John Naisbitt, futurist and author of Megatrends, observed that in America\u2019s participatory democracy, \u201cLeadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.\u201d Applying this astute observation to Alaska\u2019s fiscal predicament, the \u201ctake action now\u201d parade is happening. Will our Alaska Legislature jump in front of it or ignore it? <\/p>\n
According to the August 2015 Rasmuson poll, \u201c66 percent of Alaskans support using a portion of excess earnings from the Permanent Fund to fund public services and programs while protecting the dividend program\u201d. About 52 percent of Alaskans also support introducing a statewide income tax. Speaking to the overall poll results, Ed Rasmuson says, \u201cThese results show that Alaskans are ready to have the difficult deliberations about the sustainability of our state. And now elected leaders need to lead.\u201d <\/p>\n
In November the Alaska Municipal League, which represents over 160 of the cities, boroughs and unified municipalities in the state, adopted a fiscal sustainability plan based on using earnings and establishing an income tax. AML notes that, \u201cUsing part of the permanent fund dividend payout, as one piece of a larger balanced and sustainable fiscal plan, is now a necessary consideration.\u201d AML\u2019s plan recommends establishing a minimum floor for PFD payouts to protect the dividend program. As AML represents 98 percent of Alaska\u2019s municipalities, the parade for fiscal action began to build. <\/p>\n
Next a loose collaborative of about 100 young Alaskans calling themselves \u201cOur Alaska\u201d decided to weigh in, saying putting off action to fix the budget is unacceptable. The group, linked through social media, is trying to rally young Alaskans to push legislators to do three things: continue trimming, boost revenue and rely on the state\u2019s savings. In the same article announcing the formation of \u201cOur Alaska,\u201d Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said, \u201cI honestly don\u2019t think the Legislature will act on revenue enhancements. It\u2019s unfortunate, because we\u2019re kicking the can down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not wanting the can to be kicked and risk further harm to the economy or Alaska\u2019s credit rating, an unlikely coalition of businesses and unions recently formed to spur action. They call their coalition \u201cAlaska\u2019s Future.\u201d Among its members, Alaska\u2019s Future lists the Alaska AFL-CIO, Associated General Contractors, Alaska State Employees Association, Fairbanks Economic Development, Cook Inlet Regional and the National Education Association Alaska. According to their web page, \u201cthe mission of Alaska\u2019s Future is to cultivate the broad based public support necessary to convince the Legislature, during the 2016 Legislative Session, of the urgency and importance to use Permanent Fund earnings to significantly reduce the deficit, support essential public services and maintain a sustainable dividend and a healthy Permanent Fund. This is the first step toward a stable economic foundation for Alaska.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
Also joining this parade for \u201caction now\u201d are an uncommon assortment of former Republican and Democratic leaders \u2013 Gov. Tony Knowles, Minority Leader Fran Ulmer, Speaker of the House Gail Phillips, Majority Leader Mike Navarre and Sen. Gary Wilkens. Through joining Alaska\u2019s Future or in public forums, these past leaders have articulated that the economy will suffer if the Alaska Legislature goes home without addressing revenues and that Permanent Fund earnings need to be in the mix of revenue options. Additionally in a recent forum on 360 North, Ulmer, Phillips and Navarre joined former Senate President Rick Halford in calling for the introduction of an income tax.<\/p>\n
While Gov. Bill Walker has gotten out in front with a comprehensive proposal to fill the $3.6 billion fiscal gap, legislators on the powerful finance committees appear to remain fixated on cuts. In an Alaska Dispatch News article in August 2015, responding to the Rasmuson poll, Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River and co-chair of Senate Finance Committee, said constituents in her district continue to prefer cuts over revenue discussions. Her Eagle River counterpart in the House, Rep. Dan Sadler, vice-chair of House Finance Committee, said he will continue to cut unnecessary services when oil prices were high before looking for new revenues. <\/p>\n
Apparently the rainy day parade does not run through Eagle River \u2026 yet. Once further cuts to essential services and education hit the table, I have no doubt that constituents from Eagle River will join in the call for responsible consideration of revenues. <\/p>\n
As further evidence that the rainy day parade is building, the Alaska Dispatch News just this Friday released a new poll of 651 registered voters showing \u201can overwhelming proportion of respondents \u2014 93 percent \u2014 said it was either very important or somewhat important to enact a plan like Gov. Walker\u2019s to address the state\u2019s budget shortfall.\u201d When looking at just GOP respondents to the poll, \u201c71 percent of respondents still said it was very important that lawmakers enact a plan of the same sort as Walker\u2019s, and another 22 percent said it was somewhat important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key legislators who choose to ignore the growing statewide parade for action now may be doing so at their peril. Eighty-three percent of the respondents to the Rasmuson poll said they would be less likely to support legislators who take no action to fix the budget crisis. In the meantime, the opportunity remains for legislative leadership to jump in front of the parade. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Kate Troll is a City and Borough of Juneau Assembly member. The views expressed are her own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Naisbitt, futurist and author of Megatrends, observed that in America\u2019s participatory democracy, \u201cLeadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.\u201d Applying this astute observation to Alaska\u2019s fiscal predicament, the \u201ctake action now\u201d parade is happening. Will our Alaska Legislature jump in front of it or ignore it? According to the August […]<\/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":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33732","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=33732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33732"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}