Earlier this week the Alaska Senate Majority started running a social media ad featuring a video of Senate President Pete Kelly advocating for the Senate’s proposed fiscal plan. The Senate’s plan relies solely on PFD cuts to raise “new revenue.”
The purpose of the ad is to compare the Senate’s plan against the House plan, which relies on a combination of PFD cuts and an income tax to raise “new revenue.” The ad focuses on the income tax portion and argues both that it is unnecessary and adversely affects “working Alaskans.” The Senate’s ad is available here.
As readers of these pages will know, we oppose PFD cuts as part of a proposed “fiscal solution.” Based on various analyses published last year and this by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, we have come to believe that cutting the PFD is the worst step to take from the perspective of the overall Alaska economy and working Alaska families. It reduces overall Alaska income more than any other fiscal option, reduces both income and jobs more than any other “new revenue” option, increases poverty levels and income disparity more than any other fiscal option and as ISER concluded in an additonal analysis earlier this year:
A cut in PFDs would be by far the costliest measure for Alaska families.
As a result, after thinking about the Senate Majority’s ad, we put together our response. Readers can play it at the video above, or on YouTube, here.
Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas 