Showing posts with label alaska budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alaska budget. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2018
To Speaker Edgmon Part 2 of 3
3/31/2018
To: Representative Bryce Edgmon, Speaker of the House,
District 37
Re. Questions About Your Presser Comments On 3/28/2018
PART 2/3…
You also alluded to previous votes
on the PFD allocation in the Operating Budget... votes that You concurred with
as a member of the previous house majority.
This leads to our next comment on your statement about the need for a
‘balanced approach’. Mr. Speaker, a
balanced approach must also include cutting revenue demand and not voting
unconstitutionally to spend money that Alaska does not have. We provided millions upon millions of dollars
in cuts to the previous and present majority coalitions only to be ignored,
demeaned and deleted. Yes, Representative
Edgmon, you are 100% correct in saying that you “don’t know what the voters want.”
Did you know that over 5000 people have signed a petition
asking that SJR1/HJR34 be put to the public for consideration, numerous polls
conducted by legislators and citizen groups have been forwarded to the
legislature and untold numbers of testimonies submitted that have encouraged
budget cuts… all obviously to no avail.
One thing that’s become beyond obvious is that the Alaska State
Legislature is operating in an unconstitutional manner by incurring debt upon
our future income for perpetual wasteful expenditures.
Constitutional
Reminders:
Article IX - § 8. State
Debt
No state debt shall be contracted unless authorized by law for
capital improvements or unless authorized by law for housing loans for
veterans, and ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of the State who
vote on the question. The State may, as provided by law and without
ratification, contract debt for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing
insurrection, defending the State in war, meeting natural disasters, or
redeeming indebtedness outstanding at the time this constitution becomes
effective.
§ 12. Budget
The governor shall submit to the legislature, at a time fixed by
law, a budget for the next fiscal year setting forth all proposed expenditures
and anticipated income of all departments, offices, and agencies of the State.
The governor, at the same time, shall submit a general appropriation bill to
authorize the proposed expenditures, and a bill or bills covering
recommendations in the budget for new or additional revenues.
§ 13. Expenditures
No money shall be withdrawn from the treasury except in
accordance with appropriations made by law. No obligation for the payment of
money shall be incurred except as authorized by law. Unobligated appropriations
outstanding at the end of the period of time specified by law shall be void.
How many of the deficit budgets over the last decade have
you voted for?
How many credits to outside and foreign companies did you
vote for that Alaska is now indebted to?
Thanks,
Jon Corbett, Dillingham Alaska
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| CLICK THE PIC TO READ THE #HANDSOFFOURPFD BUDGET IDEAS |
Part 1/3: https://jonrcorbett.blogspot.com/2018/03/to-speaker-edgmon-part-1-of-3.html?m=1
Thursday, May 18, 2017
With Or Without What?
So I made the claim that my Alaska House Rep had said something along the lines of 'with or without the public's consent' when asked about how the Alaska Legislature is going to address the fiscal fiasco. I got a few messages saying that that was not what he said.
Here Ya' Go Folks, In His Own Words:
https://www.facebook.com/ProtectThePFD/videos/717184275131948/
Here Ya' Go Folks, In His Own Words:
https://www.facebook.com/ProtectThePFD/videos/717184275131948/
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Simple Math 101*
Hypothetical Situation:
Let’s say there’s a community with a population of 2500 people that have
an employment participation of about 1200.
Then let’s say that the average income is about $50,000.00. Under the current flavor of the proposed
income tax bill, an Alaskan earning $50000 will pay about $620 filing jointly
or $800 filing singly. *** Now, multiply the median of those tax liability
numbers (710) with the number of taxpayers (1200) and you come up with $852,000.00*.
That’s how much money would be pulled from the private
sector and sent directly to the government.
If one considers that maybe 50% of that amount would be spent in local
commerce and taxed at 6%, the revenue loss to a municipality would be about $25,000.00*
initially.
Now… Let’s also throw in the removal of say $1,000.00 of
Permanent Fund Dividend money. Although
the exact numbers are difficult, with a somewhat transitional population, let’s
say that 2/3s of the 2500 receive a PFD, What we get is:
2500 X .66 = 1650 X
$1000 = $1,650,000.00 X .5 (local spending) = 825,000 X 6% Sales Tax = $49500
Lost Tax Revenue*
Approximate Annual Tax Revenue Loss under the current
legislative plan: $75000**
Local Spending Reduction Estimate Totals:
Income Tax $426000*
Dividend
Reduction +825000*
Total: $1,251,000 removed from the local economy.*
* This number does not reflect the commerce multiplier. That multiplier would indicate that monies
revolve through a community and have more than just one impact point upon local
taxes and general economic strength. The
multiplier tends to be higher in rural or isolated communities and could even
indicate that the actual impact upon an Alaska Bush community would be much
more critical.
** The taxing authority will be looking to replace that lost
income with a new or modified revenue source.
This will also serve to reduce the monies in the local economy and fall
under the impacts aforementioned multiplier, thus negatively impacting the local
economy even more.
***Income Tax numbers were culled from an email that was
sent out in a press release from the Alaska House Republicans on March 28, 2017.
Monday, March 20, 2017
What Cuts...Can Alaskans Get Some #FactNotFiction?
Last year during the 29th Alaska State
Legislature, the notion of using a portion of the Permanent Fund profits
normally allocated to pay out the annual dividend was floated by several
legislators and the Governor. These
circumstances came out of a decade of above-inflation deficit spending,
lopsided agreements with oil companies and government growth. Immediately into fray supporting grabbing
more money from Alaskans was a coalition of corporate interests that all stand
to benefit from the continued growth of Our government. The other company he mentioned was Lynden. Both of these companies stand to lose big
bucks as state spending is reduced, so of course it benefits them for the
budget to be funded as much as possible, thus there support for the coalition
of businesses calling themselves, Alaska’s Future.
Almost immediately a resistance to this idea sprung up and
multiple outlets were established to amplify the voices of Alaskans. However, those voices were quite frankly
ignored. Petitions were presented and
people spoke out in groves against the path being taken by Our representatives
way down there in Juneau. Readers should
check out this link: http://protectthepfd.com/currently/monday-memothank-you-alaskans
from last April.
Only 13% of the legislators even bothered to read an email
containing signatures and comments from 100 Alaskans. That petition eventually garnered 860+
signatures and was forwarded to the Alaska Legislature and Governor’s
Office. We have no way of knowing what
happened to it once there other than the fact that Governor Walker did in fact
veto about half of the funds to payout the PFD in 2016. This action was contrary to his position as a
populist candidate that wasn’t supposed to do business as usual in Juneau. Petition Link: https://www.change.org/p/calling-on-alaskans-to-stop-the-alaska-governor-legislature-from-using-the-permanent-fund-for-deficit-spending
Fast Forward to the 30th Alaska Legislature…
During a Town Hall event at the local LIO on March 18, 2017;
Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon mentioned that he had met with several large
business interests that relayed to him that they had in fact seen a decrease in
their Alaska operations. One in
particular that stood out was Alaska Airlines.
Edgmon went onto to say that the airline company attributed it mainly to
the reduction of ‘state travel’. During
this same exchange he also mentioned the “work” being done by Alaska’s Future
and The Rasmussen Foundation, both advocates of using PFD funds and new taxes
to fund growing government. And Growing
Government is exactly what Alaskans are getting… that ‘hard work of making
cuts’ as claimed by the Legislature is a sham.
In the graph below with was created using the figures as
provided by the Alaska Governor’s Office of Management & Budget, one can
clearly see that the State of Alaska’s budget isn’t being cut at all and is
growing faster than inflation. All that’s happened is a shell game of shifting
money around.
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| #FactNotFiction |
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Just A Little Pebble Reminder...
As various organizations are gathering to testify and lobby the Alaska State Legislature on the merits or demerits of the exploration and development of the proposed Pebble Project by a foreign corporation in the spawning grounds and headwaters of the Bristol Bay Fishery... Let's remind the representatives of We The People of Alaska what the legacy of PLP's operations was just 5 and a half years ago.
Friday, May 20, 2016
I Wonder Why...
I Wonder Why...
…didn’t a single legislator introduce a bill that said something like this:
"An Act eliminating the funding of any vacant positions within the government of the State of Alaska and providing for an effective date." ‽
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I Wonder Why...
…didn’t a single legislator introduce a bill that said something like this:
"An Act eliminating the funding of any vacant positions within the government of the State of Alaska and providing for an effective date." ‽
|
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
ALEC & Alaska...
ALEC & Alaska…
The American Legislative
Exchange Council,
otherwise known by the acronym ALEC, is a non-profit 501(c) political organization established
in 1973 in Chicago. The legislative members are state and federal legislators.
It is a forum to allow the members to write model laws and discuss legislative
language with other members. ALEC meetings are an opportunity for the corporate
and non-profit leaders to meet and provide feedback to legislators. Member
legislators can then use these model bills as templates for their own bills.
The short video below shows a
recent investigation done by Atlanta NBC Affiliate 11 Alive is very revealing
about how ALEC works.
I had seen the ALEC Acronym
floating around and knew that it was an organization whose actions and
affiliations are circumspect. SO, in
this election year and of particular concern is the recent failures of Alaska’s
Legislature, I decided to look into whom in Juneau is involved with this ‘educational
charity’. I went to their website and
found that ALEC’s Alaska State Chair is District 10 Representative Wes Keller. But over the past few years, quite a few
legislators have been involved with ALEC and with pushing ALEC approved
agendas.
·
Rep. Mia Costello - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
·
Rep. Bob Lynn - Public Safety and Elections Task
Force
·
Rep. Cathy E. Munoz - Commerce,
Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
·
Sen. John B. Coghill, Jr. - International Relations Task Force
·
Sen. Fred Dyson - ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force member,
attended 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting
·
Sen. Anna I. Fairclough - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
·
Sen. Catherine A. Giessel - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
·
Sen. Lesil McGuire - Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
The last three names on
the AK ALEC list are the most interesting though. As Legislative Members of the Tax and Fiscal
Policy Task Force, they commit to further legislation that adheres to the
direction that ALEC members endorse. Generally
ALEC’s fiscal direction is in favor of larger corporations. ALEC strongly advocates and lobbies for state
fiscal policies that benefit corporate interests over that of individual
citizens and small businesses.
Through ALEC, corporations voted bills to rewrite the tax code that would increase their profits or the riches of their CEOs by: Helping the richest of the rich get richer, through Opposing windfall profits taxes on energy companies, like Exxon Mobil and BP (oil companies have been reporting out of this world profits while American workers struggle to make ends meet). Can anyone say Alaska Senate Bill 21 and the opposition to the public outcry and subsequent Vote to repeal that legislation?
Now Fast Forward… the Alaska Legislature is currently
heading towards voting to pay out money to energy companies that are ALEC
Donors than it takes in from the industry.
Wes Keller Quote… “"I am proposing exploration of model
legislation that has both industry and public priorities on the table. I have
asked the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization
uniquely qualified to explore this goal. ALEC action would include vetting of
the issue in a multi-state context."
Wes
Keller Quote… “Keller
said he likes that the private sector has a vote in crafting the group's model
legislation.“
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| ALEC Donor Members |
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
#ProtectThePFD
Here's the petition I penned for the #ProtectThePFD effort... There's a link to where it can be signed at the bottom.
LETTER TO
Alaska Governor
Alaska State House
Alaska State Senate
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