Today, Alaska is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges. Yet, due to our sharply accelerating climate crisis, these will soon seem like the good old days unless we learn to plan honestly. There’s no question, for example, that the state will require massive infrastructure investments just to sustain current capabilities.
Even now, our shortsighted state budget can’t keep the ferries running. Not to mention that the climate disaster will likely be the death of most commercial fisheries, as well as all of subsistence. Then of course there’s the economic fact that petroleum prices will drop to rock bottom once the rest of the world gets a little bit more serious about eliminating fossil fuels and electric vehicle batteries get just a little bit better.
Any worthwhile discussion of “Alaska’s Fiscal Future,” which is the title of an Alaska Common Ground event on Dec 10, must start from that perspective. Please attend and ask the question.
— Tim Hinterberger
Anchorage
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