It’s refreshing to find a politician who follows through on his campaign promises. It’s even more rare to find one who says what he means and means what he says. Even in the face of intense opposition, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has stood tall in his road shows to clearly explain our fiscal crisis and how we can fix it. I’m the kind of person who likes to do research before reacting and to get the story straight from the source. The Americans for Prosperity event at Everett’s in Wasilla gave me an opportunity to hear the governor speak for himself. Here’s my take-away.
The meeting was open, transparent, inclusive and straightforward. Gov. Dunleavy spoke clearly about our fiscal situation. He gave us the facts about where we’ve been with our budget, where we are now and where we are heading if we don’t do things differently. The governor’s approach is to find the inefficiencies, duplication and wasteful areas that can be reduced. He wants us to right-size our state government and make it more efficient.
Regardless of how you feel about the governor’s proposed budget, the numbers cannot be disputed. Since 2006, we have grown our state government by more than twice the rate of population and inflation. We have a $1.6 billion deficit and we have spent $14 billion from of our savings. If we continue to spend at this rate, we will run out of savings in 14 months.
Some of the questions asked were related to taxes and why we cannot just raise revenue to fill the gap, but Gov. Dunleavy did a great job explaining that our problem is not just a revenue issue. To make up the difference, he said we would need a 16% sales tax. If we established an income tax, he said every working person in Alaska would pay more than $5,000 dollars a year. He also made the great point that taxing the oil companies will drive them out of the state because they can extract oil from anywhere in the world. Most importantly, he explained that every time we get more revenue, we just grow the budget at an unsustainable rate.
It was clear to me after listening to Gov. Dunleavy speak and his administration answer questions that we need to balance our revenues with expenditures, like most households do, without taking money from the private sector. I am thankful that we have a governor who has a plan and the courage to act on it.
— John Miller
Wasilla
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