Alaska singing the PFD blues

So here's the deal. We have a $5 billion dollar state budget with a $4 billion dollar hole in it. Cuts are going to be made. But if anyone thinks we can get by on cuts alone (it would be 80 percent of the budget) and still have a functioning state, I have a bridge to nowhere I’d like to sell you. The facts are that along with cuts, we will have to raise taxes and tap the permanent fund if we want to get through this. It's either that or invest heavily in the SuperLotto.

At present, Alaskans carry the lightest tax burden of anyone in the 50 states. That's not to say we spend the least. Our geography, geology, and infrastructure make this a pretty expensive place to live.

Because a lot of what we consume is shipped up here and then shipped out to roadless villages, the cost of living can get pretty high. Let's take for example a gallon of milk. In Seattle it runs about $2.99. Here in the Valley it runs $3.29 which is only 30 cents more, but we're on the road system. According to Samantha Bossie of the AC store in Cordova, that same gallon of milk is $5.59. That's close to twice what it is in Seattle. If you go out to some of the more remote places, like Sleetmute, I’m sure the price climbs even higher.

Okay, so what, you might say. That has nothing to do with the cost of government; it's just one of the things we deal with because we choose to live in this spectacular place. And you’re right. Government, local or state or both, doesn't pay for that gallon of milk. It just pays for the teacher, or firefighter, or police officer, etc. that buys that gallon of milk. It, we, pay the wages of the people that play a large part in keeping this state going. And any of you reading this that have had anything to do with budgets, public sector or private sector, know that most of the expense comes from wages and salaries.

According to the website salary.com, the average salary for a teacher in Alaska is $54,473. No one is going to get rich teaching here, or anywhere else for that matter, but that’s enough to pay your bills with hopefully a little left over to get into trouble. Now let’s cut that salary by, oh let me see, about 80 percent. That comes to around $10,895 — or a loaf of bread and some cold cuts in Sleetmute. On the bright side, if we didn't touch the Permanent Fund, that same teacher would have a couple of extra grand to buy some pickles and mustard for their sandwich.

I may be a big government, tax and splurge, bleeding heart tree hugger that won't be happy until everyone the country is gay married to a Rastafarian. But don't get me wrong. I still don't like to pay taxes and I still like my PFD. Unfortunately, I also like to have my roads plowed and my house fires put out.

Governor Walker has come up with a plan that would cover the enormous deficit and still leave the state pretty much intact. It involves budget cuts, yet to be determined. It involves tax increases, yet to be harangued. And it involves dipping into the Permanent Fund, yet to be tiraded.

Again, Alaska is currently the least-taxed state in the country; just slightly ahead of Delaware. On the other hand we receive more, per capita, in the way of federal money than roughly half the states in the union. What's more, we in Alaska get back more than we put in. That’s right. Those deep blue states like New York and California are paying the bill for our “independent” lifestyle.

That's how this whole society thing works. We pool our resources in time, talent and, yes, money to for the good of the community. I can see the eyes rolling now. That’s just redistribution of wealth. Well, yes it is; just like the Permanent Fund Dividend. We’ve invested wealth taken from oil companies that had to pay us to tap the wealth of our state and once a year we redistribute the dividends of that investment to every woman, man, and moppet in the state.

For decades we’ve been doing pretty well but now the time we all knew was coming has come. Oil prices are down and probably won't come back for a while, if ever. Production from aging fields is down, and with prices in the mid thirties per barrel the ConocoPhillips' and Shells of the world have little incentive to explore for more. So it looks like our cash cow is running dry and we have some hard decisions to make.

Actually the decisions aren’t that hard. We can start paying more of our way and become the second least-taxed state in the country and still get a dividend, albeit a smaller one, from the Permanent Fund every year. Or we can pretend this isn’t happening and keep things as they are for another two or three years until the whole thing comes crashing down around us. Of course if the SuperLotto gets up to $4,000,000,000...

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist and community columnist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.