Thanks to Alex Gimarc for the link to Open-the-Steese.org, an organization established to oppose the Democrat Knowles Administration's "Washington Monument strategy" to force the almost totally Republican Legislature to spend more money on unnecessary state government programs.
In response to the Legislature's initial refusal to give Knowles the money he demanded (undoubtedly in hopes of trying to buy votes in this fall's gubernatorial election for Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer who wants to be Gore to his Clinton), the administration cut snow removal funds for 70 roads in heavily Republican Interior Alaska. The only state highway on the list is the Steese Highway, which is one of only three in Alaska to extend to the Yukon River. Over 100 residents of remote communities will be stranded this winter if the cuts are not restored.
Knowles and his supporters are of course blaming the Republicans in the Legislature, who have no binding say whatsoever on where the administration allocates funds; this is entirely an arbitrary act by the Governor and his administration to make the fiscal situation impact people where it hurts, in hopes they'll vote Democrat in November.
Of particular interest to me is this assertion at Open-the-Steese.org:
Even more unfortunately, this all appears to be part of a larger effort to put pressure on Alaskans to allow state government access to Permanent Fund earnings, or to approve a state sales tax or a state income tax. Lately we've all been hearing much about our so-called "budget shortfall" or "budget deficit," but in fact Alaska currently enjoys a quite healthy potential surplus - almost $8 billion, not including the Permanent Fund.
(Emphasis mine).
If this assessment is valid, then much of my gloominess about Alaska's fiscal future is unwarranted.
