On this as well as the other elements of the Dunleavy Debacle, crucial questions needs to be addressed during legislative hearings: When did the governor decide to dismantle and reorganize the university and why? If he did this during his campaign, why did he keep it a secret?
Read MoreInstead of handing out credit, let’s say that Dunleavy never promised a budget like this one, but his decision to propose it now has focused the political discussion and made a lie of the PFD platitudes and the declarations about painless budget cuts.
Read MoreOld people might have to pay thousands more a year to live in the six Alaska Pioneer Homes starting this summer, according to one element in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget bomb.
Read MoreThe state budget is contentious enough that we don’t need state employees lying to Alaskans about contradictory statements by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Read MoreDonna Arduin, budget director for the moment, corrected Sen. Bill Wielechowski on how to pronounce her name in a hearing Friday, always a sign of a short-timer.
Read MoreIn the end, Dunleavy conned Alaskans with happy talk about the Permanent Fund Dividend, never acknowledging that the real fiscal challenge facing Alaska is how to manage difficult tradeoffs. Those tradeoffs include balancing taxes and the demand for public services.
Read More“There is no conceivable way under which eliminating that much money from an economy that is already struggling actually helps it. I would love to see this analysis that shows that.”
Read MoreIn my decades of covering Alaska politics, I can’t recall anything as irresponsible as the Dunleavy/Arduin budget. By slashing valuable state services and making no effort to consider their importance, the Dunleavy budget fails on all accounts. looking at the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Read MoreThis mess appears to be the result of Dunleavy handing over control of state government finances to temporary budget director Donna Arduin, who won’t be here to deal with the aftermath.
Read MoreThe press in Alaska, with a few exceptions, failed to examine the details of Dunleavy’s budget pronouncements or check his ever-changing numbers. That might change now that he is proposing cuts of things he never suggested he would cut, setting up Republican legislators to face the wrath of Alaskans.
Read MoreWithout some form of general taxation, it doesn’t matter how much we diversify Alaska’s economy with new jobs, new businesses, new products, new anything.
By Larry Persily
Read MoreDunleavy is telling reporters that he is not cutting the budget at all, but his administration is building a new budget, which just happens to be smaller, so no one should say that the budget is being cut. Brilliant.
Read MoreEven GOP legislators will understand that accepting the Donna Arduin slash-and-burn budget will require them to find new opportunities in the private sector.
Read MoreThere are no House committees yet, so Chair Carpenter had as much political power as the chair in which he was seated, but no one told him.
Read MoreThe Anchorage Daily News story on the privatization of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute downplayed the privatization part.
Read MoreThe temporary Alaska budget director from Michigan, still developing the secret plan to cut $1.5 billion from the state budget, has pushed private prisons elsewhere, which seems to be why this idea may be inflicted on Alaskans.
Read MoreIt turns out the state education department does not have $139,000 in its budget to pay for the newly created “assistant commissioner,” a position to be filled by a lawyer and co-pastor from Washington, D.C. But the money will be found in other departments.
Read MoreA husband and wife from Washington, D.C. with extensive government and church experience have taken leading positions in the Dunleavy administration. Her job is clear. But his job description is not.
Read MoreState budget director Donna Arduin is making $195,000 a year, which puts her at the top of the salary list for the first wave of employees hired by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in December.
Read MoreThe lack of vetting by the Dunleavy administration of its appointees, obvious in the debacle last week with John Quick and Art Chance, strikes again.
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