Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman is right. The claim that the Alaska LNG project would cost $46.2 billion is “complete garbage.”
On Wednesday, Stedman asked Nick Fulford, the consultant hired by the Legislature, what capital expenditure cost estimates he is using now on the expected cost of the project, saying that recycling old numbers is one of the “indigestion points.”
Read MoreAlaskans who have written to the Congressional delegation complaining about Donald Trump’s proposed $1.776 billion political slush fund settlement with himself have received a clear reply from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, while Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich the Third have failed to reply or take a position.
Read MoreThe Alaska Department of Revenue has lately been claiming the cost of the Alaska LNG project is $46.2 billion, a statistic that will be repeated so often during the special session that some people might be tempted to think it is real.
The news coverage that refers to a “$46.2 billion project” is misleading. The repitition conveys a false and unwarranted sense of precision.
The truth is that no one knows the real cost of this gigantic project, which is the biggest challenge.
Read MoreThe Mark Begich video accurately represents the claims being made by Dunleavy, Glenfarne, many Republican legislators and business groups who have swallowed the notion that the Alaska LNG project will live or die depending upon whether the Legislature provides the 90 percent tax cut pushed by Dunleavy.
But the video is misleading.
It’s most notable for what Begich failed to reveal, which is that a year ago, no one was saying the Legislature had to cut property taxes or else. And six months ago no one said the Legislature had to cut property taxes or else.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy, Glenfarne, the leaders of the Alaska Gas Development Corporation and other Republican politicians claimed a year ago that the Alaska LNG project needed no state property tax cut.
The Legislature should keep out of the way and allow Glenfarne to work its magic, they said.
But now the same people are claiming that without a gigantic tax cut the project will die.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan says he needs help paying his campaign gas bills.
His campaign has sent out a fund-raising pitch that says he needs donations to pay for fuel, the price of which leaped after Trump went to war with Iran. Sullivan has been a Trump cheerleader on this and every other topic.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy is going to end his second term the way he began his first. Clueless about how to work with the Legislature. Clueless about how to work with people who don’t agree with him. Clueless about what it takes to be governor.
Read MoreLate Monday, after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the pension bill that he was using as a bargaining chip in the gas pipeline tax cut campaign, the Anchorage Daily News reported, “With the veto, it is unclear whether lawmakers will move forward with legislation intended to give tax breaks to project developers.”
That makes it more likely that Dunleavy will call a special session to try to get the tax break approved.
Read MoreIt will not surprise you that Sen. Dan Sullivan, conscious of what happened to Sen. Bill Cassidy for daring to try to think, is OK with Trump putting his name on the greenback.
Had Joe Biden done this, Sullivan would have snarled. But because it’s Trump whose name will be on our money, Sullivan purred his approval.
Read MoreRepublican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, who claims her inexperience with government is a big plus, has no clue about the confirmation process created in Alaska’s Constitution.
She went on right-wing radio in Fairbanks Friday to claim at length and with great conviction that legislators had no business in refusing to confirm Stephen Cox as attorney general.
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