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Carhartts and Xtratufs Ball — get tickets here!

Governor discusses 'roadshow' and fiscal plan

  Gov. Mike Dunleavy was in town Monday to make a presentation about his proposed fiscal plan. He stopped by the KDLL studios after speaking to the Industry Support Alliance luncheon and before his planned comments at the Cannery Lodge.

KDLL’s Jay Barrett asked Dunleavy about the arrangements for what he’s calling his “road show,” which were done by the Koch Brothers’ Americans For Prosperity PAC.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy — “They decided that they would be able to get venues for us and set up some of the logistics for the folks who were coming to the meetings and so we took the offer.”

KDLL — “There's been some criticism about some of the requirements of the fine print that they have, to allow people in.”

Gov. — “I, I'm not sure what, I mean I'm not sure what the criticismthere were.”

KDLL — “You know, like anybody can be photographed by them and then used in their material. Any photographs taken belong to him.”

Gov. — “Okay. I wasn't aware of those particulars. But anyway, they just, they offered we accepted it. We're doing roadshows with chamber of commerce, for example, every day, we go somewhere where with a chamber or some business group, and in an Anchorage, we have AFP helping us out in terms of providing a venue. So a bunch of different groups we're working with.”

KDLL — “Well, what's the response been to your presentation?”

Gov. — “You know, that's avery good question. Basically, it's 'glad you're here.' It's a little different than what the newspapers are saying is what we get. Once we lay this out and explain it with the graphs, where we were on the spending history for the state of Alaska, what we do with money when we come into big windfalls like we did in the 80s. And here just a few years ago, how we spend that and how we continually have a budget deficit, a gap of about 1.6 billion between revenues and expenditures, and how we're going to solve it. People are very appreciative, because right now they're getting one side of the story.”

KDLL — “Well, here's your opportunity. What's your side?”

Gov. — “Our side is that we do have a $1.6 billion gap. The other side, their solution is to continue doing what we've always been doing. And that's continue to spend at these levels. Our contention is that we can't afford spending at these levels, for example, between about 1989 to 2006, our budget was basically flat at about two, two and a half percent a year, then ‘07, we had that spike in oil that stayed with this for several years, got up to about $153 a barrel. At one point, we came into a huge windfall. And if you remember, there was a sticker. That was a bumper sticker says, ‘Please, please, God give us one more Prudhoe Bay blank, blank blank.’ That sticker came out before that increase in 2007. So we came into that windfall. And what we did was we spent it, if you were to look at a graph, and we have graphs in this packet, if we were to stay on a trajectory of two to two and a half percent spend per year, all the way through oh seven to today, we would have been able to save approximately $29 billion that we spent during ‘07 to this date, today. We can say about 100 or excuse me $29 billion, that $29 billion could provide a free electricity for all the Alaskans, Alaskans for eternity, could have fed the homeless, could have paid off all our pension bonds, or excuse me, our pension obligations, all our bond debt, could have built a railroad to Canada could build 14 size-Anchorage ports all over the state of Alaska, that opportunity is gone. And it was spent, because the budgets the revenue that we got, we created programs and we increase spending that absorb that absorb that revenue.”

KDLL — “I don't know if you've heard any of the testimony from the house finance committee meetings that we're going on around the state. Seems to be a lot of people willing to give up all or part of their PFDs to help the state out. Where do you stand on that idea?”

Gov. — “If that's the people of Alaska want to do, I'm willing to I'm willing to entertain that. But what our contention is we do that through an advisory vote so that all Alaskans can weigh in not just the ones that go to the meetings, but all Alaskans can weigh in. And you know, my contention is also been no change, no change to the permanent fund PFD unless all Alaskans get to weigh in on a constitutional amendment. I happen to think that's probably a very good idea since politicions, go and ask the people of Alaska for their votes. Why not give all the people in Alaska an opportunity, not just the individuals that make it to a meeting or can get to meeting? It's a big state with a lot of Alaskans.”

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