The Weekly Top 3

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3  -  our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week  -  for the week of March 30, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) the final budget passed Saturday night includes an income tax, we discuss how much and who's paying it (1:53), 2) our view on where oil prices are headed and what that means both for the state's fiscal situation and North Slope development...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 23, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) our view of the Senate budget bill passed on Monday, and more importantly, where we go from here (1:45), 2) the clearer the picture we have of the economic impact of the oil price drop and virus, the more bleak the state's long term financial n...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 16, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) some propose a $0 PFD, some $3K, we discuss our take on the issue (1:47); 2) the projected state revenue numbers are bad and we are operating w/o a safety net, we discuss the consequences (21:35); and 3) why we disagree, strongly, with the RCA'...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of March 9, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are all tied to this week’s oil price collapse: 1) the last time oil prices dropped we had $17 billion in fiscal reserves, this time we have nothing (1:59), 2) two nat’l think tanks weigh in with proposals on how to raise Alaska revenue (18:59), and 3) our fi...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 2, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) Leg Finance Division's biased and inaccurate treatment of the PFD under current law is now crossing over into the media (1:56), 2) the significant impact the coronavirus-induced economic downturn is likely to have on state revenues (18:07), and...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 24, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) our concern that the Gov's current path on budget issues is leading straight to another year of deep PFD cuts (1:57), 2) SFIN's leading proposal on a spending cap doesn't do much (18:54), and 3) why the Goldman, Chase & others' decisions to...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 17, 2019. The Weekly Top 3 is a regular weekly segment on The Michael Dukes Show. The Show broadcasts on FacebookLive and via streaming audio from the Show's website weekdays from 6–8am. I join Michael each week on Tuesday's show, from 6:20–7am, for a discussion between the two of us about t...

The third topic of this week's Weekly Top 3 was briefly to discuss a debate that was happening Tuesday evening, after we taped the show. As we explained there, the debate, hosted by Alaska Common Ground, featured a series of mini-debates, focused on four issues: making substantial additional budget cuts, relying even more on Permanent Fund earnings, reinstating broad-based taxes, and raising oil t...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 10, 2019. By way of background, this week Michael and I start the show by doing a brief review of the evolution of our thinking on fiscal policy these last 10 years. (2:00). Then we dive into the Top 3: 1) we take a peek behind the curtain at what "other taxes" the Gov may have in mind this...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 3, 2019. This week, before working through our Top 3, we outline presentations we made Tuesday of this week before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly (2:17). For those interested, the slide deck we use in those presentations is available on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Then we move on t...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of January 27, 2019. This week we our Top 3 issues are these: 1) the first two big votes this session tell us already where its going to end up (2:06), along the way we also touch on the Governor's state of the state address (8:04) and Americans for Prosperity-Alaskans new ad campaign (12:01); 2) a rece...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of January 20, 2019. This week we fit in four issues. We start with a brief discussion of our reaction to Monday’s appointment of the new OMB director (1:54), before turning to our our “regular” Top 3: 1) our take on the results of the PFD working group (7:59), 2) now that they appear to have the necess...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of January 13, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) why Alaska's fiscal situation increasingly reminds us of Brexit (1:41), 2) our nominee for the worst in the first batch of pre-filed bills (21:14), and 3) the federal deficit crosses a bad threshold we haven't seen since the middle of the Oba...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of January 6, 2019. In this, our first podcast of 2020, we focus on the Top 3 stories we see for the year ahead: 1) what the numbers tell us about where we are headed in the coming year, and more importantly, decade (1:54), 2) as the state pushes down costs, the muni's are asking for a piece of the Perm...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of December 23, 2019. Our last this year, this week we review the 2019 Top 3. 1) In the end, not even 16 out of 60 in the legislature were willing to back up the Governor on a "cuts only" approach (2:06), 2) one oil era on the North Slope comes to an end; an uncertain one comes next (17:15), and 3) the...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of December 16, 2019. This week our Top 3 focuses entirely on the Governor's budget proposal. In the first segment we talk about the challenges faced in dealing with the FY20 supplemental and FY21 budget (at 1:45). In the second, we take up the 10-year plan to discuss what lies beyond that (25:56). The...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of December 9, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) what the Fall Revenue Forecast tells us about this year and the future (at 1:36); 2) why Sen. Shelley Hughes proposed spending cap is an ineffective placebo (23:25); and 3) what we should take away from last week's warning from the Permanent...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of December 2, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) what we expect to see in the coming Fall Revenue Forecast and the Governor's FY21 budget proposal (at 1:43); 2) ANWR isn't only an Alaska issue, its become a global one as well (and not in a good way) (20:32); and 3) as the oil tax initiative...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of November 25, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) what Gov. Dunleavy's address last week to the Alaska Municipal League says to us about next year's budget (at 1:46), 2) what we will remember retiring Leg Finance head David Teal for most (19:11), and 3) why Conoco's proposal to sell 25% of...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of November 18, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) what Bruce Tangeman's resignation as Revenue Comm'r likely means for fiscal policy (at 1:47), 2) why we won't get spending under control as long as we rely on PFDcuts (and why we will if we use a mechanism that taxes the Top20%) (20:39), and...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of November 11, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) why a statewide sales tax is simply another Top20% effort at pushing costs off on middle & lower income Alaska families (at 1:46), 2) why the Saudi Aramco IPO is significant to Alaskans (23:27), and 3)why the disclosure of Hilcorp's financia...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of November 4, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) is the "spending cap" #akleg leadership says they are focusing on, "effective" (at 1:48); 2) using sales taxes -- another regressive tax -- to fill the budget gap is simply the Top20% fallback position (18:34); and 3) a new article takes a de...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of October 28, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) only four months in, this year's Alaska budget deficit is already growing (at 1:48), 2) there is a new, proposed North Slope LNG project (23:00), and 3) as we head into the 2020 election cycle, its important that Alaskans focus on the fact th...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of October 21, 2019. This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) the Top20% are long on talking about compromise, but ignore it when offered (at 1:40); 2) Charles Wohlforth's series on the PFD in the ADN is an important read, but proves a different point than he may intend (21:22); and 3) the oil tax initi...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of October 14, 2019. The Weekly Top 3 is a regular weekly segment on The Michael Dukes Show. The Show broadcasts on FacebookLive and via streaming audio from the Show’s website weekdays from 6-8am. I join Michael each week on Tuesday’s show, from 6:20-7am, for a discussion between the two of us about th...