I am deeply concerned for rural Alaska. I am a 36-year resident of Alaska, with much of that time in Nome and the Bering Strait Region.
We are dying out here. The cost of shipping -- for fuel, food, building supplies, you name it, is killing us. Barge rates are now almost equal to airfreight.
We have a housing crisis because buildings cost more to build than they appraise for, so there is no economic incentive to build. The cost of shipping materials here is so cost prohibitive that most cannot afford to weatherize or properly maintain their property. And our fuel costs are two and a half times those of Anchorage.
We have families doubled and tripled up: kids suffering in school for lack of sleep, exposure to drugs and alcohol, poor nutrition. We have all the social problems of urban Alaska, and in much higher rates per capita, and yet significantly far fewer resources to address them.
There is a whole swath of Alaskans suffering from historic trauma, which becomes generational trauma, which leads to substance abuse and domestic violence. But for reasons that make no economic sense, the state would rather spend more on incarceration with its high recidivism rates than on rehabilitation or treatment of the root causes. And now the state wants to reduce what social supports we have even more. It's inhumane, but more importantly at this time of economic crisis, it just doesn't make any financial sense.
I resent hearing how the state is in a financial crisis and how education and other critical services are at risk if we don't restructure the Permanent Fund dividend system. To go after the PFD proportionally hurts the poor far more than the wealthy, and rural Alaska can't absorb any more economic hardship than we're already suffering. It's time this state pulled up its big-boy pants, acted responsibly and took the mature step of instituting a meaningful income tax. Those who earn more pay more, and the "pain" is distributed equitably.
Sales taxes invariably hurt the rural poor far more as they are the ones less able to order online, don't have access to the lower-cost stores in urban areas and often have more children to support. To add a sales tax to Bush prices already two to four times higher than Anchorage in unconscionable.
And enough government cutting has been done. We cannot cut our way to prosperity.
I can accept "some" restructuring of the PFD -- especially if savings are invested in affordable housing, education and child care in the poorest sectors of the state, or if it is done on a needs basis -- but not until the Alaska Legislature first acts responsibly and institutes a meaningful income tax.
Sue Steinacher has lived in Alaska for 36 years, most of that time on the Seward Peninsula. She has worked as director and housing coordinator for the Nome Emergency Shelter Team, been a cross-cultural educator, wildlife information specialist, artist and photographer. A former dog musher, she now prefers to travel and camp by snowmachine.
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