Extreme budget cuts remain central to Dunleavy's confused 'plan' for Alaska

This may come as a surprise, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who reversed most of his vetoes because of the recall threat, is claiming that his extreme budget ideas from a year ago remain on the table, waiting to be resurrected.

He is using his 2019 budget fiasco as an excuse to not talk about taxes or cuts to the Permanent Fund Dividend. It is the sorriest excuse on record.

If the Legislature wants taxes, that’s up to the Legislature, according to the big guy. He sees no need to take on that burden because he put his budget plan out a year ago with no new taxes and he hasn’t changed his mind.

“I’m a tax-last guy, not a tax-first guy,” he said.

Now it is time for the Legislature to “shine,” according to Dunleavy.

Look up leadership in the dictionary and you’ll find that this isn’t it. You’ll find this under “incompetence.”

Dunleavy claims he doesn’t have to offer tax proposals because he and temporary budget director Donna Arduin, another shining star, showed Alaskans a fiscal plan without taxes and big dividends. That was his contribution to the fiscal plan debate.

In the end, the budget for state services stayed about the same because education and Medicaid were not cut, though Dunleavy claimed for months that he had cut hundreds of millions in spending.

The unadulterated budget babble from Dunleavy, which Alaska news organizations have failed to analyze or bring to public attention, doesn’t change the reality that the state has to act now to cut dividends and raise taxes.

If not, all savings except the Permanent Fund would be gone by October 2021 under the Dunleavy Disaster 2.0. The great defender of the dividend is the biggest threat to its survival.

At a crucial moment in Alaska’s history, Dunleavy chooses to play chicken under the guise of statesmanship, but he is fooling no one.

There are 62 elected officials in state government, two of them in the executive branch. The lieutenant governor doesn’t have much to do.

That other elected official, though, has a great deal more political power than anyone else in state government, charged with developing an annual budget to meets the needs of Alaskans now and in the future. With this comes the duty of pushing the Legislature to enact priorities and move the state forward. This one official has more power than most governors in the United States.

Dunleavy is essential telling the public and legislators who opposed him last year that they need to lead on the budget and taxes. He stuck his neck out last year and won’t do so again.

He sits back and endlessly repeats campaign slogans, trying to cover his tracks with weasel words and catchphrases. The press coverage of this is mediocre and Dunleavy is not being held accountable.

As long as the governor plays the part of the hapless and helpless politician, waiting for the legislative gang of 60 to shine, the state will drift aimlessly. And speed toward a recall election.

In a recent interview with Alaska Public Media, Dunleavy said he is not introducing tax measures, but waiting to see what individual legislators propose. He acts as if he has the same power as any member of the Legislature.

“Sure, I’m ready and willing to look at what Sen.. Giessel and Sen. Begich’s revenue proposals are,” said Dunleavy graciously. “I’m waiting for those. I’m ready to look at them.”

In other words, he wants to be able to blame legislators for proposing to cut dividends and raise taxes. Legislators, with far less power, are unwilling to play Dunleavy’s game.

The Legislature is laggard on all of this, without question, and deserves some of the blame. But getting 31 or 45 people to act is a great deal harder than having one person provide direction and guidance.

In the meantime, Dunleavy stalls by plugging his foolish constitutional amendments, which have nothing to do with the current budget decisions, and mentions his plans from a year ago.

“We’ve put on the table measures to reduce spending, if they don’t want to reduce spending, or if they don’t want constitutional amendments or advisory votes going out to the people of Alaska, I’m very interested in what the proposals are to fix the fiscal issue, so that’s what we’re waiting for,” said Dunleavy.

“We’ve laid out our half of the coin on the table for Alaskans and the Legislature. We’re just waiting for the Legislature to lay out their part of the coin, their part of the solution, which is why revenues do you want to look out” and his constitutional amendments, he said.

In a pretend interview by Dave Stieren, a state-paid Dunleavy cheerleader, Dunleavy elaborated on the Dunleavy Disaster 2.0 and his effort to sit it out.

"Decisions have to be made. We introduced a flat budget this year so that the budget itself wouldn't become a distraction. This is an opportunity now for the Legislature to shine as we would say, to show us their ideas to solve this issue. Our ideas were put onto the table last year, they're still in play with our bills and our constitutional amendments. But we want to see what the Legislature has in mind.”

This is Crouching Small, not Standing Tall.

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