By Sentinel Staff
Gov. Dunleavy released his 10-year 2020-2029 fiscal plan for Alaska Thursday.
“The plan is based on projected revenues from the spring 2019 revenue forecast, the administration’s proposed balanced budget, and the enactment of the administration’s legislative package to create a permanent and sustainable fiscal plan,” the governor’s office said in a news release.
“We can’t continue to spend more money than we have,” Dunleavy said in the press statement. “My plan represents a vision of a smaller state government, with more money in the pockets of Alaskans while laying the foundation for new private sector investment and the new jobs that come with it. While reductions in State services are understandably difficult choices to make, Alaska must implement a permanent fiscal plan to get the economy moving again.”
Along with an outline of the budgets for future years, which are similar to the one he has proposed for 2020, the fiscal plan document contains three “alternative approaches,” including broad based taxes and reduction of Permanent Fund dividends, that were included to demonstrate how they would fail to meet Dunleavy’s objectives.
“The additional scenarios do not reduce the size of government,” the news release said. “Instead, those alternatives make up the revenue shortfall over the next decade through PFD cuts, emptying reserve accounts, or imposing broad-based taxes that take billions of dollars from Alaskan families and the private sector economy.
“These alternatives clearly demonstrate there is no easy, simple solution to addressing the state’s budget deficit,” the governor said in the statement. “Every option comes at a cost. I believe the plan my administration put forward is what the people voted for when they elected me.”
The 2020-2029 10-year plan is available on the Alaska Office of Management and Budget website at www.omb.alaska.gov.
