The ongoing state budget fight is totally incomplete if it ignores the revenue side. The Legislature blaming Alaskans for most of the problem clearly omits much of the story.
Legislative leaders should remember that the Alaska Constitution requires that state resources be collected first for the public, not free private company capital.
For the Legislative majority, this is about preserving billions in tax breaks (that are really expenditures) and handing Alaska natural gas control over to oil companies. This is not about how much money there is — it’s very much about who the resource revenue is not collected from.
The Alaska’s Journal of Commerce’s blubbering over ExxonMobil and the LNG project ignores their major Saudi Arabian partner (and others) — the prime producers actively over pumping and forcefully keeping oil prices low to kill America energy independence.
The same Saudi’s whose behinds’ American warriors saved in the Iraq war, which Americans paid for in blood and trillions in American debt. Then there’s the sweetheart lease deal revisions Exxon got at Pt. Thompson, courtesy of Alaska officials (and a now senator). That’s how you own the U.S. Congress.
ExxonMobil and the good ole boys don’t really want natural gas before they decide it will benefit them because it interferes with amortizing their liquid oil investments. They demand control. While their Saudi friends kill domestic revenue, they lock up natural gas holdings through operatives like legislators. No conspiracy, just bare-knuckle politics and “business” in the real world.
Oil companies put their ownership and compensation first, not public interests. Alaska public elected officials are supposed to do that, not deliver free capital to corporations.
There can be no discussion of budget issues in Alaska without addressing the revenue side. To do otherwise is completely disingenuous. And no good crisis will go unused if the Legislature can stick it to the people by giving away more, create bigger cuts but ignore the massive resource revenues uncollected.
Rather than Alaska free private capital to businesses, Alaska should collect the revenue first, and then loan it to oil companies at the cost they would pay everywhere, like they do on Wall Street. To do otherwise is no more than private corporate welfare and corporate socialism.
We should act just like Saudi Arabia, Iran, China and Russia who get better deals. Corporations profit by supporting socialism and corporate welfare worldwide (China, Asia, just about anywhere in the world) and then insist on their brand of phony capitalism for Americans, while transferring jobs to the rest of the world.
As to claims of excess government spending, Alaska gets $1.86 back for every $1 it sends in tax revenue to the federal government. The state that gets the least back from the feds – California, – 79 cents for each dollar sent. The top ten “getters” of federal money are Red Republican states, mostly in the South. Mostly to make up for all the revenue giveaways.
That’s how it really works in the phony conservative, “we hate government” world. Seventy-five percent of the Alaska economy is government money, and the “private” businesses and their special interests profit more than handsomely from it.
But don’t blame this outcome on corporate minions. They are just doing what comes naturally when billions of dollars are involved and they have the insider track with the Legislature (and some former governors). It’s up to Alaskans to fight for it. That can’t happen with low voter turnout. Governor Bill Walker can’t do this on his own, and the present legislative leadership is not about to give up the money to the public versus their real employers.
If Alaskans are not going to fight for their future — stop whining, downsize, lower necessary public services, and accept the phony explanations — while groveling at the feet of those in authority, while they send state revenue, for free, to special interests. They will be glad to serve you more of the same. That’s exactly what Gov. Jay Hammond fought against. But greed and avarice don’t abate with time.
I will not apologize for wanting Alaskans to act like capitalists with their state natural resource wealth, and putting Alaska first. It’s time for equal partner business, not more corporate welfare.
• Anselm Staack is an active CPA and an attorney, who has been an Alaska resident for over 41 years. He was the Treasury Comptroller for Alaska under Gov. Jay Hammond and worked directly on the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.
