Alaska State Budget

A short documentary on the Alaska Permanent Fund. Part 6 of 6.

Alaska is still facing a yawning, multi-billion dollar gap between what it spends what it raises in revenue, despite billions in budget cuts and two years of policymakers debating how to keep the state solvent. Professor Emeritus Gunnar Knapp of the Institute of Social and Economic Research,  Caroline Schultz of Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development and Cliff Groh of Alaska Common Ground return to discuss Alaska’s fiscal crisis.

From the state’s geography and demographics to its reliance on the oil and gas industry, Alaska is a unique state with many political contradictions. State politics have changed dramatically over the past few decades, and Clive Thomas has spent decades studying that arc. Thomas was a long-time political science faculty member at the University of Alaska Southeast, and recently completed editing a 1,200-page tome on Alaska politics. Thomas will discuss the long view of Alaska’s politics with KTOO & APRN statehouse reporter Andrew Kitchenman.

Capitol Views

(2016 Episode 17)

Angela Rodell
Alaska Permanent Fund

Part 2 (view part 1)

Capitol Views

(2016 Episode 16)

Angela Rodell
Alaska Permanent Fund

Part 1

The Alaska budget game show.

Alaska’s crude oil, the lifeblood of our economy, is selling for less than a third of what it did just two years ago. The state is poised for recession. Economist Gunnar Knapp of the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Cliff Groh of the nonpartisan public policy group Alaska Common Ground return to Forum@360 with a new, hands-on balancing game to illustrate Alaska’s Deep Money Challenge and What We Can Do About It.

Jeremy Hsieh hosts. Recorded Jan. 27, 2016.

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