Category Archives: Podcasts

As regular readers know, each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week I also sat in for a day as guest host of Friday’s show while Michael took a well deserved break.

We turned part of the show into “Fiscal Friday,” using it as an opportunity to take a deeper dive into some of the important issues surrounding Alaska’s budget situation.  We broke the discussion into two parts.

Part 1 includes:

• An overview of the three critical steps involved in setting a budget (determining the approach, projecting revenues and setting spending)(from 1:55 to 13:40 of the podcast),
• A discussion with Rep. Lynn Gattis on what lies ahead in the coming legislative session on fiscal issues (from 14:25 to 29:25), and
• A discussion with former Senate President and Walker Transition Team Co-Head Rick Halford on the Permanent Fund, the Permanent Fund Dividend and the “other 50” of the Permanent Fund earnings stream (from 30:25 to the end).

Part 2 includes a discussion during the first part of the third hour about budgeting decisions being made at the University of Alaska, and how those relate to the state’s fiscal situation (from 04:55 to 12:45).

Links to background articles and some of the materials referenced during the discussion are available here.

Listen here or at the widget below.  For past episodes of our ongoing discussion with Michael Dukes on these issues, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and discuss my final election thoughts — as we near the end, who are the core fiscal conservatives and who’s just posing — and my take on Charles Wohlforth’s ADN column on “Stopping oil exploration,” goo.gl/TE7wlX.  I join Michael at 15:20 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and discuss Craig Medred’s piece on the deepening Walker/business divide (goo.gl/Zt7hyL), the Governor’s letter to various business organizations that has most recently escalated the battle (goo.gl/sihnJX), my take on the top 3 fiscal issues this #AKleg election cycle and my view of how some of the candidates stack up on those issues.  I join Michael at 14:45 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and I discuss the hardening lines emerging in the runup to the upcoming #AKleg session. Walker takes on business and increasingly signals he is concerned more about the government economy than Alaska’s overall economy, the University  gets personal in an attempt to avoid cost cutting & the #AKLNG transition continues, but is it taking the right direction. I join Michael at 14:10 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and I discuss the start of the next edition of the #oiltax debate (here and here), Senator Dunleavy announces a bill to reverse the #PFDcut, which the Juneau Empire promptly opposes and Wall St. reacts to the Walker Administration’s proposed sale of pension obligation bonds. I join Michael at 16:25 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and I discuss what criteria the #AKleg should use to decide on an #AKfiscal plan, and as oil returns to $50/bbl, what is going on in the Alaska oil patch.  I join Michael at 14:25 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week Michael and I discussed (1) the Permanent Fund Board’s decision to block Governor Walker’s proposed use of the Permanent Fund to pay oil credits, (2) the Walker Administration’s decision to back off its proposed denial of the annual Prudhoe Bay Unit Plan of Operations, and (3) the significant adverse effect on the overall Alaska economy of Governor Walker’s #PFD cut. I join Michael at 15:15 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week (which was on Wednesday due to travel) Michael and I discussed the issues surrounding Sen. Wielechowski’s PFD suit; if it comes to that, the extent to which Alaska can focus any income and sales taxes on Outsiders; and the Walker Administration’s renewed focus on potentially issuing pension obligation bonds (“POB’s”).  I join Michael at 14:30 into the segment.

This is not the first time the Walker Administration has floated the idea of POB’s.  My thoughts the last time it arose are collected here.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week we started the discussion with this month’s International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Oil Market Report, released this morning.   The report revises some of IEA’s previous work by concluding that current oversupply conditions in global oil markets (and thus, price softness) are now expected to continue into 2017.

We followed that discussion by focusing on what that revised outlook means for Alaska, and then in the second segment while discussing the need for continued state spending reductions (a needed step regardless of the IEA’s outlook), we discuss a recent analysis that shows the Alaska legislature is spending way, way more (i.e., more than double) on the University of Alaska (UA) compared with what other states are spending on UA’s self-defined “peer institutions.”  I join Michael at 14:45 into the segment.

Listen here or at the widget below and for past episodes, go here.

As regular readers know, most Tuesday mornings at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues.

This week has been a bit different.  As I have explained in previous posts, with Michael off on assignment I have been sitting on the other side of the microphone as the show’s guest host.

Because some of the resulting discussions have touched directly on oil, gas and fiscal policy issues I have posted excerpts here (Sept 2) and here (Sept 6/7).

This post covers yesterday (Sept 8), the final day of my stint as guest host.  The relevant segments from the show are as follows:

• Interview with Dean Westlake (D-House District 40, North Slope and Northwest Arctic Boroughs) about issues important to that district and the views there on state fiscal issues (6am block at 14:20),
• Interview with Nils Andreassen, the Managing Director of the Institute of the North about Alaska’s Arctic issues, which touch on both oil and fiscal issues (6am block at 31:35),
• My comments on spending levels at the University of Alaska (7am block at 3:15) (for the statement that triggered my comments see “In lean times, supporters of Seawolves sports make their pitch to university president,” quoting UA President Jim Johnsen as saying: “We are the most dependent university system in the United States on its legislature for funding — No. 1.”), and
• Interview with candidate David Eastman (R-House District 10, Wasilla & Susitna River Drainage) about issues important to that district and the views there on fiscal issues (7am block at 30:52).

Listen here or at the widget below for the podcasts of the show, and for past episodes of my regular Tuesday discussions with Michael on these issues, go here.