Governor Bill Walker spent Wednesday on the Kenai Peninsula to meet with local business members and speak at a joint Chamber of Commerce luncheon among other things.
During his presentation at the Kenai Visitors Center, Walker began by addressing Alaska’s budget deficit, saying no one lever will fix the crisis.
Gov. Walker: “If we impose this tax, if we do this, if we do that, here’s what happens but before we do that we need to continue to reduce the budget. Last year it was reduced by about 19%, about a $1 billion reduction, we’re continuing to do that. We met a few days ago with my cabinet to talk about additional reductions. What I’ve asked them to do is go back and look 10 years ago, let’s get away from the numbers because nobody has the perfect or magic number that’s the right number. Let’s look at what we used to do in Alaska 10 years ago.”
He said with a three year plan to address the state’s budget, Alaska will be able to save it’s bond rating which is currently under the threat of decline.
Walker also addressed his desire for the state to have a larger portion of the proposed Alaska LNG Project.
Gov. Walker: “To me it’s not the percentage of ownership that we have, it’s just the fact that we can never be in the situation that anybody else can stop us from ever finishing this project. This is a good project, this is an excellent project. So what we can’t have is a situation where one company says ‘This doesn’t work for us anymore’, and they withdraw, and everything comes to a stop and we start over again. We can’t start over again.”
He said if necessary there will be a special session called this fall for Alaskan lawmakers to discuss the financial particulars of the project.