Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Thank you to everyone who attended my Constituent Pizza Party last weekend with Senator Costello and Representative Vazquez. It was great to reconnect with many West Anchorage friends and neighbors. With 24 days left in the 90 day legislative session, we have lots of work ahead. The conversations from last weekend will help guide many of my decisions as your representative in the weeks ahead.

And congratulations to the West Anchorage High School Boy’s Basketball Team for capturing the State Title last weekend!

We talked about many issues over the course of the afternoon. Pizza Party attendees expressed concern over major issues like state revenue shortfalls, public education, Medicaid expansion, and whether to end six mega-projects in addition to specific topics like the Senate bill to eliminate daylight savings time. I appreciated hearing from everyone on all of these important subjects. Please contact my office with any other suggestions or concerns you may have. 

Today, Legislative Finance Director David Teal made a presentation called  "Fiscal Reality - Exploring Scenarios to Reclaim Budget Solvency." His presentation included review of various “tools” the Legislature has to attain a sustainable budget. An interesting fact he shared: If the state chose to eliminate all governmental departments, we would still be operating under a $1 billion deficit.

The presentation from Teal compliments the presentation Gunnar Knapp, Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at UAA, made to the Legislature at the beginning of session. You can watch that here. These are some main takeaways:

· ISER has not taken an “official” position about how to manage our budget
· All of the economists at ISER probably agree that some cuts are needed
· Alaska should carefully address the State budget in the larger context of strengthening Alaska’s economy

As always, please let us know if you have suggestions or concerns.

    Rep. Matt Claman

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