Recommended Reading: Professor Haycox’s June 10, 2011 Commentary

Dr. Stephen Haycox, Commentary: “Spending Cap Would Simplify Oil Taxes,” Anchorage Daily News, June 10, 2011.

Written by one of Alaska’s foremost historians and observers, this commentary endorses the recent proposal from Scott Goldsmith of UAA’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) to bring a rational order to Alaska’s current spending spree.  Like Goldsmith, Haycox recognizes that Alaska’s current fiscal policy undermines the economic outlook for future generations of Alaska.  In Dr. Haycox’s words, “The concern over Alaska’s economic future in the face of the fall-off of Prudhoe Bay production is appropriate. … Scott Goldsmith of UAA’s Institute for Social and Economic Research suggests we cap petroleum spending at $5 billion annually …. It’s an elegant solution to the current panic ….”  Read Dr. Haycox’s full commentary at the above link.  The Goldsmith paper is “Revising the State Fiscal Plan to Account for Petroleum Wealth,” Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, Web Note 9, May 2011.