Category Archives: Immediate Reactions

This evening the Institute of the North’s Lead North is hosting one of its periodic “engage dinners” for young professionals.  This evening’s topic is the following:

What impact does Alaska’s fiscal policy have on our everyday lives and our future?

The specifics are available here.

Senator Anna Fairclough is the featured speaker; I am doing a 15 minute introduction to the topic before she starts.

After thinking about it, I have decided I can do an introduction to Alaska Fiscal Policy in two slides.  We’ll see how it goes ….

A piece yesterday morning in the Anchorage Daily News reports on a vote of “no confidence” passed Saturday by the Alaska State Hockey Association (ASHA) in University of Alaska – Anchorage Athletic Director Dr. Steve Cobb.

In a resolution sent to a range of university and state leaders, the association cited the steady decline of UAA hockey and claimed repeated efforts to reach out to the university’s athletic department and hockey coaches have been “systematically met with callous indifference.”

This piece follows a blog post in Saturday’s online version of the ADN by long-time sports writer Doyle Woody commenting critically on the “search committee” recently established by UAA to identify a new hockey coach.

The problem people appear to have with the committee is that it does not include a member of the hockey program’s alumni or the hockey community, two groups severely alienated from UAA hockey. … at a time when UAA hockey is in severe decline — consecutive last-place finishes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and attendance plummeting so badly Continue reading →

Running some distance ahead of Alaska, the United Kingdom (UK) recently has been shaping a new oil and gas policy in response to declining North Sea production.

The UK hit a low point of its relationship with the industry with the announcement in 2011 of a new tax system that increased taxes on revenues from new investments (to 62%), on old oil production (to 81%), and significantly reduced the deduction for decommissioning costs — an important factor in the UK North Sea.

Industry response was swift and significant.  Efforts to extend old fields and investments in new fields were cancelled and investor confidence in the UK system plunged. Continue reading →

Yesterday, EconOne, the Administration’s consultants on oil tax reform, presented an extended analysis to the House Finance Committee of anticipated state revenue levels under various oil tax scenarios.  See Modified Slides EconOne 4-10-2013 (Apr. 10, 2013).  The analysis projects, under various assumptions, anticipated state revenues from SB 21 compared with ACES over the next 30 years.

The analysis is intended to — and does somewhat — bolster the case for SB 21, the Governor’s proposed oil tax reform.  The analysis shows that, with a Continue reading →

After reviewing yesterday the presentations made Saturday in the House Finance Committee on the newest version of SB 21, HCS SB 21 (RES) (the House Resources Committee Substitute), I have become convinced of one thing — at some point some of the provisions included in the CS will produce unintended consequences, portions of the bill will become obsolete and Alaska’s competitiveness will suffer.

That should not be taken as a negative comment on the current CS.  It has been developed in response to significant concerns expressed before House Continue reading →

Today at 4:30pm, I will be on the Glen Biegel Show  to discuss where things appear to be headed on oil (and budget) issues in the last week of the regular session.  

In Anchorage, dial in at AM 700; if not in range, click here for the webcast, or on your laptop, smartphone or tablet, click on here at Tune In Radio,

From the Alaska House Majority: Representative Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, listens to a colleague prior to her bill hearing Friday before the House Finance Committee. Millett introduced House Bill 136, which would require the governor to submit certain financial information to the Legislature before each legislative session to show proposed sustainable funding levels for state services.

Earlier this session Representative Charisse Millett introduced HB 136, “An Act requiring the governor’s fiscal plan to include certain information.”

As readers of these pages will recall, a recent report from the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) concludes: Continue reading →

At Rep. Lynn Gattis’ request I provided an afternoon “lunch and learn” (maybe more accurately given the hour, a “coffee and learn”) yesterday on oil tax issues.  The presentation was intended to provide a background mostly for House members not on House Resources or Finance, but who nevertheless will be called on to deal with the issues when the current oil tax reform bill reaches the House floor.

In the tradition of a lunch and learn, the presentation was more a discussion with members than testimony.  The discussion ranged over a number of issues, including the reasons for the “Oil & Gas Competitiveness Review Board” (contained in the Senate version of SB 21) and the effect of Alaska’s current fiscal policy on attracting long term investment.  The slide deck is available at Oil Taxes 101 (3.29.2013).  The archive of the webcast is available by clicking on the picture above, or here.

“Unforced error,” n.  in sports [or politics], a mistake made by the player and not due to the opponent’s skill or effort.

The Governor’s announcement Wednesday of a revised FY 2014 “spending cap” of $6.78 billion — a $300 million increase over the budget he proposed in December — comes as a surprise, and not a good one.  Indeed, it may somewhat serve to undermine his continuing case for oil tax reform.

As I have previously explained on these pages, restoring investor confidence in Alaska requires two things,  oil tax reform and fiscal reform.  Both are critical.

The case for oil tax reform has been made on these pages, in committee hearings and elsewhere.  I also have made the case for fiscal reform on these pages and in hearings, but its importance bears repeating. Continue reading →

An article from this morning’s Juneau Empire caught my attention as I was reading the papers from the day.  The headline was “Sandy Parnell among Juneau residents to testify on state budget” and reports on public testimony  given Saturday before the Senate Finance committee.

From the article, it appears that the hearing was composed primarily of a series of requests by various parties for restoration of various funding cuts made by the House Finance committee to the Governor’s original budget.  One of the requests was from the Governor’s wife, but the request that caught my attention most comes later in the story, when representatives from the Juneau school district testified. Continue reading →