If you\u2019ve ever said that you could do a better job in your sleep than the Alaska Legislature does, a handful of Juneauites have an event for you.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll just have to stay awake for it.<\/p>\n
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Centennial Hall will host the Juneau Forum on Alaska\u2019s Fiscal Future.<\/p>\n
One of a series of forums held across Alaska, the event gathers experts to explain the multibillion-dollar gap in the state budget and collects ideas from Alaskans about what to do about it.<\/p>\n
The event runs 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, and child care will be available.<\/p>\n
Pat Pitney, the director of the state\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, will open the meeting by outlining the state\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n
An expert panel including Jim Calvin, Larry Persily, Gregg Erickson and Brad Keithley will break down the state\u2019s side of things and explain the impact of the budget situation on Juneau and Southeast.<\/p>\n
The expert panel and state representatives will then be questioned by a community panel, and Juneau\u2019s delegation to the Alaska Legislature will round out the meeting by presenting their prognosis of the situation.<\/p>\n
Due to the decline in oil prices, the state budget is facing a gap of $3.5 billion to $4 billion between its revenue and expenditures. That gap is being filled by the state\u2019s savings accounts, but that money is expected to run out before decade\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Various schemes have been proposed to reduce or eliminate the gap, including a state income tax, further cuts to state services or a state sales tax.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the state invited Alaska residents to attend a fiscal forum at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. That event has been followed by smaller events across the state, including Wednesday\u2019s in Juneau.<\/p>\n
About the panelists<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Jim Calvin is managing principal with the McDowell Group, which specializes in socioeconomic impact analysis.<\/p>\n \u2022 Larry Persily spent five years as the federal coordinator for Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline projects and is now working for the Kenai Peninsula Borough on oil and gas and fiscal issues.<\/p>\n \u2022 Gregg Erickson is an economist with a deep involvement with the Alaska Permanent Fund and oil and gas tax issues.<\/p>\n \u2022 Brad Keithley is president of Keithley Consulting, LLC, focusing on oil, gas and fiscal policy matters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What to expect<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 6-6:10 p.m. \u2014 Welcome and introduction by Craig Dahl.<\/p>\n \u2022 6:15-7 p.m. \u2014 Presentation of the state\u2019s fiscal situation by OMB director Pat Pitney.<\/p>\n \u2022 7:05-7:45 p.m. \u2014 Expert panel analysis of state approach and alternatives.<\/p>\n \u2022 7:45-8 p.m. \u2014 Break.<\/p>\n \u2022 8-8:35 p.m. \u2014 Expert panel and state presenters take questions from community panel (Lauren MacVay, Richard Peterson, Aurah Landau and Pat Race), moderated by Bruce Botelho.<\/p>\n \u2022 8:40-9 p.m. \u2014 Juneau legislative delegation offer their prognosis (moderated by John Pugh).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve ever said that you could do a better job in your sleep than the Alaska Legislature does, a handful of Juneauites have an event for you. You\u2019ll just have to stay awake for it. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Centennial Hall will host the Juneau Forum on Alaska\u2019s Fiscal Future. One of a series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":4169,"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-4168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4168","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=4168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4168"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}