Legislators need to demand today to see report AIDEA buried two years ago
Northern Economics of Anchorage finished a “long form report” about the economics of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority two years ago.
It should have been released to the public in early 2024 when it was complete.
We need to see that report, not this glossy 16-page rewritten summary that AIDEA has just released to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Legislators should demand to see the original Northern Economics report and compare it to the AIDEA version.
For reasons that I can only guess, the Dunleavy administration did not like the original report and buried it, pretending it had never been paid for or written.
I began writing about this topic in November 2024. AIDEA has claimed repeatedly that the report was never completed, although Northern Economics was paid in full two years ago and said it was finished.
The Senate State Affairs Committee meets today at 3:30 p.m. to receive the report from Randy Ruaro, the executive director of AIDEA.
Northern Economics has its company name on the executive summary, but not the names of any researchers.
Company President Marcus Hartley has never replied to questions that I began submitting to him in late 2024 about why the report has been suppressed.
Northern Economics claims to be Alaska’s expert for “meaningful, unbiased analyses,” but everything about the suppression of this report suggests that if there was a meaningful, unbiased analysis, the Dunleavy administration didn’t approve of it.
Perhaps Northern Economics is happy with the AIDEA revisions and believes that whoever pays the company for a meaningful, unbiased study can decide what it should say. Or perhaps the company wants to keep doing business with AIDEA and has to follow orders from the state.
Is this what the company means with its slogan of “Helping Society Make Better Decisions”?
Hartley’s silence harms the company’s reputation.
AIDEA hired Northern Economics with a political goal—attacking the conclusions of veteran Alaska researchers Gregg Erickson and Milt Barker about the economics of AIDEA.
“I would like to see what Northern Economics produced, not AIDEA,” Barker said today.
Alaskan deserve no less because this is public money we’re talking about.
Even before AIDEA hired Northern Economics it announced: “AIDEA Debunks Report and Announces Independent Economic Analysis.”
On February 2, 2023, AIDEA said it had hired Northern Economics for its debunking campaign and that the study would be available to the public by late 2023.
Northern Economics was paid in full for the $250,000 “independent” debunking report, with its last invoice submitted March 1, 2024. Last fall AIDEA paid Northern Economics $18,000 more to work on the debunking report.
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