Meyer's bogus assertions distort reality of Dunleavy's budget debacle

The Anchorage Daily News and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner recently published another piece of state propaganda that praises Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his bold leadership on the state budget this year.

A state ghost writer for Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer or Dunleavy probably assembled the hosannas and slapped Meyer’s name on the piece, but we’ll pretend the words are actually those of the lieutenant governor.

It should have been preceded by a disclaimer in large print. Something like, “This column is packed with bogus assertions that no one should swallow.”

This column was similar to the fairy tale printed under Meyer’s name in July, which neglected to mention how Meyer and Dunleavy had helped block a realistic state fiscal plan for years while serving in the Legislature. They kept promising that no taxes were needed, though they were among the most powerful legislators during the period when $14 billion in reserves vanished.

In the July column, Meyer praised Dunleavy for his June vetoes, saying that “generations of Alaskans to come will thank Gov. Dunleavy” for making tough decisions that had to be made. Meyer is now praising Dunleavy’s leadership in August for reversing $150 million of Dunleavy’s vetoes in June.

The fabrication at the heart of the latest Meyer column is the same one that Dunleavy invented in August, after more than 10,000 people signed the recall petition on Day 1 of the campaign.

This falsehood holds that the Dunleavy budget was not about eliminating the ferry system, dismantling the University of Alaska, reducing public school funding by nearly 25 percent, cutting benefits for low-income Alaskans and cutting more than $700 million from health care services in Alaska.

No, it was all about starting a conversation with Alaskans about the future. For that, Dunleavy deserves all the credit in the world, according to Dunleavy and Meyer.

The record shows that this is complete nonsense, but Meyer is a loyal soldier and this is the Dunleavy argument against the recall—that he didn’t mean to cut anything that people care about, he just wanted to have a difficult conversation with Alaskans.

When Dunleavy introduced his radical budget in February, hypnotized by his temporary budget director with no knowledge of Alaska, he said there was no time to wait. He called for sacrifice and said he was determined to end deficit spending this year.

“I promised to fix our budget and I will keep my promise to Alaskans,” Dunleavy said at the time. “We will fix the budget and we will fix it this year.”

This was the occasion when Dunleavy stood by in approving silence as TBD Donna Arduin complained about why it cost $4.58 to move a car one mile on a state ferry and only 2 cents on a state road.

“We’re here to solve our problems, not to ask Alaskans to do it for us,” Arduin said.

Bipartisan majorities in the Legislature rejected nearly everything that Dunleavy proposed in the months that followed. The proof that this was always a one-sided conversation came on June 28, when he vetoed every major budget item back to the levels he proposed in February.

“These vetoes should not come as a surprise to Alaskans as they have been part of our proposal since February,” Dunleavy said.

Six weeks later, after the recall shocked him with its speed, Dunleavy backtracked on a majority of the vetoes to state operations—except for those that amounted to cost-shifting to local government—and said he wanted more time to talk.

"You don't get to this point unless you veto," Dunleavy said in the face of the recall. “You don’t get the conversations that we’ve had . . . unless you veto.”

One more point.

A little more than two years ago, Meyer argued that deficits were not out of control.

"In the Senate, we like that little bit of deficit, whether it's $300 million or $500 million, it keeps the pressure on us to keep spending down," Meyer said as he spoke against a reasonable income tax plan from Rep. Paul Seaton.

For years, Meyer and Dunleavy were among those who did not want to lead a real conversation with Alaskans on the budget, opting instead to postpone difficult decisions, while avoiding specifics or the complicated tradeoffs.

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