I would like to propose a sustainable solution to Alaska’s economic and fiscal dilemma. If completed, the plan will expand Alaska’s economic base, create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs across all regions of the state, and generate new, diversified revenue for state budget needs.
I grew up in Noorvik, an Iñupiat town in Northwest Alaska, and went to high school in Fairbanks and Anchorage. I grew up hunting and fishing, dog mushing and snowmachining, absorbing every book I could on astrophysics, learning computer programming, and exploring the Internet.
After high school, I went to MIT in the Boston area, started a bionanotechnology company in college, ran it for a number of years, and eventually returned home to Alaska.
Alaska’s economy (and your paycheck) exists because people in the Lower 48 and foreign countries send money here; mostly for our oil. We don’t print money in Alaska. Because of low oil prices and long-term declining production, billions of dollars less money is coming to Alaska. We haven’t diversified, so a huge percentage of Alaskans in nearly all industries are losing their jobs, our economy and unemployment are ranked among the worst in America and it’s getting worse; we’re vulnerable. Our economic model is broken.
The current debates about taxes, the Permanent Fund and cutting government are important. But, they only focus on moving money around inside Alaska. To reverse Alaska’s economic decline we need to do three things:
We can achieve these objectives by giving Alaskans the resources you need to create and own your own large companies that sell goods and services to customers in the Lower 48 and foreign countries; companies across a diverse set of industries that draw money to Alaska and expand the corporate income tax base in the state.
From industries that can scale anywhere (e.g. software and mobile apps), to those where we have concentrated expertise…