{"id":16458,"date":"2017-01-10T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/gov-walker-takes-on-mighty-foe-alaskas-oil-dependency\/"},"modified":"2017-01-10T09:01:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:01:30","slug":"gov-walker-takes-on-mighty-foe-alaskas-oil-dependency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/gov-walker-takes-on-mighty-foe-alaskas-oil-dependency\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Walker takes on mighty foe: Alaska’s oil dependency"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU<\/strong> \u2014 Alaska\u2019s first independent governor enters the second half of his term with unfinished business: resolving the state\u2019s multibillion-dollar budget deficit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite what the onetime mayor of rural Valdez had in mind when he campaigned for the state\u2019s top job with visions of making a long-hoped-for gas pipeline a reality.<\/p>\n

But by the time Gov. Bill Walker took office, oil prices were in a freefall, deepening the deficit he already stood to inherit in a state that relies heavily on oil revenue. Since then, Alaska has slumped into a recession and seen its once-sterling credit rating downgraded.<\/p>\n

The pipeline remains a goal for Walker. But he\u2019s also trumpeting another, perhaps more urgent objective: securing a sustainable budget plan that\u2019s not completely dependent on oil prices.<\/p>\n

Oil should be a \u201chealthy part\u201d of the budget, but \u201cwe cannot tie our state\u2019s future to the price of one single commodity,\u201d the 65-year-old former oil and gas attorney told The Associated Press. \u201cAlaska must diversify its economy and establish sources of revenue that can withstand the life of a finite resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bold proposition in a state where oil revenue covers a large chunk of the government\u2019s bills and nearly every resident gets a yearly check from its oil wealth fund.<\/p>\n

Walker tried to achieve the same goal last year but couldn\u2019t scrounge up enough support for most pieces of his plan, including reinstating an income tax, raising various industry taxes and tapping earnings from the state\u2019s oil-wealth nest egg.<\/p>\n

This year, he has so far scaled back. But he\u2019s still eyeing nest-egg earnings and says he wants to bring Alaska\u2019s long-untouched motor-fuels taxes more in line with the national average.<\/p>\n

Walker knows his proposals are unpopular but believes he\u2019s doing what\u2019s best for the state. He says he draws inspiration from past governors, like Bill Egan, Jay Hammond and his mentor, Wally Hickel, who \u201cgoverned with Alaska\u2019s best interests at heart, not their own political capital.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he ran to \u201cfix Alaska,\u201d a job he doesn\u2019t expect to finish by 2018, when he says he\u2019ll probably seek re-election. Walker, described by his wife as someone who rarely takes a sick day, recently underwent what his office said was successful surgery for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been criticized for not communicating enough with lawmakers but has made an effort to strengthen relationships, joining the legislative bowling league last year and hosting lawmakers at the governor\u2019s mansion.<\/p>\n

Incoming Senate President Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican, called Walker a \u201cgood dude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that aside, obviously we fight over important things, and we should fight over them, whether we\u2019re cordial or whether we\u2019re friends or not,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Clive Thomas, a former Alaska university professor who recently co-edited a book on state politics, credits Walker with engaging in a long-overdue discussion on moving away from a reliance on volatile oil revenue. Similar discussions started in the past when oil prices cratered but generally petered out when prices rebounded, he said.<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s not sure Walker will get his agenda passed this session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would give it a 50-50 percent chance of anything happening,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

The gridlock that marked last year\u2019s drawn-out legislative sessions tempered Walker\u2019s optimism about reaching an agreement with lawmakers. He began calling the situation a crisis as Alaska drew down its savings to balance the books, and he cut Alaskans\u2019 dividends in half, prompting a lawsuit by current and former lawmakers. Walker won, and an appeal is pending.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s hopeful a change in the Legislature\u2019s makeup for the term starting Jan. 17 brings a change in attitude.<\/p>\n

The House, long held by Republicans, will be led by a coalition comprised largely of Democrats, formed around a shared goal of tackling the deficit. The Senate remains in GOP hands.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers have different ideas on taxes and tinkering with the dividend. Senate Republicans see the continued budget cuts proposed by Walker as too paltry. Senate Democrats and House coalition members want further changes to an oil tax credit program they see as too generous. There\u2019s even disagreement on whether the deficit needs to be filled this year.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s latest plan would leave a hole of about $900 million, which he said he\u2019ll work with lawmakers to fill on \u201ctheir terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

A we\u2019re-all-in-this-together ethos is central to the governor\u2019s administration and his message as he travels the state trying to convince Alaskans of the need to pull together to weather the current fiscal storm.<\/p>\n

Walker changed his party affiliation from Republican to undeclared in running with Democrat Byron Mallott in 2014. He became the first independent governor elected in Alaska, and is the only one currently in office in the nation.<\/p>\n

His previous political experience was in Valdez, where he was mayor when Jimmy Carter was president. In the intervening years, he advocated for a gas pipeline project.<\/p>\n

Alaskans have long discussed a pipeline as a way to provide energy, create jobs and shore up revenues, but efforts to realize that dream have always sputtered. As governor, Walker brought the latest iteration of the project under state control. But there\u2019s no guarantee it will be built. Lawmakers have become increasingly skeptical of the project, and market interest remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Regarding the budget, most people probably agree that Alaska needs a diversified economy that\u2019s not subject to the whim of oil prices, said Rebecca Logan, the Alaska Support Industry Alliance\u2019s general manager.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s a \u201cvery long-term goal,\u201d she said, noting a healthy oil industry is important in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 Alaska\u2019s first independent governor enters the second half of his term with unfinished business<\/a>: resolving the state\u2019s multibillion-dollar budget deficit. It\u2019s not quite what the onetime mayor of rural Valdez had in mind when he campaigned for the state\u2019s top job with visions of making a long-hoped-for gas pipeline a reality. But by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":16459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16458"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}