, D.C., working hard to sell government officials and the private sector on the decades-old vision of an Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline to make the state rich again.
But while peddling the dubious prospects of a megaproject — one of the most expensive natural gas developments anywhere in the world — the governor has been absent from his day job. He hasn’t been fiddling, and the state isn’t burning like it does during the wildfire season, but he has been playing to the news media and elected officials while Alaska is unable to contain the budget and public services fires that threaten the state’s economic health.
The multibillion-dollar natural gas project, proposed to ship Alaska gas to Asian markets, will happen only if it makes economic sense. And for the past half-century, it hasn’t. Handshakes, sales calls, misleading statements and political grandstanding in the president’s name aren’t going to change the economics, no matter how much Dunleavy wants to believe otherwise.
Too bad he isn’t putting as much effort into problems back home. Cutbacks to school programs are a lot more real and mean a whole lot more to tens of thousands of Alaskans than a hundred thousand 40-foot-long sections of steel pipe that don’t exist.
Instead of stumping around Asia and the U.S. to sell the gas line, Dunleavy could spend his time visiting high schools, colleges, vocational training centers and recruitment fairs to help sell potential applicants on filling some of the vacant state jobs that are decimating public services.
Instead of trying to sell foreign countries on buying some of the most expensive gas in the world from a possible project that is a decade away from ever happening, the governor could shake hands, hand out brochures and give a leg up to recruitment efforts for new state employees, public school teachers, nurses, dentists, school bus drivers and all the other unfilled jobs in Alaska.
The Alaska Division of Public Assistance, which reported a vacancy rate of 30% last month, has been so far behind for so long processing food stamp applications that the federal government is warning the state it could lose federal funding.
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been so short of workers under the Dunleavy administration that it keeps at least one ferry tied up at the dock for lack of crew.
The Department of Transportation, which is responsible for keeping snow and ice off the highways, has had to keep some of its work on ice for lack of adequate staffing. The department’s vacancy rate has been as high as 30% in some categories.
Overall, state government was running this past winter at close to a 14% vacancy rate. Great for cutting spending, if that’s all that matters, but lousy for public services.
Part of the problem is that we’ve had over a decade of more people leaving the state than moving north. It’s time for a better sales pitch to attract new residents. And better schools would be a start.
Dunleavy could go to work in the Capitol to help find answers to the school funding crisis that threatens the jobs of classroom teachers, school counselors and nurses, along with school programs in foreign languages, arts, music, choir and more.
While it is commendable that he wants to think about the long-term benefits of a big project, he needs to pay more attention to the immediate problems back home.
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