Forum Discussion
- garyhauptExplorerI am shocked...truly shocked.
Gary Haupt - _en_Plain_Air_ExplorerCould be a mess. In January, we booked four legs on the ferry part of our southbound trip in August. Might need to start thinking about a Plan B. Could be horrible for the small communities that depend on tourism for their economic survival.
- MissouriBirdExplorerWe have paid in full reservations for Northbound from Prince Rupert with stops in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Haines and Skagway to start on July 2, traveling with our pickup and TT. Looks like those may be in great danger of getting canceled. Makes me sick--not only for ourselves but for all of the businesses in that part of Alaska that depend on the Ferry service. This could be disasterous for the natives of that area.
- Tee_JayExplorerLooks like the Alaska Fiscal Year is July 1 to end June. The Legislature has a week to run and will produce a budget. That gives the State agencies, including the Marine Highway, 2 plus months to plan and implement whatever changes are needed. Who knows, they may actually do that in an orderly manner. The Legislature may add funds, or not. BUT, the Marine Highway has to deal with unexpected system failures regularly, such as losing a ferry to mechanical issues or loss of dock space for any reason. You may want to consider giving them the opportunity to do the right thing.
- MissouriBirdExplorerHave to wonder how much of this is a game of "chicken" being played by politicians. Makes no sense to me to cut services during the peak of tourist season when so many throughout the region depend on those dollars for their businesses. I feel really bad for what this is doing to their potential for a good summer.
- joe_b_Explorer IIThe bottom line is that revenues for the State of Alaska continue to fall. Since the oil started flowing from the North Slope to Valdez, in the early 70s, the government of Alaska has been spending money like a bunch of drunken sailors. The money is running out and hard decisions have to be made, school funds look like they will be cut back along with all other divisions.
There have been a couple of bills introduced to start taxing Alaska residents, with an income tax and an excise tax. I can almost hear the screams over that idea. LOL I haven't spent much time with the full budget as it is floating around the halls in Juneau but it appears they are planning to dip into the reserve funds, not a good long range plan in my opinion. Interest earned on the reserve funds is a large part of the revenues the State earns each year, so to spend off some of the reserves doesn't seem smart to me, but they didn't ask me. LOL
There have been several new expenditures proposed by the administration that will add new costs.
Alaska tends to be a bit strange politically.. Most all revenues come from the rural areas of the state, fishing, timber, oil and mining, but the majority of Alaska residents live in the Anchorage Bowl area, so the political power resides in the Anchorage Bowl. Sort of a reverse Robin Hood arrangement So are the political powers in Anchorage going to be too worried about the SE tourist businesses, you can guess the answer about that, I bet. Most of the tourist businesses are not Alaska owned, including the cruise ships. - PA12DRVRExplorer"Since the oil started flowing from the North Slope to Valdez, in the early 70s, the government of Alaska has been spending money like a bunch of drunken sailors." YEP...THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING....IMNSHO....CAUSED A SEA CHANGE IN ALASKA
"There have been a couple of bills introduced to start taxing Alaska residents, with an income tax and an excise tax. I can almost hear the screams over that idea.": YEP....BUT HAVING LIVED IN TEXAS AND WASHINGTON STATE....AK RESIDENTS HAVE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT EVEN WITH INCOME TAX ...AND WE USED TO HAVE IT.
"There have been several new expenditures proposed by the administration that will add new costs." YEP...PANDERING TO A CERTAIN CROWD BY THE GOVERNOR IMNSHO. NO DIFFERENT THAN SP WOULD PANDER TO A DIFFERENT CROWD.
Alaska's in trouble but maybe something like this will finally stop the spend cycle.
...and pigs will really fly. - bob_nestorExplorer III
PA12DRVR wrote:
Alaska's in trouble but maybe something like this will finally stop the spend cycle.
...and pigs will really fly.
The real problems for Alaska started in 1959 with Statehood when the population of lawyers started to exceed the population of moose. - joe_b_Explorer III believe I paid Alaska Income tax and School tax from the first summer I worked in Nome, 1962 till about 1974. Not sure of the ending date of the income tax but early 70s sometimes. Because so many seasonal jobs exist in Alaska, it was always difficult for the state to know who was working there or not.
A large number of folks have always lived out of state, worked for an out of state company, and commuted to work in Alaska. Usually these companies had contracts with the federal government so the state never knew they were working in Alaska. Hard to get those people on the tax lists, even when the state had an income tax. The fishing fleet is much the same but many of the cannery employees are foreign citizens, brought over just to work the summer and the go back home. Approximately 95% of all the Alaska canneries are now foreign owned and operated.
Very few Alaska residents are employed in the Alaska tourists industries. The cruise ships are a good example, they are owned and headquartered out of state, all fuel, food, etc., are purchased in their headquartered state, usually Washington. The hotels they own, the employees of those hotels , bus drivers, etc are seldom Alaska year around residents. Many of the tour bus drivers and guides may have been in Alaska less time than you have driving your RV.
Unless new revenue sources develop, such as a new oil field or two, a natural gas pipeline south to the Lower 48, within just a few short years, Alaska is going to be in a world of hurt.
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