As his last term as borough mayor has been winding down, Mike Navarre has said he wanted to have a role in Juneau, working on the state’s budget problems.
This week, Governor Bill Walker appointed Navarre to Commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, where he says his focus will be on talking about the budget.
“I think that’s going to be a big part of my initial role; communicating with the public and other interest groups and the various factions that have been talking about the need for a fiscal plan, but (with) no real coordinated effort, despite the Governor’s best efforts. I’m going to try to help with that.”
He says that doesn’t mean pushing only a broad-based tax, like an income or sales tax.
“I think he’s open to other suggestions or options, but we can’t just keep spending down our savings and then hoping that something comes along that bails us out.
Something like a sudden rebound in oil prices. While there’s no indication that prices will go up very much very soon, there’s a contingent in Juneau that isn’t as interested in replacing that oil revenue as it is with balancing the budget through more cuts in spending.
“I think there’s ways that you can craft solutions that have built in contingencies to them, meaning if prices or production are much higher than expected, then you can dial back some of the revenue measures you’ve put in place. But you have to put them in place initially in order to spend the spending from reserves. When the reserves are gone, then we change what is a fairly big problem into a crisis. And when you deal with things in crisis mode, it’s much more difficult.”
Navarre will be in his current office until after a runoff election on Tuesday, October 24th. He’ll start in his new position next month where he succeeds Chris Hladick, who has been tapped by the Trump administration for a position with the EPA.