In the past five years, Southeast Alaska has seen some all-time highs in population, workers and workforce earnings, but the future is less promising.<\/p>\n
Southeast Conference economic planners released a forecast this week for the region that, paired with Alaska lawmakers\u2019 budget compromise that failed to address revenue shortfalls, forecasts potentially devastating lows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State projects a two-year deficit of $7.7 billion, and that our savings will be gone in four years. Clearly something will need to happen to address this, and because we are so dependent on the role that government plays in our economy, that something could create a significant downward drag on our economy,\u201d the report developed by Rain Coast Data on behalf of Southeast Conference reads.<\/p>\n
Simply put, the projected state revenue decline will leave no area \u2014 municipal and tribal budgets, and private sector jobs \u2014 unaffected. Since 2011, Southeast communities have cut more than 200 jobs and continue to struggle financially. Declining oil prices have also made it clear that oil revenue can no longer be the state\u2019s fiscal support that it once was, economic planners say. Without a supplement, 14 percent of Southeast Alaska wages earned from state jobs are at risk.<\/p>\n
While the Southeast Alaska 2020 Economic Plan doesn\u2019t spell out exactly what that supplement could or should be, it does paint a picture of where the market stands the best chance to recover \u00ad\u2014 and it all starts with that good ol\u2019 Alaskan spirit.<\/p>\n
According to a Southeast Alaska business survey, \u201cSoutheast Alaskan spirit\u201d is the region\u2019s greatest strength. The overall quality of life and recreational opportunities in the area also stood out as advantages to doing business here.<\/p>\n
The Southeast Conference report highlighted six areas where Alaskans should channel those positive vibes for bettering the region\u2019s economy. Those areas are transportation, energy, maritime, the seafood industry, the visitor industry and the timber industry.<\/p>\n
Economy planners say region goals should include minimizing the impact of budget cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System, while focusing on road development. The top two barriers business owners repeatedly reported for their fiscal progress were transportation and transpiration. Transporting freight and people consume 67 to 79 percent of overall business costs.<\/p>\n
Something different readers will find in this year\u2019s economic blueprint is that it is more user friendly \u2014 using graphs and charts to half a normally 100 page text \u2014 and it is less specific about how to improve the economy, but for a good reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe created this plan to be an overview that can be applied to any project,\u201d said Southeast Conference Executive Director Shelly Wright. \u201cSoutheast Alaska is so different from the rest of Alaska. We\u2019re so different from everyone in terms of our challenges, our opportunities and the benefits of our region. If someone finds their project aligns with economic development, they can cut and paste our words (for grants they need). It\u2019s that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southeast Conference, in partnership with Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, began drawing up this plan in March 2015 to ensure maximum input from voices across Southeast Alaska. Wright said more than 300 people \u2014 from small businesses, tribes, native organizations, municipalities and nonprofits \u2014 had a direct hand in its development.<\/p>\n
The complete economic strategy can be viewed at the Southeast Conference website at www.seconference.org\/strategy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the past five years, Southeast Alaska has seen some all-time highs in population, workers and workforce earnings, but the future is less promising. Southeast Conference economic planners released a forecast this week for the region that, paired with Alaska lawmakers\u2019 budget compromise that failed to address revenue shortfalls, forecasts potentially devastating lows. \u201cThe State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744","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=18744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}