Campaign treasurer says Murkowski has what it takes

A Spectrum, by Steve Frank

Those who would tax you to spend more want to use today's current budget shortfall as an excuse to take $400 million of your money so the state government can continue to grow. The Knowles-Ulmer team has proposed budgets for Alaska over the last eight years, which, if passed by the legislature, would have put us hundreds of millions of dollars deeper into deficit spending. Over the last two years, the current administration has proposed increasing the state budget by more than $400 million, while asking you for $400 million out of your pocket through an income tax and dipping into the budget reserve for another $800 million. Does this sound like a solution to the budget problem?

As a 12-year member of the state legislature and Senate Finance Committee co-chair, I can tell you we have been here before. Remember when Gov. Steve Cowper, upon assuming office in 1987, said "All bets are off?" He had discovered the state to be suffering from a huge projected deficit. It happened again in 1989 when a billion dollar deficit was projected. Each governor since has projected large deficits when the price of oil has dropped significantly. And yet, just last year the state actually projected a surplus due to the high price of oil.

Frank Murkowski is against broad new taxes that would take $400 million and 2,600 jobs out of our economy to fund bigger government. Across the board taxes that cause massive layoffs are not the answer to an economy that has lost jobs in every basic industry during the last decade. What we need is a new attitude and strong leadership -- a governor who is willing to actually take responsibility to aggressively build our economy and direct the state to live within its means. Murkowski believes that we have the talented people to make our government more efficient and that we should work to meet our needs by expanding the economy. This is in stark contrast to the more taxes for more spending Knowles-Ulmer approach.

I believe Murkowski can reduce spending, while at the same time find ways to grow state revenues, through aggressive and responsible resource development. Many who charge that we can't do this are simply opposed to growing our economy based on our resource wealth. Murkowski calls for invoking a positive attitude toward the creation of jobs and economic opportunity in our start rather than a negative attitude of despair that sees only an oil-based economy in decline. The sky is not falling -- Alaska has the technology, the resources, the talented people and the markets. I will grant you the sky is not as blue as it would have been if the current administration had introduced lower -- rather than higher -- budgets over the last eight years.

Fran Ulmer claims that Murkowski's numbers don't add up. But she misses the point that this is more than a government math problem -- people's jobs are on the line. Her administration's taxation plan would cost 2,600 jobs in Alaska, according to University of Alaska economist Scott Goldsmith. And if adding up the numbers is important, how about the hundreds of millions of dollars that would have been added to the deficit had the legislature not cut the budget increases proposed by the Knowles-Ulmer administration. Big government want to keep spending, and the only way it knows how is to tax your income. Has the need to appease anti-growth special interests, often from outside Alaska, who can find no opportunities to raise revenues through resource development, kept the Knowles-Ulmer administration from even looking to an expanded economy for the state's future? Sine their tax-and-spend plan falls far short of addressing the projected budget shortfall, what is their plan for additional revenues to plug the budget gap?

Murkowski's plan is to introduce lower budgets by prioritizing state spending and working with state leaders and employees to make government more responsible and efficient without attempting to balance the budget on the backs of state employees. He promises to work aggressively to attract new revenue from an expanded and more diverse resource based economy, and Murkowski will work closely with President Bush to make that happen.

When Alaska became a state in 1959, it was clearly recognized that Alaska's small population would never be able to provide enough tax revenue to support its government. The federal government wisely promised the new state the opportunity to raise necessary revenues from resource activity on both federal and state lands. We still have this potential right in front of us. Each new field the size of Alpine would add 10 percent to our oil production and would go a long way to solving our budget shortfall which has averaged about $400 million over the past five years, not the billion dollars some would lead you to believe. New technology may soon allow billions of barrels of heavy oil already discovered to be put into production.

Remember, had democrat President Bill Clinton not vetoed ANWR legislation in 1996 -- fulfilling a plank in the national democratic platform -- most likely there would be no revenue shortfall today and thousands more Alaskans would be working at high paying jobs. ANWR is still a real possibility thanks to the efforts of Murkowski, President Bush and Alaska's labor leaders. And let's not forget the opportunities of a gas pipeline. In addition to the jobs and energy, the pipeline would provide over $300 million annually to our state -- nearly as much as the proposed Knowles-Ulmer income tax.

Alaska has a bright future -- don't let the doomsayers tell you otherwise. We are a rich state with tremendous resource wealth. What we need is the leadership to put our fiscal house in order and a vision to build a vibrant and diverse economy that will deliver growth, hope and opportunity to our young people. Reducing the size of our economy by taxing Alaskans or taking their dividends is not the way to get there.

Steve Frank is campaign treasurer for Murkowski for Governor and a former state senator from Fairbanks. He served as co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee and was a co-author of the legislature's five year budget plan to reduce state spending.