Post by Logan on Feb 5, 2016 20:35:22 GMT -6
If there’s one thing Alaska’s lawmakers agree on, it’s this: No single trick or approach will solve the state’s annual deficit, now approaching $4 billion.
Most of the 60 legislators working in the Capitol agree on something else. No single trick or approach will do as much to solve the deficit as using the investment earnings of the $48 billion Alaska Permanent Fund. What they don’t agree on - not by a long shot - is how to use those earnings.
On Thursday morning, the Alaska Senate State Affairs Committee began considering three approaches that put the Permanent Fund to work generating revenue for Alaska’s state government. One approach comes from an Anchorage legislator. Another comes from the governor. A third comes from one of the state’s leading economists.
“This is the tool that we should make sure to put in place first,” said University of Alaska Anchorage economist Scott Goldsmith of all three plans, “because it provides the biggest part of the solution in terms of dollar amounts.”
Read more: juneauempire.com/state/2016-02-05/lawmakers-three-options-tap-permanent-fund-earnings
Most of the 60 legislators working in the Capitol agree on something else. No single trick or approach will do as much to solve the deficit as using the investment earnings of the $48 billion Alaska Permanent Fund. What they don’t agree on - not by a long shot - is how to use those earnings.
On Thursday morning, the Alaska Senate State Affairs Committee began considering three approaches that put the Permanent Fund to work generating revenue for Alaska’s state government. One approach comes from an Anchorage legislator. Another comes from the governor. A third comes from one of the state’s leading economists.
“This is the tool that we should make sure to put in place first,” said University of Alaska Anchorage economist Scott Goldsmith of all three plans, “because it provides the biggest part of the solution in terms of dollar amounts.”
Read more: juneauempire.com/state/2016-02-05/lawmakers-three-options-tap-permanent-fund-earnings