Alaska: Alaska Senate Majority Addresses State’s Fiscal Crisis - Members of the Senate Finance Committee explained during a press availability Tuesday the catastrophic budget deficit Alaska is facing and why it is crucial to make targeted reductions this year to cushion the crash expected over the next three years.

The state’s fiscal crisis was exacerbated when oil prices plummeted from more than $100-per-barrel to $50-per-barrel over the past six months. As most Alaskans know, 90-percent of the state’s government, including critical services such as education and public safety, are funded by revenues from oil and gas.

Members distributed charts created by the non-partisan Legislative Finance division showing the state’s savings account will be dried up within 36 months. So far this year, the Senate has been able to reduce around $850 million from the Operating and Capital budgets. However, even with those reductions, the state will face a $4 billion deficit and will be forced to draw an unprecedented $4 billion from savings.

In order to reach the $850 million in reductions, the Senate looked at every government agency and made cuts in every area, with some departments taking up to a 33-percent cut. Members remained committed to their priorities, and ensured that while education is one of the state’s largest cost drivers, it took the least amount of cuts at only four-percent. In fact, the reductions bring the level of education funding back to levels seen in FY2014.

During the press availability, Senator Pete Kelly, Co-Chair of Senate Finance (R-Fairbanks) said, “We have reached the fiscal cliff. In fact, we’ve gone over the fiscal cliff. That day we never wanted to see is finally here. The financial tsunami is getting ready to hit us. The cavalry of funding is not coming over the hill to rescue us. We simply don’t have the money and we are doing the best we can so that our kids will have schools in the future and so that we will have public safety in the future. My analogy is that of a flat-rate mechanic. He doesn’t have a retirement fund. He doesn’t get automatic pay increases. We have to make sure that before we ask that person to pay his or her own money, we have trimmed back government. He shouldn’t have to shoulder the expansion lifestyle of government. We have to prove to the majority of Alaskans, who do not get their paychecks from the government, that we will cut government in a significant way before we ask them to give up their PFDs or any portions of their paychecks.” - More...
Wednesday PM - April 22, 2015

Alaska: Democrats Urge Cuts to Outside Corporate Subsidies and Tax Credits Instead of Education, Negotiated Contracts - Three days past the voter mandated 90 day session limit, Senate Democrats have called on the Republican-led House and Senate majorities to cut an additional $750 million in unneeded corporate tax credits for the oil and refining industries and use a small portion of those savings to fund education and negotiated employee contracts.

"We believe education is a constitutional obligation, not a hostage in a negotiation. Cut the credits, not the kids," said Senator Berta Gardner (D-Anchorage).

With Alaska paying out $400 million more in oil tax credits than we receive in oil production taxes, the Senate Democrats attempted to amend the budget several weeks ago to reprioritize education and Alaskan workers over hundreds of millions of dollars in oil tax credits and refinery tax credits.

“We can save the state hundreds of millions more by cutting unnecessary corporate welfare, and at the same time fund education and honor our promises to our Troopers, Correction Officers and other working Alaskans,” stated Senator Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage).

Last fall the Department of Revenue estimated the state would give oil companies $500 million more in tax credits than the state gets back in production tax revenue in this fiscal year and next year. Things have now gotten worse. The Department’s latest spring report shows the state’s 2013 Oil Production Tax gives oil companies $640 million more in tax credits than we get back on Production Taxes. - More...
Wednesday PM - - April 22, 2015

Alaska: Report urges U.S. leadership in Arctic cooperation By MARMIAN GRIMES - As the United States prepares to assume the chairmanship of the Arctic Council this week, a new report from a group of international experts recommends cooperation, not conflict, in the Arctic.

The report, “Arctic Council Initiatives to Sustain Arctic Cooperation,” aims to address priorities for the Arctic Council. It was the result of meetings in 2014 and 2015 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The meetings were held under the auspices of the University of the Arctic’s Institute of Arctic Policy, which is co-chaired by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Dartmouth College.

The Arctic should be an area of political and military cooperation, sustainable development and scientific research, the report notes. It encourages United States leadership to address issues related to climate change, environmental dangers, shipping, commercial fishing, energy development, maritime infrastructure and indigenous rights, all of which are dependent on continued political cooperation in the Arctic. The report stresses that improving current geopolitical conditions, including tense relations between Russia and the West within and outside of the Arctic, is essential. - More...
Wednesday PM - April 22, 2015