OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Issue Position: Alaska State Budget

Issue Position

Date: Jan. 1, 2014
Issues: Government Budget and Spending

Restrained State Spending

We must control our state spending. Throughput of oil through the TransAlaska Pipeline (TAPS), and subsequent State oil revenue, is decreasing at a rate of more than 6% per year.

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; these two items alone make up 55% of our annual State budget. 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!


Source
arrow_upward