At the request of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks student group, Students Who Enjoy Economic Thinking, yesterday Dr. Scott Goldsmith and I walked through a discussion of sustainable budgets at a forum on the UAF campus. The slide deck we used is above.
It was an interesting discussion, with excellent questions. For those interested, a summary written by News Miner political reporter Matt Buxton is in today’s paper, here (“Keithley, Goldsmith talk sustainable budget“). My favorite quote in the story is this, quoting Scott:
He said the state has often fallen into the trap of increasing budgets when oil tax revenue is high and painfully cutting when it collapses.
“What it means is we’re having a party and passing the cost of the clean up to the next generations of Alaskans. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Is that fair?’” he said.
The solution? Well, read the slidedeck.
Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas 