{"id":4964,"date":"2020-10-05T11:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T19:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4964"},"modified":"2020-10-05T11:45:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T19:45:32","slug":"looking-ahead-after-southeast-conferences-annual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4964","title":{"rendered":"Looking ahead after Southeast Conference\u2019s annual meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Legislative panel at Southeast Conference’s annual meeting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Southeast Conference held their annual meeting recently. I was happy to participate on their legislative panel. This year, it looked a little different than usual, as we met virtually on Zoom. The week focused on economic recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, a lot of bleak data was presented in the different sessions. After the pandemic caused closures across Alaska in March, we lost a lot of jobs. From April through July, the region lost nearly 7,000 jobs across every sector, and tourism was particularly devastated. The region has lost 17% of its jobs due to the pandemic so far, and reports from the meeting showed Southeast as being the most economically impacted area in Alaska. Regional unemployment rocketed to 11.3% in July. Oil prices tanked. On top of that, we experienced a terrible fishing season. Economic analysts predict a lot of the economic recovery of Southeast and Alaska in general is going to rely on factors beyond most people\u2019s control, such how fast people get comfortable with traveling and cruising again next year and how many people start going to restaurants around the country to bring up the price\/demand of fish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor that will contribute to\nSoutheast Alaska\u2019s economic rebound is government support and policies. That\u2019s\nwhere I\u2014along with the rest of your elected officials\u2014come in. Throughout the\ncourse of the pandemic I have worked to put aside politics and work together to\nhelp get Alaskans the aid they need to weather this economic downturn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we\nneed to get the economy back on track. Economic advisors at the annual meeting\npredict that we have very likely reached the bottom in terms of economic\nactivity, but the path forward will not be a straight line, and will likely\ndepend on our ability to prevent another shutdown. As we head into\nwinter, we need to continue to follow local health guidelines so we can keep\nour families and friends healthy and beat the virus back. There is no path to\nfull economic recovery without containment of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is a lot of uncertainty\nabout what the winter and next session will bring, one thing is for sure: I am\ngoing to work together with the Dunleavy administration and legislators from\naround the state to make sure that Southeast Alaska is economically\nsupported, whether that be through infrastructure, the ferry system,\neducation, fishing, tourism, or\nother areas of significant importance to Southeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another hot topic for next session, as it has been previously, is the discussion surrounding the Permanent Fund. We must protect the Permanent Fund for all Alaskans present and future, while continuing to have annual dividends. Let us not forget the dividend comes from Permanent Fund Earning Reserve account and is directly tied to the overall health of the fund itself. If, and when, the Earnings Account is spent for dividends or state budget needs, there will be enormous taxes imposed upon Alaskans to meet the state\u2019s financial obligations. Let us remember we have spent $16+ billion in savings the last several years and are running out of financial maneuverability. Our financial liquidity is drying up, and we still owe over $700 million in oil tax credits that have not been addressed in the budgets for the past two years. All the meantime, this has happened while we reduced our expenditures and watched our revenue also decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raiding\nthe Permanent is a short-term solution that temporarily puts off the harder,\nlong-term decisions that must be made. We must focus on fixing the foundational\nproblems in our budget now, as they are guaranteed to get worse if we continue\nto dig into our savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition, with the changing political landscape of the Legislature, the debate\non moving the capital is alive and well. Special sessions that are moved out of\nJuneau only reinforce this belief, along with the gradual migration of state\nemployees heading north. The capital is Juneau and should remain as such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all\nthat being said, I am hopeful for the future of the great state of Alaska. We\nstill have our resources and our beautiful, wild land. We are not only a\nbeautiful state, we are rich, as well.  We\nare the only state with a multi-billion dollar Permanent Fund for the people.\nLet\u2019s keep it that way. I am looking forward to coming back to Juneau\nnext session and hope that we can make solid progress on developing a more\nstable fiscal future for our state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southeast Conference held their annual meeting recently. I was happy to participate on their legislative panel. This year, it looked a little different than usual, as we met virtually on Zoom. The week focused on economic recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To be honest, a lot of bleak data was presented in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4966,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}