Datebook, from page 6

MAT-SU -- Members of the Valley delegation have returned from Juneau and, despite early-on threats by the governor that they'd be "staying after school" if they adjourned without a plan to fix the state's fiscal future in place, it doesn't look as though they'll be returning to Juneau anytime soon.

Their return has been marked with some celebration -- school supporters are happy about the increase in the foundation funding formula and Mat-Su Borough officials are pleased they've got a green light to build the state's largest prison facility.

Others are not so happy. Supporters of the Alaska Property Owners Bill of Rights were displeased to see amendments they supported go down in flames last week, when Mat-Su senators Lyda Green and Scott Ogan, and Senate President Gene Therriault, a North Pole senator whose district covers a portion of the Mat-Su, voted against the amendments.

Also on the not-so-happy list is Gov. Frank Murkowski, who commended the Legislature on passing several integral bills, but said they had been distracted by special interests.

"The process on some of the issues was thwarted by the power of special interests, to the detriment of the people," Murkowski said in a recent press release. "No positive result came from the recommendations of the Conference of Alaskans. In the Senate, they voted down the income tax and the sales tax and, while they brought up the use of the earnings reserve as a revenue source, no proposal to do so was put into legislation."

Green, in discussing her approach to the perceived fiscal gap, said it's hard to take claims the state's funding is evaporating seriously when the price of oil has climbed to nearly $40 a barrel. When the budget proposal was drawn up, she said, it was estimated that the Constitutional Budget Reserve had a two-year life span. Last year, she said, it was holding steady at about $1.9 billion. Last week, she said, it was at about $2.4 billion.

"Every day [the price of oil] stays up like that, we're that much more advantaged," Green said by phone last week.

Green said it puts legislators in a difficult place when state officials draw up a budget, taking into account average oil prices, and the actual oil prices are much higher, generating considerably more revenue for the state.

"How can you prepare a budget on forecast information that has a history of being almost 100-percent wrong?" Green asked. "There has to be a different way to do a forecast."

Green said while she supports the idea of enshrining the permanent fund, the percent-of-market-value approach brought forward for this session wasn't the be-all, end-all approach some portrayed it as.

"I'm not sure that's a fiscal plan," Green said, "It's an investment distinction relating to the way the fund is capitalized."

What then, would have been supported in the Senate, where both revenue-generating ideas and proposed fiscal solutions were a hard sell? Green suggested a new fiscal plan, with a clear sunset clause, maybe something she'd be ready to discuss next session -- something that would generate revenue for a short time, while the state works on other issues, such as bringing on the proposed gas pipeline.

"We could do a new fiscal plan for time certain and see if the gas line comes on," Green said. "If that happens, it'll bring new revenue and we can use that as a bridge and backfill."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.