Once again, Dunleavy’s budget gives recall campaign a boost
There is some delusion in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s confusing actions on the state budget, in which he cut $261 million, but said he would use federal bailout money to substitute nearly $200 million.
He is justifying the use of federal bailout money on the grounds that the programs deserve money because this is an emergency and the programs need federal help because Dunleavy vetoed the programs.
I think it would be easier to find the 2,000 funded but unfilled jobs or finish the song that never ends than to unravel this Gordian Knot.
The vetoes include $100 million school bond payments and a $30 million cut in education spending.
Enter the federal bailout, what Dunleavy calls “COVID money,” a $1.25 billion infusion that Dunleavy believes can be spent on almost anything, as long as he claims to see a connection between the spending and the COVID-19 emergency.
What is the connection between his veto of state repayment of school bonds and COVID-19? Or his veto of $30 million in school funds and COVID-19?
There are no connections. He proposes to take federal money that is supposed to deal with a health crisis and repurpose it to counteract his decisions.
The governor says that because there is an economic downturn he can say that all of these things are connected, meaning he intends to use federal bailout money to make up for school bond payments and school operating funds he just vetoed. This is a con game.
“So we’re going to have folks that are going to have a difficult time paying their taxes because they’re out of a job. We’re going to have situations where municipalities are gonna have a difficult time doing their business because the tax base is shrinking as we speak right now and people are out of their jobs,” he said. “So it’s a direct result of this virus and the shutdown. And the monies coming in from the federal government have to do with relating directly to the virus and it’s again, the results of this shutdown economically and for jobs.”
We’re going to have those situations with or without the vetoes.
I’m not sure that “anything goes” with the bailout money is legal as there is language in the law that says the federal money is not to be used to replace budgeted items. Vetoed items are budgeted items and Dunleavy is talking about replacing items he cut from the budget.
I agree with the state House majority, which released a statement saying, “There is no guarantee that the federal government will pick up the tab.”
Meanwhile, Dunleavy said that using the “COVID money” as the source for a dividend-like payment had not been discussed. I suspect it was discussed, but not for long, because there would be serious legal problems in dispersing federal money based on a year-plus residency scheme similar to that used for the Permanent Fund dividend.
Dunleavy vetoed funds for the Ocean Ranger program that pays for itself, as he did last year, and he cut an item in the law department that was aimed at preventing him from continuing to pay President Trump’s lawyer $600 an hour for an anti-union crusade. He cut $15 million from the ferry system, $12.5 million from the University of Alaska, $4.3 million from Pre-K grants, and $2 million from public broadcasting.
His leaderless approach to the budget will give the recall campaign a boost, along with the oil tax initiative.
Missing from his budget approach is any notion about what to do next—the state will use up all of its savings except the Permanent Fund within the next year, creating a deficit, even if the dividend is eliminated.
I’ll have more on the budget in the days ahead.
The governor’s budget office tried to explain the circle game this way.