This article is the first installment of a two-part series.
Picture this: Alaska’s state budget is a moose-sized piñata, stuffed to the antlers with $12.2 billion in 2025, up from a leaner $6.3 billion back in 2005, a 93 percent leap that makes inflation look like it’s trudging through knee-deep snow. Yet, here come the politicians, puffing out their chests like sled dogs at the Iditarod, insisting the only way to keep this party going is to slap you with taxes or swipe a chunk of your Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD).
Spoiler alert: that’s a snow job bigger than a Fairbanks blizzard. The real scoop? Alaska’s budget is a circus of supersized spending that is plump with some waste, duplication, and a lot of inefficiencies. Trim that fat, and we could fund your PFD and throw in a complimentary moose nugget souvenir…