The Weekly Top 3

The Weekly Top 3 (10.5.2026) by Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets

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 21, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) using the Legislative Finance Division’s “swoop” chart as a base, we examine the scale of the reduction in UGF revenues being created by tax expenditures (2:10), 2) we do some dollar tracing to determine in w...

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 21, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how Republican gubernatorial candidates Dave Bronson & Treg Taylor fell for a trap on the issue of Permanent Fund structure during the Commonwealth North debate (2:10), 2) we make a correction to a...

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 14, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how the trends in the state legislative races are helping us decide what to do in the Governor's race (2:06), 2) we explain a new question that this year's candidates should be asked as we enter 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 7, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why "incentives" are just another name for state spending, and why we should treat them that way so that their impact on other spending categories and revenue requirements is clear (2:18), 2) we dis...

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 31, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what we will be doing the remainder of this election cycle (2:05), 2) we discuss how the Southcentral utilities seem to be working things out for this winter, but explain the big question mark that co...

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 24, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain that while many candidates say they are concerned about middle-class "affordability," most really aren't and in fact, favor policies that would generally make it worse (2:04), 2) we discuss a critical...

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 17, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss why, from our perspective, we haven't seen any fiscally conservative candidates in this election cycle (2:15), 2) we discuss what really undermined finalizing in the most recent special session the pr...

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 10, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the irresponsible pandering being engaged in by most, if not all, of the candidates for Governor; they are more than happy to discuss how they will spend more on their favored groups, but none of them...

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 3, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss some potentially troublesome developments with ANS oil prices (1:59), 2) we review some of the numbers behind the concerns about the reliability of Southcentral gas deliveries this coming winter (19:52...

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 27, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss Enstar's petition for rehearing of its Cook Inlet storage proposal and where the process goes from there (2:10), 2) we discuss an issue that Hilcorp left out of its recent letter to the legislature, but...

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 20, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the results (that will surprise many) from comparing the income tax rate on middle-income Alaska families resulting from PFD cuts against the income tax rates on middle-income families in other states (...

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 13, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we update our look at the Permanent Fund Corporation from the information contained in its most recent performance report (2:10), 2) we discuss how the state is making the economic situation faced by middle-income...

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 29, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss a recent example of where the K-12 industry's expectations have become unreasonable (2:00), 2) we explain why Rep. Schwanke is right about a lot of things, but is very wrong when it comes to 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 June 29, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we outline the state's deeply unsettling fiscal outlook, even if spending growth is held to inflation from FY26 onward (2:05), 2) we discuss why we continue to believe that the #akleg should pass the S-corp amendm...

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 22, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why, by following a one-way fiscal policy that favors spending over revenues, Governor Dunleavy is making the state's already bad fiscal situation even worse (2:26), 2) we explain why we believe the Sen...

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 15, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain the reason why the Bullet Line (now called Phase 1 of the #AKLNG project) has never been built and question why some think #AKLNG overcomes it (2:12), 2) we dive deep into the #AKLNG bill and discuss 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 June 8, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the potential of ending up stuck in Phase 1 of the #AKLNG project poses an unacceptable risk to Alaskans (2:11), 2) we discuss what the lack of interest in the ANWR lease sale last week tells us abou...

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 1, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss yesterday's filing deadline, who filed for office, who didn't, and what the result means for Alaska's future (2:15), 2) we review the significant insights we have gleaned from LegFin's recent fiscal summ...

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 May 25, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the more we learn about how Phase 1 of the AKLNG project is intended to work, the more concerned we become about its potential impact on Alaskans (2:16); 2) we explain how some attempt to use the "fe...

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 May 18, 2026. This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss the effort yesterday by some to use the gasline bill permanently to divert revenues to their favored spending categories, and why we continue to be concerned about the potential for similar efforts in 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 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...