• “$2 billion revenue shortfall sparks oil tax debate” — Anchorage Daily News
• “Oil Tax Revenue Expected To Decline By $2 Billion” — Alaska Public Radio
• “Alaska Revenue Forecast Shows Unanticipated Multibillion-Dollar Deficit” — Alaska Dispatch
Translation: We, the State of Alaska, have $2 billion less in oil revenue this coming year than we thought.
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Oil Wealth Giveaway increases deficit now, undercuts ability to replenish savings later
A small budget is not surprising, but the lost opportunities for Alaskans and inability to replenish state savings accounts due to recent changes to the state’s oil tax will cost Alaska in the future, said House Democratic leadership today in response to Governor Parnell’s proposed budget.
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Sportsmanship and Statesmanship
I love great sports rivalries. I love that the intensity of competition between great rivals — Red Sox and Yankees; Auburn and Alabama; Duke and North Carolina — is couched by an even greater respect each holds for the other. Ferocious competitors, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird dueled each other in some of the most epic playoff games in NBA history, but when the series was over, Bird and Jordan genuinely respected each other and even teamed up to shoot good-natured McDonalds commercials in the off-season.
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Today, Democratic legislators released the following statements in reaction to the Alaska Pipeline Project’s announcement that it selected the area around Nikiski as the lead site for the proposed large-diameter Alaska LNG project’s natural gas liquefaction plant and terminal.
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Who Really Writes This Thing?
I often get asked, “Who writes your newsletters?”
People are deathly cynical of politics, and who can blame them? The system is impersonal and insincere, practically by design. Politicians are insulated by an exquisite apparatus of spokespeople, press releases, and punditry.
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