The gnashing of teeth continues over Governor Dunleavy’s proposed budget. A few things to remember: the legislature considers this as their starting point and will make significant changes (meaning increasing the budget). The majority message at a caucus meeting is not representative of all Alaskans, rather, what special interest does the best job of rallying their troops, and the Governor has a big, red pen. This budget debate will hinge on the PFD – how big will it be and should the previous year reductions be paid back. Based on what we are hearing from the Senate and the House – we predict no paybacks and a reduced PFD.
Top lawmakers don’t see support for Dunleavy tax shift
Second Anchorage Caucus highlighted by anti-budget sentiment among Alaskans
Governor’s budget deserves Alaskans’ support
News fiction
Craig Medred, March 1, 2019
Some days now it’s hard to avoid wondering if I’m a fool for believing anything printed in the New York Times. Old habits die hard, and most journalists who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s came to consider the “old gray lady” the standard-bearer for journalism. Over the years since, if you are a thinking journalist paying attention, it has unfortunately become clear the Times’ standards are slipping. Where once the newspaper had reporters with knowledge writing about subjects they knew, it increasingly has reporters writing about subjects they clearly do not know.
Our Take: Medred never fails to hit the nail on the head. “The biggest news organization in the country, having clearly decided it was going to write a story about global warming threatening the Iditarod, flew a reporter to Anchorage to gather the cartoon evidence. That just about perfectly sums up where too much journalism is today.” Well worth the read.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
REPUBLICANS SEEK TO COUNTER GREEN NEW DEAL WITH NEW CAUCUS: Republicans launched a new caucus Friday to represent a free-market alternative to the progressive “Green New Deal.”
The bicameral Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, introduced at the Conservative Political Action Conference, will focus on Republican values of conservation and environmental protection. It will address and “counteract centralized big government solutions” with market-based solutions to environmental issues, according to a letter sent earlier this week announcing the caucus to members of Congress obtained by John.
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado founded the caucus in the upper chamber, while Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Brian Mast of Florida will lead the caucus in the lower chamber.
Although the idea of the caucus predates the Democratic announcement of the Green New Deal, it underscores the GOP’s belief in a “free market and American innovation as compared to the Green New Deal,” a Senate GOP aide said.
Climate change — it just won’t go there: The caucus will not focus on climate change, as the Green New Deal does, but instead will be concerned with returning to the conservation and environmental stewardship principles of Theodore Roosevelt. That would mean focusing on public lands issues such as conserving wildlife and ensuring against environmental degradation of rivers, streams, and animal habitats.
But the letter also references “energy independence,” a nod to oil and natural gas exports, as well as keeping U.S. leadership in the area of advanced technologies and renewable energy.