As a candidate, Mike Dunleavy promised nothing but easy fixes, though most of the news coverage of the state budget debacle has skipped this key point. Amnesia is Dunleavy’s strongest political ally.
Read MoreDunleavy, who likes to claim the state is “open for business,” wants a large part of the University of Alaska to go out of business.
Read MoreMissing from the Dunleavy veto package is any mention of what he made the centerpiece of his campaign to reduce state spending—the elimination of 2,000 vacant but unfilled state jobs that would save the state $200 million. He made up those numbers.
Read MoreOn his list of dubious achievements, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of $2.8 million for arts programs merits a prominent place. Eliminating arts programs was never part of the Dunleavy fiscal fantasy.
Read MoreDunleavy’s $130 million veto puts the University of Alaska in a death spiral, which Rep. Dave Talerico needs to understand. I’ve asked Talerico if he will vote to override the veto, but have yet to get a response.
Read MoreWith his decision to gut the university by vetoing $130 million from its budget, Dunleavy sends a clear message to students—go to school in some other state and forget about the University of Alaska.
Read MoreThere is little doubt that the courts would have ordered the state to pay for schools for the fiscal year that begins next week based on the law approved in 2018 by the Legislature and governor.
Read MoreThere was only one little problem with the official state proclamation declaring June 14 as “Permanent Fund Dividend Appreciation Day.”
Read MoreThe leaders of the House and Senate made the right call this week in deciding that the special session next month should be in Juneau, with meetings in Anchorage. For better public access, this is the only rational choice.
Read MoreSens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young can’t see their way to tell the truth about the role of President Trump in the trade war that has damaged the Alaska seafood industry and reduced exports.
Read MoreOne thing that sometimes gets lost in the Hammond hosannas is clear in retrospect: the distribution plan he championed in 1980 would have never passed the test of time even if the U.S. Supreme Court had not declared it unconstitutional 37 years ago Friday.
Read MoreThere’s a problem with the marching orders given to the eight legislators from the House and Senate—the state can’t decide the future of the Permanent Fund by simply looking at the Permanent Fund and ignoring the taxing alternatives.
Read MoreUnder the Dunleavy plan to dismantle state government, it remains impossible for anyone to reserve space on the Alaska Marine Highway System after September.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan doesn’t want the public to know why he took action to hold up the appointment of Lt. Gen. David Berger as Marine commandant.
Read MoreIf sustained yield — preserving enough salmon for the future — is good enough for the state’s fish resources, why not think of Permanent Fund earnings the same? Limit the annual withdrawal from the fund to no more than it can sustain — and still grow its returns.
By Larry Persily
Read MoreThe long and costly feud between John Reeves and John Binkley, whose family owns a major Fairbanks tourist operation and the Anchorage Daily News, enters a new phase this week with another court trial in Fairbanks.
Read MoreA Boston-based consultant hired by the Dunleavy administration for a privatization study about the Alaska Psychiatric Institute is not going to reverse its 2017 decision that privatization would make things worse at API.
Read MoreIn trying to justify his approval of a no-bid $441,000 state contract to a fellow Dunleavy loyalist, Tomas Boutin, CEO of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, claims there was no need to waste time with competitive bids.
Read MoreAlmost everything about the decision is being withheld from the public, with Dunleavy claiming “executive communications privilege” as a justification for secrecy. The release of emails that are empty except for the salutations and closings makes a mockery of the public process.
Read MoreIf Mike really wants to run ads attacking those he is supposed to work with, he should call up his brother in Texas and have Francis spend hundreds of thousands on image ads, trying to rehabilitate what’s gone wrong with the Dunleavy administration in its first six months.
Read More