Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to turn our attention back to Alaska’s financial problems. Here are some of the highlights of what happened in December 2019. The Governor Released His FY21 Budget Proposal The governor rolled out his proposed FY21 budget on December 11th. To the surprise of many observers, Governor Dunleavy[…]
Over the last five years, Alaska has pivoted from being a Petro-state to a Trust Fund kid. Thanks to years of saving and re-investing a quarter of our oil royalties, we now have over $66 billion in the bank. And, those billions of dollars go to work every day, bringing billions of friends home to[…]
A lot happened in Alaska during the month of August. Here’s the run down on how we read the headlines. BP and Hilcorp Agreed to Terms on Alaska Assets The news that broke the internet in Alaska last week was a press release from BP. They announced that they were selling all of their remaining[…]
On Monday, ISER gave a presentation that suggested the vetoes would cost the economy 4,217 jobs and would send the State whirling back into a recession. I disagree. While it’s ok for us to have different ideas, only one of us will be right. Unfortunately, most people don’t care to find out why our ideas[…]
This week’s article is inspired by a question that came up during the Bicameral Working Group on the PFD hearing a few days ago. It centers on a portion of the PFD calculation. Here’s the gist: Under the current law, the sum of the earnings over the last five years is multiplied by 21% in[…]
The legislature is currently debating the future of Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). The operating budget has passed, without a PFD. A separate appropriation bill for the PFD has failed on the Senate floor. The House minority tried to stuff the PFD into the capital budget, but didn’t have the votes. And now, a “PFD[…]
“How are you going to pay for all that?” a reporter asks Governor-elect Dunleavy. “$19 billion in the ERA. That’s how” he quips. Since well before the press conference following the election, reporters, journalist, columnists, bloggers, opinion havers, and fiction writers have been questioning how the promises made on the campaign trail would turn into[…]
We’ve looked at Alaska’s budget for the past month. In part 1, we learned some terminology. Then, in part 2, we explored what we buy with all that money. In parts 3 and 4, we analyzed where the budget growth occurred during the high oil price years, and how we got the budget back under[…]
If you check your bank account on Thursday, you should receive your $1,600 PFD. I hope you enjoy it! But if you read these pages, you probably know that deposit is smaller than it would have been if paid according to the statutory formula. I previously estimated the “right” number at $2,931. Now that the[…]
One of the downsides of working alone, is the inability to bounce ideas off others. There is a lot of information gained from seeing brows furrow, lips curl, and eyes glaze over as you speak. Getting challenged to clarify a point or getting another perspective is tremendously valuable. For that reason, I am very grateful[…]