Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas

Join me this afternoon (5:30 – 7:30p) for a campaign fundraiser and silent art auction for Lupe Marroquin for State House.  The details are here.  If you are not able to attend, please consider supporting Lupe nevertheless if you have not already, by going to her website and clicking on “Donate.”

This is an important race.  Although the incumbent, Rep. Bob Lynn, suggests he is a fiscal conservative — and apparently fooled Prosperity Alaska into agreeing — he is anything but.   Last session, Marroquin’s opponent voted for the largest spending bill in Alaska’s history and then, on top of that, sponsored a bill (H.B. 236) proposing to return state employees to a defined benefit program.  The latter proposal would undermine Alaska’s ability to achieve a sustainable budget for decades to come. Continue reading →

I joined Tom Anderson in studio Monday afternoon for a discussion about Alaska oil, gas & fiscal policy … and ended up also talking a brief bit (at the end) about celtic music.

The tape of the show is here:  Ethically Speaking with Tom Anderson, Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. Continue reading →

Today’s mailer to House District 23 (sent and paid for by the candidate, with my permission) …

Vote for Lupe Marroquin for State House.  

Why is it the right thing to do?   Read the next column, Rewarding Mediocrity …

Prosperity Alaska (PA), one of the partners in annually preparing the “Alaska Business Report Card,” released its 2012 General Election candidate ratings this past week.  The ratings provide a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on candidates from a “business perspective,” and PA provides endorsements in most legislative races of the candidate it thinks is more in tune with that perspective.

PA got one race terribly wrong. Continue reading →

Last week I heard one person ask another what their definition is of a “fiscal plan.” As more people begin to realize the state’s fiscal situation, I anticipate we will hear the term more.

One entity defines a “fiscal plan” as “[a]n outline of the government’s revenue and expense projections.” In Alaska, however, that definition is only partially complete. There are two other elements that I believe are important to a complete defintion here. One is is achieving a balance between revenues and expenses. The second is long term. Put together, a fiscal plan is “[a]n outline of the government’s long term revenue and expense projections, designed to achieve balance.” Continue reading →

Please join me at a fundraiser for Representative Charisse Millet next Tuesday (September 18) from 5:30 – 7:30p at LaMex Dimond (8330 King St.)

I am realizing something this election cycle.  Its not a universal truth, but is more common that not.

Candidates that have grandchildren or another long term stake in this state are focusing much more than others on long term issues.  For example, concerns about the “fiscal burden” that current spending levels are creating for future generations (as UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research puts it in a recent paper) play prominently in the campaign materials of those with a long term stake. Continue reading →

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There is a clear and important choice this year in State House District 23.  

On one side is the incumbent, who has very little to show for his years in the state legislature and who has voted for — and indeed, taken pride in — two of the largest budgets in Alaska history, both of which according to the University of Alaska’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (“ISER”) have materially increased the financial burdens on future Alaska generations.

On the other side is a fiscally conservative Democrat with 24 years in public finance and budget analysis who, not only in private conversations but proudly on her campaign website, makes clear that she is running to return Alaska to sustainable budgets. Continue reading →

This page started out primarily as a one stop source for oil & gas news of interest to Alaska.  That continues to be a focus, with the curated news feeds down the lower right side of this page doing the bulk of that work.   Over the past year, however, the commentaries on the left hand side of the page, and the shorter “Observations & Updates” headlined on the upper right, and printed in full here, increasingly have focused also on fiscal issues.

The reason is that, in Alaska, oil and fiscal policy are inextricably intertwined, given Alaska’s reliance on oil revenues to run the state.  A recent video from the website Understanding Alaska’s Budget does an excellent job of explaining.  As the video explains at the beginning, “Alaska is at a crossroads.”  We write hopefully to help shed some light on the factors that go into deciding which path to follow from here.