Alaskans for Sustainable Budget's "The Weekly Top 3"

This week on Facing the Future we look at President Biden’s ambitious policy agenda with former Ambassador and New Hampshire Congressman Richard Swett. Then we go to Las Vegas with Concord Coalition Field Director Phil Smith and Jayce Farmer, professor of public policy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who uses Concord's Principles and Priorities budget exercise with his mid-career graduate students.

Facing The Future: Don't Keep it in Vegas

La rose

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 February 10, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain what a difference a week made as we sort through recent developments on the Cook Inlet import projects (2:04), 2) we discuss our thoughts on President Trump's comments on Japan and #AKLNG (19:02), and 3) we discuss the additional disclosure that we think all presentations and op-eds pushing for more state appropriations should contain (36:56).

The Weekly Top 3 (2.10.2025)

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 March 24, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain why the proposal to combine the Permanent Fund corpus and earnings reserve both puts the corpus at risk and undermines significant performance incentives for the Permanent Fund Corporation (2:14); 2) we explain how Rep. DeLena Johnson and other Republicans are ignoring important data to put the interests of the oil companies ahead of those of Alaska families (15:58); and 3) we explain why we aren't hearing much about Cook Inlet gas in this session (spoiler alert: it's because the market solved the problem) (28:08).

For your information, following this episode, we are taking a three-week break from the show to go on a tour of Ireland. We will return to our seat and be ready to go again on Tuesday, April 15.

The Weekly Top 3 (3.24.2025)

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 14, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain the difference between an accounting balanced budget and a distributionally balanced budget and why the Legislature is continually failing to produce the latter (2:06); 2) we discuss former Sen. Joe Paskvan's excellent op-ed in a recent Fairbanks Daily News-Miner attacking the Permanent Fund Corporation's proposed backdoor raid on the Permanent Fund corpus (21:40); and 3) for those interested, we do a Michael Dukes Show "Finer Things" segment on my recent Ireland trip (38:01).

The Weekly Top 3 (4.14.2025)

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 21, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what the latest projections from the Permanent Fund Corporation are telling us about where the Permanent Fund is headed on its current course (2:02); 2) we examine the opportunity to make some small headway in generating substitute revenues and reducing the need for PFD cuts (20:13); and 3) we explore some budget-related good news (40:56).

The Weekly Top 3 (4.21.2025)

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 28, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we explain how a recent op-ed by Larry Persily essentially lays out the same fiscal approach as the Legislature's 2021 Fiscal Policy Working Group, and discuss how to implement both (2:13); 2) we discuss the impact of the Senate's vote yesterday permanently to increase state spending on K-12, and with it, the state's long-term deficit (20:19); and 3) we discuss the likely impact on Alaska of coming decisions at the federal level to shift a material share of the federal spending burden to the states (38:41).

The Weekly Top 3 (4.28.2025)

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 5, 2025.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss what's going on with oil prices: what's driving the price drop, how low could they go and how long could the price drop last (2:17); 2) we discuss the failure of those who voted for HB 57 (the permanent K-12 funding increase) to realistically deal with a fundamental question: where's the money coming from and #WhoPays (18:56); and 3) we discuss a bill hovering over this session that, if passed, could make Alaska's future even worse from a fiscal perspective (40:35).

The Weekly Top 3 (2.10.2025)

Brad Keithley

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