By THE ALASKA STORY
A University of Alaska Anchorage think tank will present a comprehensive analysis of Alaska’s fiscal options Thursday morning in Juneau, in an event requested by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and focused entirely on the state’s long-term financial outlook.
The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) will host the “Analyses of State Fiscal Presentation Options” for legislators and the pubic at a forum at Centennial Hall in Juneau, beginning at 10 am. The event may be broadcast on KTOO/Gavel Alaska, making it accessible to the public statewide.
The presentation comes as Alaska lawmakers debate major fiscal policy questions involving spending growth, revenue structures, Permanent Fund sustainability, and long-term budget stability.
The agenda includes:
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Remarks from Gov. Mike Dunleavy
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Presentation of fiscal analyses by Dr. Brett Watson, ISER economist
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Q&A session with the ISER team — Drs. Brett Watson, Mike Jones, Brock Wilson, and Spencer Perry — moderated by Dr. Diane Hirshberg, with priority for questions will given to legislators and legislative staff
ISER, based at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is one of the state’s leading economic research institutions and frequently provides modeling and fiscal projections used by lawmakers and state agencies.
The forum is expected to draw legislators, administration officials, policy staff, Juneau lobbyists and public observers.
2 thoughts on “ISER to present fiscal analysis at Juneau forum at request of Gov. Dunleavy”
The State of Alaska has an estimated 100 economists, economics professors and economics instructors on the payroll. They keep their heads down during Republican administrations to then suddenly bloom when a Democrat is elected. Some teach, and some simply regurgitate federal data – data available to everyone. I expect that if 50 of those 100 stopped coming to work tomorrow morning no one would ever notice but their supervisors. If someone obtains an economics degree and wants to wear a suit but work only 40 hours a week they go to work for a bank. If someone obtains an economics degree, wants to work only 40 hour weeks but wear blue jeans they go to work for government, sometimes at state universities. If someone obtains an economics degree, work a 37.5 hour week, join a union, and wear blue jeans most of the time they go to work for government in Alaska.
In the 65 years ISER’s been around, what have they accomplished?
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Should productive residents be thankful that, because of ISER, things aren’t worse than they are now?
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Where, for example, was ISER while Alaska’s education industry was failing into one of America’s most expensive and worst performing?
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Where was ISER while Alaska’s election and grand-jury systems were corrupted into what they are today?
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What’s ISER except a gaggle of state-sponsored data shufflers, trotted out like vaudevillians to dramatize every bad thing that’ll happen to Alaskan society, education, oil, and life in general if our lobbyist-legislator team doesn’t pass a tax against somebody?
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Seems mean to say so, but c’mon, who pays their bills, could the lobbyist-legislator team fire them, or worse, cut their budget, if ISER recommends a top-to-bottom forensic audit of state finances and management practices with a view to DOGE’ing hell out of everything -before- engaging in any delphi-meeting chatter about long-term financial outlook?
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Delphi-meeting chatter? What else could this be but a meeting with a predetermined outcome? Guv wants to stiff productive residents with income and sales taxes, despite the fact that was never, constitutionally speaking, his job. Guv’s okay being the whipping boy for legislators who want the same thing ’cause he’s not running for re-election, but may need their endorsement for, say, Senator Dunleavy.
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Priority for their carefully prepared, probably pre-submitted questions will given to legislators and legislative staff, probably so ISER folks can respond with carefully prepared, probably pre-submitted answers
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…at the end of which a collective sigh will fill the room as folks realize the only way to reward their leaders who brought the state to the brink of financial collapse is to stiff productive residents (not bums, non-profits, or Native corporations) with sales and income taxes.