One of my biggest laughs of the midterm elections was evinced by a local Republican on the campaign trail declaring that he would “run Alaska like a business.” At the same time, he championed a big, fat Permanent Fund dividend, continued oil subsidies and absolutely no taxes. “Alaskans,” he repeated a well-practiced line, “are being taxed to death!”
To the latter point, the Conservative Tax Foundation begs to differ. Alaskans pay no sales tax or income tax to support their state government. We are at the top of the list of “least taxed” states in the Union, having the lowest per-capita tax burden in the nation.
As for running the state “like a business,” show me a business running a cash-flow deficit that would declare a “dividend” to shareholders. Show me a business case where it makes sense to transfer cash assets and equity to an outside corporation, creating a negative income statement and a loss of equity in the balance sheet. On the other hand, I have read case studies of businesses making a capital call upon shareholders to shore up an operating deficit. Instead of a PFD, every PFD applicant should be billed $1,000; that would reduce school closures.
The truth is that the last thing Alaskans want is a hard-headed businessman as governor. Since the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the military filled this state with “outsiders,” our motto has changed from “The Last Frontier” to “Alaska, Land of the Free … loader.”
— Elstun W. Lauesen
Anchorage
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