Assembly candidate Jimi Cash claims in a campaign flyer that the so-called “education investment reserve” approved last week by the assembly on a 5-4 vote will bring “long-term stability to education funding.”

The right-wing majority on the assembly is playing a shell game. Don’t fall for it.

The so-called reserve is a campaign gimmick by Aaron Lojewski and Cash, created to allow the right-wing candidates to claim they are in favor of funding education 40 years from now and have found a painless way to do it—divert money that would be used for borough operations or education now and put it in a long-term slush fund.

They want you to believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch.

Lojewski, who is already campaigning for borough mayor in 2024, will claim that the slush fund is proof that he is looking out for students in 2060 with a brilliant concept.

It would be funded by diverting interest income and proceeds from land sales into a fund that could be used for education by future members of the assembly or on anything else.

The money is not free.

Think of earned interest and income from lands sales as money that substitutes for tax dollars. There is no real difference. Every dollar put into a reserve this way puts more pressure on raising property taxes or reducing funding for education and other services.

The Lojewski/Cash shell game means higher taxes or reduced funding for education and other programs now. But they won’t tell you that.

There is no investment plan, no risk analysis, just a feel-good claim of easy money that no one will miss. We are told by Lojewski, Cash, Tammie Wilson and the rest that the slush fund will be allowed to grow for decades to come and no one spend it or complain about an untapped slush fund.

There is no chance it will play out this way.

It wasn’t that long ago, 2018 to be exact, when Lojewski was among those who clamored for the school district to spend down its reserves.

If and when the new education slush fund grows big enough to warrant attention, the exact same thing will happen.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.