Alaska’s Fiscal Situation: Past, Present & Future — an update

As regular readers will realize, at the request of Daniel Hamm, its Chair, we occasionally brief the Alaska Republican Assembly on the current status of state fiscal issues and our thoughts on how to deal with them.

We did that again this week, with a focus on what happened this past session(s), where that leaves the state’s fiscal condition, what the current outlook is as we start to think about FY 2018, and alternatives for dealing with that, admittedly somewhat initially dismal, outlook.

As explained in the presentation, I continue to believe there is a solid fiscal future ahead for Alaska — without resorting to permanent PFD cuts or significant taxes.  But it requires taking steps to implement Jay Hammond’s vision for Permanent Fund earnings and getting immediate control over what has become one of the biggest current expenses in state government — reimbursed oil credits.

This coming session may provide the last great chance to bring the state’s fiscal situation under control before more drastic measures become necessary.  The presentation outlines how we think that can be accomplished.

The update is above, or also available here (video) and here (slidedeck).