Governor Sean Parnell is not yet out of office however Governor elect Bill Walker’s tasks have already begun.
Walker stated that his top three priorities are coming up with a fiscal plan to smooth out the current Alaskan deficit, getting more oil in the pipeline in order to increase revenue and Alaskan jobs and finalizing the gas line.
Walker: “Something that we have looked at for a long long time, and as I said yesterday, we need to advance what’s been started and accelerate it any way we can. That is really what Alaska’s future is embedded upon, getting that resource to Alaskans and to the world market. And so the world’s signing a long-term contract as we speak, we need to make sure Alaska’s at the table.”
He said that his administration will be made up of Alaskans, not based on parties, and detailed how he would like Alaskans to approach problems.
Walker: “Governor Hickel had a model or a rule in his hotel, anybody in the hotel could come in and see him, they had three minutes, a minute and half was the problem and a minute and half was the solution, if you don’t come in with a solution, don’t weigh in. So what were hoping people will do is we invite people to bring us an issue, but not just the issue, but also let us know what they think the solution is.”
Walker will be sworn in on December 1.