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 April 27, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why we believe the Governor should veto, and the Legislature should uphold his veto of the defined benefits bill, assuming it passes the Legislature in the first go round (2:24), 2) we discuss both the...

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 April 20, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we analyze where the FY26 and FY27 budgets currently stand, focusing on the revenue sources that are being used to support them (2:12), 2) we discuss the current status of the AKLNG project, including the potenti...

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 April 13, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the way the legislative R's are handling the PFD debate is a certain loser, and consider whether that is, in fact, their goal (2:10), 2) we explain why we believe SJR 29, the proposed Constitutiona...

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 April 6, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the absolute hypocrisy being exhibited on all sides during the recent debates on the PFD issue in the House Finance Committee (2:14), 2) we discuss the issues we see with SJR 29, the proposed Constituti...

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 March 30, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the projected FY27 oil revenue windfall seems to be burning a hole in legislators' pockets (2:16), 2) we explain why SB274, the Senate Finance Committee's proposed reduction of the POMV draw percen...

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 March 23, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we examine what last week's successful NPRA lease sale means for Alaska (1:58), 2) we discuss the source and extent of the problems the AKLNG project is facing in the Legislature (17:26), and 3) we examine the up...

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 March 16, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the ongoing debate in the House over the funding source for the FY26 Supplemental (1:54), 2) we explain how, yet again, the House Majority is attempting to Orwellianize the term "fiscally responsible"...

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 March 9, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how SB 274 - the Senate Finance Committee's proposal to reduce the level of the annual POMV draw from the Permanent Fund - is applying the wrong lesson taken from the performance of the Permanent Fund 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 March 2, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the Legislature should use the rolling 10-year average oil price in preparing the FY27 budget, rather than whatever will come from the snapshot of the current futures market being taken this month i...

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 February 23, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the action taken by Senate Resources this past week on oil taxes and why we think its performative and unserious (2:17), 2) we explain how Rep. Galvin's proposed income tax becomes very regressive -...

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 February 16, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what the House Finance Committee is up to with its recent actions on the PFD (2:16), 2) we explain how recent data from the Permanent Fund Corporation itself demonstrates why the goal of the propose...

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 February 9, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how the response of the House Finance Committee to the Governor's proposed fiscal plan badly fails working class Alaska families (2:08), 2) we discuss how their reaction to the Governor's proposed fi...

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 February 2, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how the new ISER study shows, by shifting a significant part of the responsibility for revenue to non-residents, the Governor's seasonal sale tax proposal materially reduces the burden currently bein...

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 January 26, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) now that all of the pieces have been filed, we explain and start to analyze Governor Dunleavy's proposed fiscal plan (2:09), 2) stripped of the hype, we discuss how far along the Alaska LNG project is really (1...

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 January 19, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain what we will be looking for in the Governor's proposed fiscal plan he is preparing to roll out as part of his State of the State address Thursday (2:12), 2) we explain why this year's version of Jans...

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 January 12, 2026. This week, we are using the segment to discuss our Top 5 fiscal priorities for this coming legislative session: In the first part of the segment (at 2:30), we discuss our first and second priorities: * Opposing the consolidation of the current two-acco...

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 January 5, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what we view as the single most important fiscal issue facing the legislature this coming session (2:05), 2) we discuss what the impact of a potential new surge in Venezuelean oil development could ha...

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 15, 2025. For those who follow us, this is our last podcast for 2025. After taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays, we will return on January 6, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain what the Department of Revenue's Fall Revenue Fore...

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 8, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why neither the "fair share" nor "all we need is more development" sides of the oil tax debate is addressing the issue in the way the Constitution does and the Legislature should (2:15), 2) we discus...

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 1, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the significant uncertainty regarding oil price, and with that oil revenues, that the Legislature will face this coming session (2:10), 2) we explain why we have asked whether Lt. Governor Dahlstrom...

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 24, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we catch up on some recent developments affecting the Cook Inlet gas market (2:00), 2) we catch up also on some recent developments related to North Slope oil (21:54), and 3) we explain the fatal disconnect wh...

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 17, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss why revenues - where the money is supposed to come from - should be an equal part of the discussion of the Legislature's Task Force on Education Funding (2:15); 2) we explain why the Alaska fiscal p...

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 10, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain what, to us, seems missing so far from this year's Governor's race (2:02); 2) we explain what irritates us about how many in the Top20% support taxes (18:00); and 3) we review the Permanent Fund's 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 November 3, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss a stunner: how Alaska takes more as a share of income from its middle & lower-income families than California takes under its income tax from its billionaires (2:14); 2) we explain why the Task Force...

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 27, 2025. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why Legislators should ask those pushing for more spending to clarify at the same time how the proponents propose to pay for it(2:09); 2) we explain why one of the most prominent champions of PFD cut...