Dunleavy's last budget presents a final chance to do it right

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has one more chance to propose a responsible state budget, which would end his seven-year streak of December recklessness.

He can continue as he has in the past, proposing a budget with a giant deficit of $1 billion, $2 billion or more, pretending that he is giving legislators and the public a realistic starting point instead of a political scam.

Or he can propose a balanced budget that takes the needs of the state into account and includes a Permanent Fund Dividend the state can afford. Paying for a dividend anywhere close to what Dunleavy claims he really wants would require new taxes, tax increases and lots of politically unpopular choices.

In the years since the recall, however, Dunleavy has restricted himself to popular choices, which has produced a repeating cycle of budget failure, gridlock and deception. There is always the phony December dividend, treated as real in far too many news accounts.

Offering a responsible spending plan for the next fiscal year would require Dunleavy to confess that his budget utterances since 2019 have been as hollow as Trump’s new peace prize.

State law requires the governor to propose a budget for the next fiscal year by December 15. The chances are that Dunleavy will leave office with his irresponsible record intact, proposing that a multi-billion chunk of Alaska’s remaining savings be used to pay for state operations in the fiscal year that begins next July.

Dunleavy will call it good, saying he did the hard work by proposing a big dividend, claiming it’s up to the Legislature to figure out how to pay for everything and keep some savings for emergencies. If taxes are needed, the Legislature should lead the way, allowing Dunleavy to play Pontius Pilate, with not a drop of political blood on his hands.

As governor, Dunleavy proposed cumulative dividend payments of about $26,000, no taxes, while increasing expenditures, a package that would have required deficit spending in the $10 billion range.

With no leadership in the governor’s office and a divided Legislature that lacked the will to enact taxes—while realizing that eliminating major state and local services would be political suicide—the state ending up paying about $11,000 per person in Permanent Fund dividends, about $6 billion, avoiding the giant deficits proposed by Dunleavy.

Complain all you want about the Legislature and the paths not taken, the decision to not follow Dunleavy was right.

The news coverage of Dunleavy’s handling of the state budget rollout every December has failed to clarify that each year of his tenure was an exercise in irresponsible government, packed with budget proposals that he had no intention of trying to see through to the end.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.