The Weekly Top 3

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of December 4, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss a recent article from Nat Herz that adds another piece to the Cook Inlet gas puzzle (2:14); 2) we look at whether the Permanent Fund Board is still headed off the rails (19:34); and 3) we explain why...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of November 27, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we start to analyze what we believe likely will be the bellwether legislative race this coming election cycle (2:00); 2) we look at the way some are starting to sharpen the issues around this coming legislative...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of November 20, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what we will be looking for in the Administration's upcoming FY25 budget & 10-year outlook (2:07); 2) we explain why, although Juneau appears to understand the consequences of the problem, they don't...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of November 13, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) first it was the Alaska House Coalition, now it's Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum who's misleading Alaskans (2:02); 2) while the updates from North Slope projects Willow and Pikka are good, the ove...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of November 6, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how the Alaska House Coalition is lying to Alaskans (2:14); 2) we discuss why, after last week's developments, we're even more convinced the current Permanent Fund Board should be sunset and replaced...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets — for the week of October 30, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) reflecting on the Administration’s recent proposals to subsidize Cook Inlet gas, we ask whether Alaska Republicans have given up on the free market (2:06); 2) we examine yet another pitch by Alaska Democrats for...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of October 23, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) in response to those who claim it's the PFD at fault for the current earnings reserve "problem," we do a side-by-side comparison of the payments made out of the earnings reserve for inflation proofing and the PF...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of October 16, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the Permanent Fund Board's proposal to change the structure of the Permanent Fund; to us, it represents the attempted completion of a triple play - first, the legislature came for savings, then they c...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of October 9, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how many talk a good game about "building the Alaska economy" but then turn around and use the revenue tool that has the "largest adverse impact" on it (2:08); 2) we discuss why it's time to start thin...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of September 25, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss a recent article confirming that there will be no special session this fall on a fiscal plan, the ADN editorial board's reaction to that and ours as well (2:06); 2) we discuss our problem with the D...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of September 18, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the double standard employed by the ADN editorial board when addressing the issue of "fairness" in various contexts (2:15); 2) we explain the hypocrisy inherent in Sen. Cathy Giessel's call for new...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of September 11, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why it's not just Democrats, but how Republicans also are pushing for increased spending (or reduced revenues) without addressing the issue of #WhoPays (2:10); 2) we explain why ANWR is political th...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of September 4, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) to provide context, we add some of the other things that should be considered when discussing the impact that the oil industry has on the Alaska economy (1:58); 2) we discuss what's missing from yet another leg...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of August 28, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the recent push to make subsidies for childcare yet another "must have" state program (2:02); 2) we discuss the recent wholesale change out by the Dunleavy Administration of all of the key players on f...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of August 21, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss Sen. Bert Stedman's bootstrapped and other fiscal red herrings he discussed in a recent radio interview (2:01); 2) we explain the problem with former Sen. Joe Paskavan's & others' "single focus" fiscal...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of August 14, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the Dunleavy Administration's apparent, and to us, disappointing decision not to call a special session on fiscal issues this Fall(1:57); 2) we discuss the Kabuki theater that various sides are making...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of August 7, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how PFDcuts have been used to buy the state's new higher bond rating, in other words, how it has been built on the back of middle & lower income Alaska families (2:03); 2) we discuss why it's significan...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of July 31, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) using a recent letter to the editor by former ISER head Gunnar Knapp as a take-off point, we look at the various Alaska disconnects - and there are several (2:05); 2) we discuss the potential impact of a broadening...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets — for the week of July 24, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) our periodic update on how oil prices and production are doing — this time as we start the new fiscal year — and what that might mean if the trends continue as the fiscal year plays out (2:06); 2) the $8 billion qu...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of July 17, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) why we think the Permanent Fund Corporation is being Chicken Little about the level of the earnings reserve account (2:02); 2) the elephant in the fiscal room that others are ignoring - who should pay for K-12 and...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of July 10, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) why we are concerned that Commissioner Adam Crum is politicizing the Department of Revenue's oil & gas tax function (1:58); 2) where we think Alaska Policy Forum has gone badly wrong in its assessment of this year'...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of June 26, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) the argument that's missing from the PFD discussions, even from its defenders (1:56); 2) some recent insight into what the budget issues are likely to be in the next #akleg session (19:52); and 3) a recent developm...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of June 19, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) why the real mega-dividends being distributed from Permanent Fund earnings are far different - and far bigger - than most think (2:17); 2) why our initial reaction to the Dunleavy veto message isn't very positive (...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of June 12, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) as we potentially face another, how Alaska can - and should - control the impact of oil price cycles on the state budget (2:17); 2) why we support a new ballot measure designed to impose campaign contribution limit...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets - for the week of June 5, 2023. This week our top 3 issues are these: 1) the #BigLie the Top20% keep spreading about the impact of various fiscal options on Alaska families and the economy (2:09); 2) what the Governor could do in handling the FY24 budget that would help protect the PFD a...