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<\/a><\/p>\n… to attend a 2-day professional conference. Just now I got a text from her. She’s enduring\u00a0a talk on targeted therapy in lung cancer and hopes I’m enjoying something more interesting. I texted back and said “Your latte’s getting cold.” I added a sad-faced emoji.<\/p>\n
In fact I’m holding up well. It’s the weekend, a fine day outside, I’m into my second coffee and the dog is resting near my feet. Speaking of whom – he was recently voted Dog of The Month at his Doggie Day care. He goes there twice a week. Now when I arrive to pick him up I announce I’m here to pick up Mr. September<\/em>. So far the stardom doesn’t seem to have\u00a0gone to his head. For our part the award included\u00a0three free days of care, a one hundred dollar value. I know, right – expensive!\u00a0<\/em>Our strategy is to get him good and tired\u00a0twice\u00a0a week (M-Th), which\u00a0seems to work most of the time. Sometimes, though, it’s like he’s slept all day, because he has an alarming amount of energy left when he gets home. The Day Care has supervised quiet time<\/em> twice daily where the toys are put away, the lights lowered, and the dogs are commanded\u00a0to rest. (Think Kindergarten sans the half pint of milk). And supposedly they actually do. How the staff manages this with twenty dogs or more\u00a0I don’t know. We struggle with getting one<\/em> dog to lay down and chill. My suspicion is Mr. September\u00a0sometimes oversleeps and, consequently, comes home\u00a0well-rested. On these nights he enjoys leaping onto the couch with us with his favorite ball in mouth causing precious volumes of martini to go splashing everywhere.<\/p>\n You look at our state up there and you may think, my, what a grand place to live. In many respects it is, certainly the ones that matter to us the most. Yet trouble is knocking at the door. The government is facing a huge budget deficit, about 4.0 billion – yes, billion<\/em> – and seems, so far (and not unexpectedly), rather inept when it comes to identifying\u00a0acceptable solutions to\u00a0fix it. The problem has one real cause – the low price of oil, currently\u00a0about ~$45\/barrel. Actually, I might mention a second cause, the government’s improvidence, which is an affliction of all governments so far as I know, so less an acute cause and more an ongoing systemic problem.<\/p>\n Although… once upon a time the Alaska government, contrary to its usual thriftless nature,\u00a0did<\/em> acknowledge it was a good idea to save for the future. I’m getting to that.<\/p>\n Taxes, of course, are on the table<\/em> for discussion. Most Alaskans reel at the thought of an income tax. Especially those with an income. (Those without an income seem disproportionately in favor of it). Alaskans\u00a0would prefer the lion’s share of government continue to be paid for by oil and gas revenues (taxes, fees, royalties, etc.), but at $45\/barrel that option is no longer on\u00a0the table<\/em>. Never mind the (known) volume of oil on the North Slope continues to decline steadily. So even at a higher price the state would be dealing with budget woes, albeit less dire than what it’s facing today. Revenues from a state income tax would help<\/em> the current budget crisis, but alone would be far too little to solve it. There’s only about 700 thousand people who live here, fewer who would be subject to an income tax. After subtracting the cost of the bureaucracy needed to administer an income tax (collection, enforcement, reporting, etc.), the government would likely\u00a0see far fewer net dollars flowing into its coffers than expected.<\/p>\n The other option to pay for government is to use the State’s savings plan\u00a0I alluded to earlier, the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF). At least until the price of oil goes back up, and surely it will (please tell me it will). There’s about $50 billion – yes, billion<\/em> – in the APF, and the reason it was setup way back when (’72 if memory serves) was for this very reason – to pay for government when the oil runs out. I say simply amend the mission statement for the fund to include: “Or when the price of oil gets suddenly and perilously low.” Viola! Problem solved. Okay, easier said than done, maybe, but\u00a0it seems an obvious solution (it does\u00a0to me), and probably the only real solution. Unfortunately, tapping the APF to pay for government right now has been widely\u00a0regarded\u00a0like a fart in church. Some of the\u00a0reasons for this\u00a0are:<\/p>\n So, if\u00a0it’s no to taxes and no to tapping the APF, what options are left? None so far as I can see. The loudest conservative\u00a0voices say cut government spending. While I agree that’s prudent, it\u00a0should be<\/em> an ongoing goal\u00a0of the\u00a0government, not something expected to save us from going over the fiscal cliff. Besides, I heard somewhere we could cut government\u00a0spending by 90% and it wouldn’t be nearly enough to overcome the deficit. That’s how important oil revenue is up here.<\/p>\n…<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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