alaska

By Dan Fagan
Publisher
The Alaska Standard

Alaska, where no one takes advantage of nobody. There’s your new state motto.

We’re standing our ground in the final frontier. There is no way no how that the evils in Big Oil are going to get one over on us. In Alaska we have, if you will excuse my language, made the oil industry our bitch.

We’ve let the industry know who is boss by becoming one of the highest taxing oil and gas places on the globe. Our marginal rate can be as high as 87 percent at certain prices. Read more

By Mike Dingman
Alaska Standard Contributor

The Anchorage Assembly recently passed a historic piece of legislation. Mayor Dan Sullivan's decision to veto the legislation is a piece of Anchorage history will be retold in the years to come. 

Alaska has always had an independent spirit. Our ancestors chopped down trees to build cabins and work their gold claims. They hunted, trapped and fished for their dinner, while their wives picked berries and grilled the meat. Alaskans have built on that tradition and remained as much as possible, self-reliant people. Read more

By Dave Stieren
Staff Writer
The Alaska Standard

It’s called a tipping point. Our friends at Wiki define it as “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable."  It can be any event, series of events, or occurrence. It’s what makes the young nervous man ask the pretty girl out once he musters the courage, or the point where a young couple take the plunge into home ownership, or a chronic complainer gets so fed up, they decide to do something about it. It’s the distinct point in time, where someone stands in front of a camera, and declares their passion to move the state forward. It is the point where the selfless and the selfish clash, and only outsiders can determine which faction is the ultimate winner. Read more

BY ANDREW WELLNER
Frontiersman

SUTTON — State road crews are laying out massive sandbags on the bank of the Matanuska River after erosion has brought the waters dangerously close to the Glenn Highway.

Jack Fullerton, chief of Maintenance and Operations for the Central Region of the state’s Department of Transportation said the road has always been somewhat close to the river. At Mile 63.5 — the spot where they’re laying sandbags — it was probably 12 or 15 feet away. Read more

By Dave Stieren
Staff Writer
The Alaska Standard

A credo of the conservative movement and free market capitalism is that lower taxes and government expense allows for the private sector to flourish. Expand government’s take, or increase the regulatory cost of a private enterprise to do business, and you will curtail that business to pay more, upgrade facilities, or improve the product. It’s an argument made regarding the cruise ship tax and accompanying legislation, one made for ACES, and one of the many arguments against the socialization of health care. Apparently, the state of Alaska understands this, but has failed to implement this belief in a manner that makes any sense.

Recently, the Alaska International Airport Systems (AIAS) has introduced an proposal to entice an Asian based passenger carrier to extend, resume, or introduce weekly passenger service from an Asian city to Alaska. The proposal would provide incentives in the form of the waiving of fees, (what you and I would call taxes), with the total annual amount allowed up to $1 million. This would grant a waiver of  “all landing fees, gate fees, and fuel flowage fees for each scheduled weekly round-trip non-stop passenger flight operated by the carrier between an AIAS airport and Asian airport .“ While the waiving of fees does represent a strong enticement for the potential carrier to operate, it does not create the one thing necessary to make this work: demand. Read more

 Read more

By Dave Stieren

Remember when you were in high school, were messing around, and more than one person of authority told you to straighten out or, “you’ll be digging ditches the rest of your life.” Of course the jokes on them, as a job in construction pays quite well. The same line could have applied to plumbers, car mechanics, cooks, or lawyers. Whether you need your plumbing fixed, car repaired, or want great dinner dining out, those jobs which used to have some odd social stigma attached to them are big bucks. So today I write on behalf of one of the entrants in the Rodney Dangerfield job list, the elected official.

A legislative compensation committee recently approved somewhat dramatic salary increases for legislators that will go into effect in late March unless specific legislation is passed to stop the increase. Sen. Con Bunde is pushing one such piece of legislation, if for no other reason to stimulate debate on a process that due to the way we do things up here, will increase pay without a single vote or hearing. His point is well taken, as whenever state dollars are being spent, it should be discussed in the open. (But I’ll stop there. No transparent from me.) Read more

By Roger Maynard Read more

Dave Stieren
Comment
 
Many of you may find this hard to believe, but sometimes, sometimes, I’m really not all that angry about things. Many times, especially during the holiday season, I’m quite at ease with God, Country, and my fellow man. However, once I reach this Zen-like state of harmony, someone or something comes along to tip the apple cart.
  Read more

The Department of Natural Resources led by Commissioner Tom Irwin is currently blocking two leases from being developed in Alaska costing the state high paying jobs. The work of two companies, Exxon Mobil, and Escopeta Oil has come to a grinding halt as Irwin plays hardball. Read more