Repeating what has become his mantra on the state budget, Fairbanks Sen. Pete Kelly said in a Fairbanks meeting this week that "government in Alaska has had a good run," but the paradigm has shifted.
On other occasions he has supplemented his slogan by saying government has to feel pain or that individual Alaskans should not have to pay for the "lifestyle of government." It's a curious choice of words. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was not part of the government.
Kelly is a veteran legislator, a former lobbyist for the University of Alaska and a former special assistant to former Gov. Sean Parnell. He collects a government paycheck and a government pension, along with a Permanent Fund dividend.
Nothing wrong with any of that. Lots of people enjoy the same benefits. Thanks to government, Kelly has had a good run. And so have we all, to greater or lesser degrees.
That's the point.
As co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Kelly holds one of the most important government positions in Alaska. He is in the right spot to explain the complexity of the state budget in our society and provide leadership on this issue.
The financial situation the state faces is not one in which the forces of truth, justice and the American way are aligned on one side with the nebulous and nefarious "government" on the other. It's not us against them. It's not the private sector versus the public sector. It's "We have met the enemy and he is us."
A couple of years ago, Kelly wrote that under the former oil tax system, "the Legislature spent money like Paris Hilton on crack" and he decried the increase in the number of state employees and "even more obscene" capital budget increases.
Fair points, but that included the period when Kelly was a university lobbyist pushing for increased state spending and when Parnell, just after becoming governor, added Kelly to his staff. A news story at the time said he would be based in Fairbanks and serve as "a liaison between the governor and the university system and the departments of education, labor and natural resources," the loosest job description in state government.
Alaskans have many ideas about what the state should or should not have spent money on. Of largesse, we have had good and plenty. But forget about hindsight -- it's the immediate predicament that demands our attention.
The unfolding collapse in oil prices could become the biggest political and social challenge the state has faced since the Good Friday earthquake in 1964. The situation could devolve into an economic disaster if it is not handled with care.
Our legislators have an important role in conveying the message that we are all in this together, as opposed to painting the false picture that inflicting "pain" on government is somehow divorced from inflicting pain on Alaskans.
We don't have the luxury of saying we've had a good run with schools or state troopers and we can get by without them. The wholesale elimination of government services could knock down real estate prices, wipe out tens of thousands of public and private jobs and ruin the ability to attract new business.
There won't be many people celebrating the end of government's good run if home prices tumble and the population plummets. Alaskans have to learn the difficult details and elected officials need to do the impossible -- stop worrying about getting re-elected and take unpopular actions.
Kelly told his audience this week we need to cut government spending and hold on until the gas pipeline saves us. But wait. We've heard that song before.
The history of overselling the future benefits of a gas pipeline is a long one, which ought to make everyone a skeptic. The responsible path is to deal with revenue questions and the use of Permanent Fund earnings before the next election, weighing the consequences of cuts in services and the economic impact. The longer we wait, the more difficult our options will become and the faster reserves will dissipate.
The interconnected nature of government, commerce and society complicates the life of a crusader, but the real problem is how to pay for education, public safety and other vital services, while preserving the quality of life and the conditions that allow businesses to keep their doors open.
The benefits from our good run, while not distributed equally, have gone to people with private jobs, state jobs, federal jobs and no jobs. It's all because of the immense nonrenewable oil resource discovered nearly 50 years ago on the North Slope.
We benefit from school systems in which children can get a good education and become productive members of society. We benefit when the roads are plowed and we benefit because we have local libraries, a wide range of cultural institutions and public safety personnel who deal with criminals. We benefit by receiving the Permanent Fund dividend. That's all part of government.
Willie Hensley, a former state legislator, has accurately described our situation. "Alaska has experienced a remarkable 35 years in which we have been able to provide services, programs, facilities and infrastructure never dreamed of in the territorial and early statehood days," he told a Juneau audience. "But the days of milk and honey have waned, and a new reality is slowly settling in."
We have had a good run, no doubt. Absent a miracle, the state has nothing but tough choices ahead, a sobering prospect for us all.