Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020 addresses the extent to which the state of Alaska has spent more than it can afford and has developed an economy unsustainably dependent on state spending. As a result of his proposed budget, all the talk in Alaska these days is about budget cuts and how those cuts will affect the economy of the state.<\/p>\n
But Alaskans must also work with the Dunleavy administration to aggressively expand Alaska’s economic pie and grow its private sector economy through natural resource development. As Wally Hickel once famously said: “We can’t cut our way to prosperity.”<\/p>\n
Alaska needs to develop its abundant natural resources in order to create a stable and sustainable future — the type of economy that will create good paying private sector jobs, and at the same time, create additional sources of state revenue.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Alaska has a tool for fostering economic development and financing needed infrastructure in one of its public corporations — the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority — commonly referred to as AIDEA.<\/p>\n
[Frank Murkowski: Here’s how to fix the Alaska Marine Highway System]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n AIDEA has a record of successful projects from the Ketchikan shipyard to the Skagway dock, and of course, the Red Dog Mine.<\/p>\n AIDEA at present is working on two important projects that can open two extensive mining districts and potentially add several new mines to those mines now operating in Alaska.<\/p>\n The Ambler Road Project involves a proposed road from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. This Ambler Access project could add four new mines to Alaska’s economy at no cost to the state because AIDEA would invest its own money, issue bonds and seek private partners to pay for the construction and maintenance of the road. In return, the Ambler area mines using the road would pay a toll to AIDEA and its partners that would pay back the investment with interest. This is the same model that AIDEA used to develop the Delong Mountain Transportation System (DMTS), the road and port AIDEA financed to support the successful Red Dog Mine.<\/p>\n