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Issue Position: Alaska State Budget

Issue Position

Issues: Government Budget and Spending

Restrained State Spending

We must control our state spending. Production of oil, and its revenue, is decreasing at a rate of about 6% per year. In Fiscal Year 2010, the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA) projects oil through the TAPS will decrease by 24,000 barrels a day! For the first time, 2010 will see no new exploration wells on the North Slope.

With about 90% of our budget coming from petroleum tax revenues, we have to face the facts.

As our state budget grows, so do the "formula driven" programs, such as education and medicaid. As our state government grows, so does payroll, benefits and retirement costs.

Somewhere, sometime soon, hard decisions are going to have to be made. Choices: state income tax, state sales tax... or reduce spending to match our income.

I support reducing our spending to match our income AND correcting the factors that are curtailing development of our vast resources and our under-developed private sector!


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