A community town hall meeting with Representatives Mike Chenault and Kurt Olson asked those who attended to tell them how to fund Alaska’s budget deficit. And they got a variety of responses.
Mark Ducker says funding to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for studies has gotten out of hand.
Ducker: “The habitat study, 15 years out and it finally shows up, that’s ridiculous. But they were paid for it, everybody was done, it was thrown on the shelf. When you ask for an amount of money to do this, do your job, bring it forth, good or bad, we’ll live with it.”
Other attendees added that a private employee would be fired if they took 15 years to produce reports.
Delving into the revenues side of the budget conversation, constituents discussed the proposed income tax for state residents.
Although there was little resistance to the governor’s proposal of an income tax, Chenault and Olson said there are better options such as the proposed statewide sales tax.
Speaker of the House Chenault says the only wrong answer for Alaska is to do nothing.
Spkr. Chenault: “How do we move Alaska forward, how do we keep ourselves out of a recession by doing something or two, doing nothing and ending up in bankruptcy. So we’re in tough times, I think the legislature will move ahead with reforms and some revenue measures and spending cuts and a combination of those will move Alaska forward.”
He said whether it’s your business or household budget, it would be a challenge for anyone to balance their finances if they lost 88 percent of their revenues like Alaska did when oil prices plummeted.
Representative Olson says his feelings on Alaska’s fiscal future is that no matter what steps forward legislators take, the state’s budget will be very tight for the next three to four years.