One of the big issues in the 2024 state elections will be the corrupt process used by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Legislature to give themselves pay raises.
Every incumbent legislator will be called upon to try to defend the scam, which climaxed Tuesday when the state House pretended to oppose their 67 percent pay raises, knowing their vote was meaningless because the bill had been held for weeks. All in the interests of hypocrisy by the House majority.
Read MoreWhile our dependence on oil surpassed Seward’s Folly as a point of discussion decades ago, It’s been about three weeks since Gov. Mike Dunleavy discovered the “folly” of basing state government finances on oil prices.
“To simply ride oil in a do-or-die situation for the state of Alaska is folly. It’s probably not a good idea,” Dunleavy announced, contradicting the blithe assumptions and promises that marked his campaigns for governor in 2018 and 2022.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan claims that President Joe Biden knows the Senate will increase military spending above the president’s proposal and it is the “opposite of leadership” to not put in a higher proposal.
What is really the “opposite of leadership” is for the junior senator from Alaska to endlessly argue for higher military spending without ever proposing higher taxes to pay for it. And to endlessly argue for unidentified spending cuts.
Read MoreLet’s give credit where credit is due: The Republican-led House majority is the biggest obstacle to creating a sensible fiscal plan for Alaska. The House Republicans refuse to bring any of the important pieces to a vote in the 40-member House.
The House Republicans say they can’t cut the budget, but they want a spending cap that would cut $100 million from the budget they can’t cut. The grandstanding brigade can’t identify what services they want to cut.
Read MoreUnbelievably, Bethany Marcum now claims that she did not support Dunleavy’s budget cuts to the university or his veto of $130 million for the university in 2019.
She claims she was quoted out of context. She was not quoted out of context.
Read MoreTexas billionaire Jeff HIldebrand, who has a net worth of $9 billion or $10 billion, wants the Hilcorp loophole in Alaska tax law to remain in place, a provision that costs the state about $100 million a year.
If the state closes the loophole, HIldebrand’s “privately owned family business” claims it will cut Alaska spending and spend money in other states.
Read MoreThe league of SB 21 defenders have lowered the bar and redefined success from an “increase in Alaska oil production” to “stabilizing Alaska oil production” at close to 500,000 barrels a day. But SB 21 was not sold to Alaskans as a plan to stabilize oil production. And there is good reason to believe that Alaska oil production would have stabilized near 500,000 barrels a day under the old tax system.
Read MoreThe state is accepting public comments until Monday on a hardrock mining exploration permit for claims on Ester Dome by Roger Burggraf at the Grant Mine.
Read MoreGeologist Mark Myers, a consultant who works for oil producers around the world, is one Alaska’s most trusted voices on the oil and gas industry in Alaska.
“I have never in many different projects in many different countries, never recommended Alaska’s system as a leading practice. But I do use it as an example of a problematic and failed system,” Myers told the Senate Finance Committee this week.
Read MoreThe two main levers that determine whether Alaska is getting what it should from oil developed on state lands are royalties and production taxes. “We’re getting a half to two-thirds of what other people are getting,” Robin Brena said.
In the decade since the enactment of SB 21, the state has collected $4.5 billion in production taxes and provided $5.6 billion in per barrel credits. The credits mean the alleged 35 percent oil tax is a joke.
“I would call that underperformance on a massive scale,” he said.
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