The Republican refusal to vote to cover the current year deficit from the Constitutional Budget Reserve prompted an alternative—the withdrawal of up to $100 million from the surplus funds of the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority. The rest of the deficit, perhaps another $100 million, would be made up by taking money from the higher education investment fund used for scholarships.
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Don’t be deceived here by Dunleavy’s vapid talk.
The state can afford to fund public education, though he will claim otherwise. The Legislature has acted responsibly.
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The dividend dysfunction in Alaska starts at the top, with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who managed to get himself elected to the state’s highest office twice with easy money hoo-hah that swindler Charles Ponzi would have been afraid to mention out loud, for fear of instant reprisal.
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Gov. Mike Dunleavy appears ready to veto the education bill approved by the Legislature. The Legislature should override the veto.
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Alaska Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor and other attorneys general were visiting Rome courtesy of the Attorney General Alliance, a bipartisan group funded mostly by corporate donations that don’t have to be disclosed. The donors include companies that some attorneys general are facing in court.
Read MoreFour Fairbanks assembly members said they have a conflict of interest because of their personal or business dealings with Savannah Fletcher. A fifth member, Barbara Haney, has a bigger conflict than anyone else on the assembly and not just because of her repeated attacks on Fletcher.
Haney is also in court, with a nuisance lawsuit challenging the legality of her $1 fine, which she paid. She claims what the assembly did last year to her was illegal.
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After trying to understand why Alaska politicians have suddenly abandoned Murphy’s Law, I have come to the conclusion that Dunleavy and Sullivan have put all of their trust in Trump.
Their new motto is “Whatever can go right, will,” forgetting the 50-year history of gas lines that were never built.
They now believe that Trump can do anything. Just ask him.
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If you guessed that the truth about air traffic control is more complicated than Sen. Dan Sullivan claims—blaming the entire problem on Joe Biden—you’re right.
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The deficit is growing because oil prices have collapsed at the dawn of the Golden Age of Alaska.
Dunleavy took note of the drop in a May 6 letter to the finance committee leaders in the Legislature, saying there will be “hundreds of millions dollars less coming into the state treasury.”
The state’s March update to the oil price guessbook has been cast aside.
“We should only be focused on the most critical items to preserve our reduced cash flows and liquid reserves in this lower price environment,” Dunleavy told legislators.
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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.
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