I doubt you hired your Legislature to cut hundreds of teachers, career counselors and support positions in your public schools. Damaging educational opportunity isn't a way forward. Telling parents that the state has no commitment to public education, and forcing them to think about raising their children out of Alaska is a recipe for losing those parents, and the important skills they bring to our economy.
We can do better before this session ends. We want to come out of this session with an economy that is moving forward, not one that takes us toward the risk of recession.
We have a serious $3.6 billion deficit, which requires that we all look for smart cuts, but not reckless ones. And it requires that we don't give away Alaska's oil resources to the oil industry for a song. Unfortunately the GOP-led majority is taking us the wrong way on both counts. There is still time for us to work across party lines to figure out a smarter, nonpartisan solution that protects the next generation.
You might be concerned that Alaska's 2013 oil tax law pays oil companies over $500 million more in the next two years than we receive back in production taxes. We can't run a state on a production tax that gets Alaska less than you pay out. That's why I, Sen. Bill Wielechowski and other Democrats have filed emergency oil legislation to make sure we get a fair share, on the items that are easiest to fix this session, until the governor and Legislature have time to make a more comprehensive fix. Those bills are HB 174 and SB 96.
If your house were on fire, you'd do more than just stand there. Damaging educational opportunity for the next generation isn't the rational response to addressing a budget deficit. Rolling back job training programs isn't the rational response. Much can happen to the budget in the final days of session. We still have a chance to prioritize. We still have a chance to establish a minimum oil tax that gets us production tax revenue, and not one that gives oil companies more than we get back in production taxes.
We still can reverse the House's complete elimination of all state-funded Pre-K. For children who need it, Pre-K increases their chances of high school and college graduation, increases their earning power, and decreases the chance they will cost us in welfare and jail and prosecutor and police costs.
We have to examine what we are spending money on. That means we can't leave millions dedicated to a $600 million Juneau road that, in current times, is unaffordable. The new road would still require a ferry terminal, and not attach to the road system.
There are millions of dollars unobligated and left in the Susitna Dam account. I don't see a time when we will be able to fund a $6 billion Susitna Dam that provides power to the same exact people as the large-diameter gas line the governor is working on. We can't afford to spend on two expensive power projects at the same time when they serve the same exact people.
Then there are savings and job creation efforts that the Legislature has hemmed and hawed on all session.
Medicaid expansion actually cuts our budget deficit. And it brings 4,000 jobs in an economy that is shedding thousands of jobs in the next year. It can help us avoid a recession.
How? Medicaid expansion changes the rules so the federal government pays 90 to 100 percent of the cost of medical care the state is fully paying for in-state funds. That part of the law saves us $6.6 million in state spending in the next year. Over the next five years the governor's proposals for Medicaid expansion and Medicaid reform will save us $100 million in state spending. And it will get medical care to thousands of Alaskans.
And it will save you money if you have private insurance. How? Currently hospitals pay millions to cover uninsured people who go for care at the Emergency Room. By getting people coverage, hospitals won't pass the high costs of uncompensated care off to Alaskans with insurance and it will help us all.
And we can't afford $17.3 million that's on Anchorage's Bragaw Street right now. Those funds should be saved until we have our budget in order.
Finally, you should know that between the governor's more careful $250 million in budget cut proposals, and the legislative ones that damage education and more, the difference is nearly meaningless. All current proposals likely have the state running out of savings in the next two years. Cutting education, senior benefit payments and cutting to the bone as the GOP proposals do just turn a $3.6 billion budget deficit into a $3.45 billion budget deficit.
We need to do better than just rearrange the chairs on the Titanic.
Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, is a member of the House Finance Committee.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.