Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who thinks he has all the answers, doesn’t trust locally elected school boards, mayors, borough assemblies, teachers, administrators and families. They are not under his control and they don’t share his opinions on some key policy matters.
Read MoreSen. Bill Wielechowski said he was handed a copy of the draft bill directly by the governor in 2023.
He also said that Dunleavy had asked him to introduce bills to close the Hilcorp loophole, because Hilcorp would not provide its North Slope gas, and to reduce oil tax credits.
Read MoreMore oil and gas production in Alaska will never happen unless prices are high enough to produce big profits, a contradiction buried at the heart of the energy dominance scam.
What is more noteworthy is that the GOP is trying to ban court challenges of any government action and allow oil companies to get expedited treatment if they pay for environmental reviews. The plan is a radical one that deserves thorough analysis in Alaska.
Read MoreSome Republicans and nearly all of the Senate Democrats are supporting closing the Hilcorp loophole, though it may stall because Democrat Matt Claman says his constituents don’t want higher oil taxes.
As I’ve written here before, that is not a good excuse on the easiest oil tax vote in the history of oil tax votes. The situation is only going to get worse. This is just one of the tax changes the state has to face.
Read MoreThe Alaska Department of Revenue needs to admit that the state’s financial plight during the opening months of the “Golden Age of Alaska” is far worse than the Dunleavy administration guessed in March.
Falling oil prices are swelling the Dunleavy deficit by the day.
Read MoreSen. Bill Wielechowski is correct in saying it was the Dunleavy administration that came up with the idea for SB 113, which would change state law so that some tax income from businesses with more than half of their income online would be apportioned to Alaska.
Read MoreI understand why Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum would want to keep the public from knowing that he took unauthorized leave in the first week of April. But the revenue department should never have made the ridiculous claim that this information is a state secret.
Alaskans deserve to know whether it was Crum who made the decision to redact a public document to conceal what happened.
Read MoreAssembly member Barbara Haney should have declared that she is in no position to be impartial about Savannah Fletcher and declared a conflict of interest.
Instead, she said, “I think I can be fair.”
All the evidence says otherwise.
Read MoreA new unofficial campaign ad claiming Sen. Dan Sullivan is “fighting to protect and strengthen Medicaid” is paid for by a dark money group from Virginia that was led until recently by a former aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell.
The ad by One Nation, which supports Senate Republicans, calls Sullivan “Our Trusted Champion.”
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