This Wk's Top 3| What oil prices should the #akleg use for the #AKbudget, some more important PFC numbers & a detailed distributional analysis (#WhoPays) must be a mandatory part of any #akleg tax discussion. www.facebook.com/share/1AeKab...

Some view the #AKbudget as fenced, that taxes on/cuts in PFDs are necessary to maintain spending. BUT IT'S NOT. Lower-impact revenue options are readily available to replace PFD cuts and maintain spending. #akleg

Alaska's "business elite" list the state of the #AKecon as their biggest concern, but then push #akleg PFD cuts, which have the "largest adverse impact" on the #AKecon (but the lowest impact on Top20% #AKfams) as their solution to #AKbudget. #MoreConcernedWithThemselvesThanEcon

As Revenue Comm'r Adam Crum had the opportunity to demonstrate competence at both oil revs & PF earnings, the core of the #AKbudget. He has failed miserably at both, leaving #AKfams exposed to personal taxes instead. What record does he think he will run for #AKgov on? #akleg

Because of its regressive impact, many would raise issues if one-third of the #AKbudget was being financed with a sales tax. Why is it that the same level is being financed using MUCH MORE regressive (and impactful) PFD cuts (with no exemptions), and the same players are just going along? #akleg

This Wk's Top 3| Nearly a third of FY26 spending is being paid for by PFD cuts: we examine #WhoPays, Anna MacKinnon picks up from where she left off in the Senate & how the #akleg could stop the OPEC tail from wagging the #AKbudget dog. T'row, 6:05a on the Michael Dukes Show at buff.ly/TqKUWs2

The #AKbudget doesn't have to be whipped around by oil price volatility. We've chosen to do it to ourselves. Here's how to avoid it in the future. #akleg buff.ly/YzsxYZQ

Brad Keithley’s Chart of the Week: Revenues Those who follow these columns know that we have been discussing for nearly all of the time we have been writing them the fiscal sinkhole into which the state gradually has been sliding over most of…

Some blindly argue that, of the personal tax alts, an income tax is best for dealing with #AKbudget deficits. But the rate required is HUGE (30%) if they have the old "% of federal taxes paid" approach in mind. The numbers suggest an ultra-broad-based sales tax is a better option.

From the perspective of #AKfams & #AKecon, Dunleavy's failure - and it's huge - as #AKbudget deficits have soared has been his refusal to push equitable, low-impact revs to close it. His strength has been his refusal to agree to permanently adopt "the most regressive tax ever proposed." #akleg

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2025 defense budget bill includes $724M for Alaska military projects Alaska’s U.S. senators celebrated the passage of the annual defense budget bill on Wednesday, which included several gains for Alaska.

This also helps explain why the #AKbudget is difficult (impossible?) to cut. Politicians (& media) at all levels focus on "bringing home the bacon" regardless of its impact on deficits. This is federal, but the same thing happens at the state level. #akleg

Some #akleg argue that the #AKbudget has not kept pace with inflation over the last several years. But from FY17, the first year of PFD cuts, through FY23, the most recent finalized year, the overall UGF budget grew at a compound annual rate of 5.1%, while inflation ...

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Those who insist on a "#NoTax, spending cuts only" approach to balancing the #AKbudget are as responsible for con't PFDcuts as those pushing cuts directly. In the real world, #SaveThePFD requires using more equitable alternative revs. Opposing those leads to con't PFDcuts. #akleg

Those who insist on a "#NoTax, spending cuts only" approach to balancing the #AKbudget are as responsible for con't PFDcuts as those pushing cuts directly. In the real world, #SaveThePFD requires using more equitable alternative revs. Opposing those leads to con't PFDcuts. #akleg