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Pauls' Revere
07-18-2019, 09:05 PM
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/13/741391200/alaskas-state-government-faces-big-budget-cuts

Alaska's government is facing budget cuts that puts spending per person at the lowest level in 45 years, cuts that most lawmakers have fought. The state's new Republican governor trimmed more than 40% from funding for the University of Alaska, as well as Medicaid, payments to seniors and help for the homeless. The governor is, instead, prioritizing a $3,000 check this year for every person in the state, as Andrew Kitchenman from Alaska Public Media and KTOO reports.

ANDREW KITCHENMAN, BYLINE: To understand this story, we've got to go back to 2014 when oil prices plummeted. That was bad news in Alaska where, without an income or sales tax, the state relies heavily on oil taxes and royalties. Lawmakers started cutting from the budget to save money. And then there was the Alaska Permanent Fund. The state's been setting aside some of its oil money every year into the savings account. Historically, the state has used the fund to give a check to every Alaska man, woman and child known as the Permanent Fund Dividend, or PFD. But when times got tough, the former independent governor cut that check from $2,000 per person to about $1,000.

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA DOWNGRADED:

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/education/3977879-University-of-Alaska-credit-rating-downgraded-reflecting-financial-turmoil


Education
University of Alaska credit rating downgraded, reflecting financial turmoil
Funding has been so sharply reduced that school officials have sought to reassure students that classes will convene this fall, even as administrators consider measures as extreme as shuttering campuses.

Zippyjuan
07-19-2019, 11:43 AM
Not just falling prices but also falling output. Alaskan oil production peaked around 1990 and had been declining ever since. Oil and gas taxes are their main source of revenues.

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