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For Immediate Release May 10, 2021
Contact: Cassandra Day, 530 340 2185, Cassandra@AlaskaPolicyForum.org
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In order for Alaska to control its state budget, government should practice priority–based budgeting the same way small businesses, family units, and individual citizens often do, as proposed by a new Alaska Policy Forum economic report.
The report, It’s Time for a Responsible Alaska Budget, written by Vance Ginn, Ph.D. and APF’s Quinn Townsend, explains how Alaska’s budgets since 2006 have been unsustainable, and recommends the best way to resolve the issue is to revise the state spending cap.
The key to determining the best “cap” each year is by adding adjustment for inflation to overall population growth. This formula will allow legislators to create a data-based target year-after-year that prevents the state from spending more money than is sustainable.
“Our leaders owe it to Alaskans to carefully analyze every penny of state spending and to reduce waste whenever possible. The Legislature should agree to stay under the limit of a Responsible Alaska Budget to put The Last Frontier back on a sustainable fiscal path. We must ensure Alaska’s children and grandchildren will have the same economic opportunities as past generations.”
Quinn Townsend, Policy Manager at Alaska Policy Forum
According to the report, in order to continue living in a relatively tax-free state, the best Constitutionally and fiscally responsible option is to use APF’s simple and effective formula every year for a Responsible Alaska Budget. View the evidence here.
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Alaska Policy Forum (APF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to empowering and educating Alaskans and policymakers by promoting policies that grow freedom for all. APF does not accept any form of government funding. To learn more about APF, visit www.AlaskaPolicyForum.org.