Editorials

At year’s end, comparing Alaska’s 2019 successes and failures

When the year is drawing to a close, many of us find ourselves looking back to survey our wins and losses since January. It can be a worthwhile exercise for helping us take a more objective look at how the year progressed and how our future selves are likely to see it from a greater distance. It’s just as helpful for us as a state to review the successes and failures of 2019.

Let’s start with the failures — it certainly wasn’t the smoothest year for Alaska.

No fiscal plan

In August, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Legislature ended a year of budget-related feuding in what was essentially a victory for no one: The Legislature wouldn’t fund the Permanent Fund dividend under the 1982 formula, as the governor wanted, but it also couldn’t muster the votes for a budget veto override that would have allowed legislators to assert their own fiscal vision. The result, effectively, was another year of kicking the can down the road on the budget, spending much of Alaska’s fast-dwindling savings.

Even worse, unless the Legislature can articulate a longer-term budget vision and find the votes for it this year, the result may not be much different: Gov. Dunleavy’s budget proposal for the coming year is essentially the status quo from what was passed in 2019, but with more spending on PFDs. That would mean big, unsustainable draws from both the Constitutional Budget Reserve and Permanent Fund earnings reserve. Our state can ill afford that, so Alaskans should hope legislators can move us closer to a balanced budget.

Legislature-governor stalemate

The first year under Gov. Dunleavy’s leadership was a case study in government dysfunction: Neither the governor nor the Legislature were able to generate enough support for their respective fiscal strategies, and attempts to find common ground or compromises between the two were summarily rebuffed. It wasn’t until August that there was any sign of moderation from the governor’s camp, with Gov. Dunleavy backing off of some of his most controversial cuts.

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The months since haven’t offered many clues as to what the new year will bring, but Gov. Dunleavy did opt for a pause to the cuts he championed in his first year, so at the very least, perhaps the 2020 legislative session won’t be consumed by outrage over the depth and breadth of proposed cuts to services.

Systemic failures to provide equal services

More than anything else, 2019 has brought into high relief the difference between life in Alaska’s urban and rural communities — specifically, the state’s two-tiered justice system. A collaborative investigative effort between ADN and ProPublica has revealed that one in three Alaska communities has no police presence whatsoever, a fact that contributes to social ills and leaves rural residents feeling less safe. The state has a mountain of work to do in making sure Alaskans have equal access to justice. It should make a greater commitment to that goal in 2020.

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But 2019 wasn’t all doom and gloom for Alaska. Here are some successes we saw in 2019.

Earthquake recovery

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Nov. 30, 2018, shook Alaskans across the Southcentral region, but it brought out our best in the year that followed. Anchorage residents helped each other, put their lives back together and, one year after the earthquake, have largely moved on to other things.

Though we’ve moved on, we’ve learned some lessons from the quake about the vulnerability of our infrastructure and the importance of building codes, and sometimes we still exchange a nervous glance or two during a particularly strong aftershock. But that’s healthy: Complacency is our enemy, and we don’t want to get lax where our safety is concerned.

Employment strong

Even amid the chaotic see-saw of budget cuts and restored funds, the state employment picture was stable throughout 2019. Alaska continues to have the highest unemployment rate of any state in the nation, and there are other factors that complicate the picture, but the job picture in Alaska remained stable and in some cases improved. That was an economic plus for a state that badly needed one as it struggled to emerge from recession.

But the employment picture comes with a caveat: A tremendous amount of the construction and infrastructure spending across the state was on military and other federal projects, not all of which will continue indefinitely. If Alaska can’t find a way to fund some level of capital spending to maintain existing infrastructure and periodically build new facilities, the weakness in those economic sectors could be exposed, putting the jobs of thousands of Alaska laborers and trade workers at risk.

Federal aid for rural public safety

Fortunately, federal authorities have seen Alaska’s public safety situation in rural communities for what it is: an emergency. To assist in turning the tide and providing law enforcement in communities where it’s lacking, the federal government has allocated $52 million so far. Used properly, that money should help build capacity in dealing with rural public safety issues and better maintain facilities that have fallen into disrepair.

What it won’t do, however, is solve the problem on its own. Our state, communities and individual residents must all commit themselves to doing more to keep our neighbors safe — that’s true in cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks too, but especially so in the Bush.

We can make 2020 a better year than 2019, building on our successes and learning from our failures. But it will take commitment and work from each of us. Our state and its people are worth it.

Anchorage Daily News editorial board

Editorial opinions are by the editorial board, which welcomes responses from readers. Board members are ADN President Ryan Binkley, Publisher Andy Pennington and Opinion Editor Tom Hewitt. The board operates independently from the ADN newsroom. To submit feedback, a letter or longer commentary for consideration, email commentary@adn.com.

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