November 2016 – Welcome

Elections over, but grim fiscal outlook remains

November 22, 2016

A bump in oil price average will increase state revenues by $190 million this fiscal year, state budget officials told us, but the overall picture hasn’t improved. Meanwhile, the state’s fall revenue and oil production forecast, state economists’ best guess for the near future, is due out in early December. A somewhat higher oil price average over forecasts should result in a gain of $190 million in state revenue in Fiscal Year 2017 if the trend holds, we were told,…

Oil taxes again on the Legislature’s agenda for 2017

November 10, 2016

This issue has embroiled the Legislature for several years now and it looks like 2017 will be a repeat. Gov. Bill Walker argues that there is unfinished business, with changes still needed that were not done in a 2016 overhaul of the state oil tax incentive program. This will be a hot-button issue once again, and its outcome will be influenced by how the Legislature organizes. The new coalition House organization will likely favor changes in the tax code, while…

Elections over: House, Senate organize

November 10, 2016

The 2016 election is over, with results that stunned the nation. We’ll comment separately on how the national changes will affect Alaska, but we can’t resist passing on a report from Politico that Donald Trump may consider Sarah Palin for Secretary of the Interior. Alaska went Republican as expected, heavily favoring Trump. Lisa Murkowski and Don Young were returned to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. All of the 40 members of the state House were up for reelection as…