In an administrative order signed Friday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a hiring freeze and travel restrictions across most state departments.
The order, effective immediately, freezes out-of-state travel, hiring, and the development of new regulations across all executive branch agencies.
The last time that Alaska state government had a hiring freeze was in March of 2020, implemented after a sharp drop in oil prices.
The fiscal directive comes as Alaska grapples with declining oil prices and production — factors that have significantly reduced one of the state’s primary source of revenue. According to Dunleavy’s order, oil prices averaged nearly $85 per barrel in fiscal year 2024, buoyed in part by geopolitical instability stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, recent decisions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production have driven oil prices down. The Alaska Department of Revenue’s spring forecast projects a drop to $68 per barrel in FY 2026, translating to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue for the state’s general fund.
In the 1980s, oil production funded nearly 90% of Alaska’s unrestricted general fund revenues. Today, it accounts for roughly 40%. Despite having reserve accounts, including a $2.8 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve, a $1 billion Power Cost Equalization Endowment Fund, and a $407 million Higher Education Investment Fund, the Governor’s Office stated that the combined value of these accounts would not sustain state operations for a full year.
“This order is a necessary step to preserve Alaska’s fiscal stability and ensure the continuity of essential government services,” the directive states. It outlines an effort to refocus agency operations on “core mission objectives” and streamline government expenditures.
- Travel: All out-of-state travel by state employees is now prohibited, regardless of the funding source. Waivers may be granted by the Governor’s Office in cases where travel is essential to public safety or critical state responsibilities. In-state travel must be limited to essential business, with agencies encouraged to use remote communication tools.
- Hiring: A freeze is now in place for all hiring across state agencies.
- The hiring freeze applies to:
- • All full-time, part-time, non-permanent, and seasonal positions in bargaining units and in the partially exempt and exempt service.
- • Requests to establish new positions.
- • Requests to extend non-permanent positions.
- • Positions that provide administrative support and maintenance to the exempted agencies set forth below.
- Exempted Agencies:
- • The hiring freeze does not apply to positions essential to protect Alaska citizens. This category includes Alaska State Troopers, corrections and probation officers, airport police and fire officers, Office of Children Services, Division of Public Assistance, and employees that provide patient, resident, or food services at 24-hour institutions.
- For purposes of this order, the following are considered 24-hour institutions:
- • Correctional Facilities
- • Juvenile Justice Facilities
- • Alaska Military Youth Academy
- • Pioneer Homes
- • Alaska Psychiatric Institute
- • Alaska Vocational Technical Center
- • Mt. Edgecumbe High School
- Regulations: Agencies are barred from introducing new regulations unless already posted for public comment. Waivers may be requested in cases where regulations are necessary for public safety or essential services.
The order applies to all executive branch agencies, including departments, boards, commissions, and public corporations. It will remain in effect until officially rescinded.
The order is a preventive measure to avoid deeper financial challenges in the future.
Or how about this instead: Pay a little state income or sales tax to support your state like everyone else in the country. That might help.
Funny how you political parasites can’t ever be reasonable and make better spending decisions, it is always about squeezing the working folks for more money. How about no.
When a mosquito lands on my skin, I don’t just let it suck me until I am dry, I swat it.
Same goes for you Whidbey.
Some would argue everyone cashing PFD checks have become entitled political parasites.
Then some would erase any doubt, that they are clueless about what a DIVIDEND is….
Maybe they should instead lobby to return the subsurface rights to the people and pay out the corpus in one lump sum and be done with it. Then every royalty/tax from state and federal land can support the legislature and individual residents can monetize natural resources on their own property how they see fit.
You mean like other bloated government states?
Or…
Stop spending like drunken sailors
SILENCE, Whidbey.
NEVER, North.
Or just live within our means. What a concept.
That works too, but good luck trying. Alaskans have a learned dependency on State and Federal largesse.
Like a good Democrat tax and spend other peoples income till you get so far in debt everyone fails.
Hush!!, puppy
No.
OK Dog, I would agree with you if you would go along with state employees being required to use a time clock and account at the end of every week what they accomplished the week prior.
There Dog goes again being the court jester of Alaska. Thanks for the laughter!
Whidbey:
Pay MRAK a little for using as much band-width as you do. Are you a rote hypocrite, or just a tightwad?
Me thinks Whidbey is not as generous with his own money as he would seem to be with ours…
Seven other states have no income tax, last I looked, and one state besides Alaska has neither a sales tax nor an income tax. Several states that have an income tax are rapidly backing out of them as people who work hard and people who have great ideas that create jobs are relocating to states with no income tax.
” Pay a little state income or sales tax to support your state like everyone else in the country. That might help.”
Really? Well let’s look at the numbers.
The state budget is about what, $14 Billion?
There are per the census bureau 733,400 residents in the state. If you further break it down you have about 44% under 18 years of age and over 65, about 10% listed as “in poverty” and 9% with disabilities under the age of 65, you get per the census bureau about 260,000 (2022 numbers) total employment. So if everyone of those pays $1000 (you said “a little”) in income tax, we end up with $260 million. That won’t even pay for their current “austere” increase in the BSA and you just took that money out of the economy, as people can’t use it to buy groceries, school supplies or gas.
The better idea would be to audit ALL state agencies, make the reverse sweep an actual sweep from every agency and go to zero based budgeting. Eliminate overlapping regulations and streamline the process for business and individuals to get things done and incentivize resource extraction. Reverse the medicaid expansion and investigate fraud and abuse. Oh and make it so that the legislature doesn’t get ANY per Diem for any special sessions.
Another idea would be to correct your analysis. You left out any consideration of the amount of untaxed earnings carried out of state by Alaska nonresident workers.
I think you are deliberately obtuse here.
How many workers are there in the grand scheme of things? Between the slope, mining, fishing and tourism a couple thousand maybe. Please consider that the majority here are temporary workers. So the state may recoup another couple million or so in revenue, which does absolutely nothing to run the bloated state government, where the BSA increase alone is costing us over $350 million.
There are simply not enough people in this state to sustain the government, state unions have become accustomed to….
the last year there is data for is 2023, and there were 92,664 non resident workers making up 23.5% of the total workforce in Alaska.
Source: State of Alaska’s own report from the department of labor and workforce development, issued Feb 2025.
If you want the link, I will post it in a comment to follow this one. It will probably be faster to google it. That’s where I found it.
Okay, how aboutNO!!, Taxhound. Texas and FL done need income taxes and they’re doing fine
Chuck,
Good points, but the bill due is always going to get paid.You can call it whatever tax you want, but services get paid.
Texas:7th highest prop tax in US of A
Fla: 6% sales tax(some exemptions true) PLUS prop tax (which varies).
The reality and I’ve thought about this for the last perhaps 6-9 yrs, we live in a territory which really isn’t economically viable for our small population base.Our only saving grace is crude oil(current breakeven rate for most new wells on slope is thought to be ~$62/brrl,older wells thought to be as low as $38/brrl).
That and Federal largesse for decades and our position on the Great Circle route.Lights out folks
Perhaps we can do without many of those ” services” ,like bloated Education budgets that pay increasing amounts to ” serve”. Fewer students each year with declining results at least with sales taxes, you can modify your behavior to not be taxed into penury
Oh, and those “high” property taxes in TX are on very inexpensive property prices there, and have special exemptions on productive land,like farms and ranches even land used as wildlife conservation land.. Tax drops to about $50
Dawg; when have you ever been right?
DOGE ALASKA
Good thing Dunleavy reached out to those fired federal employees.
Good work Governor!
The legislators are padding their pockets.
Now go after them!
Living here is expensive enough. We do NOT need an income tax. With Los Anchorage taxes now and coming. The etsy tax should be vetoed. Bottom line is to real in the huge government in all of Alaska, President Trump has opened us up again and new revenue will be coming in. We just need smarter people in charge of the purse.
We shall see…remember Dunleavy’s first try at cutting the budget? The hue and cry for lost services was so widespread he was spared a dangerous recall vote only by the distraction brought by the COVID pandemic. It takes solid resolve with an attitude of “vote me out if you don’t like it” for a politician to tell his constituents ‘no’ to forms of spending that people demand. Under that test, Dunleavy completely crumpled.
My prediction for this time: he will crumple again, mainly by quietly expanding his list of ‘essential services.’ Plowing snow? – yeah, no hiring freeze for that crew. Running AK ferry service? – yeah, better do that, too. Court systems? – opps, forgot about that. etc. etc.
God forbid we cut a bloated government
So easy you should run for office you’ll have it done your first week in office I bet.
Now fire 90% of the state employees and close your immigrant welcome center!
Just keep employees who process PFD applications, huh?
So far as these measures to reduce spending growth, when the state and the municipalities start using airline miles for government travel instead of allowing their employees to keep the miles we will know that elected officials are honest and serious in this effort.
People with no knowledge of state budget detail have such strongly held opinions on waste and bloat.
This executive action is posturing window dressing.
Unless you gut Medicaid and/or school funding, it simply doesn’t move the needle. The latter is poised for large increase to partially offset inflation has had on flat funding. Meanwhile nobody wants to work for the state since there’s better money and employers elsewhere. Meanwhile our infrastructure deteriorates and there is insufficient new housing being built. Could go on and on.
If we can’t fill the pipeline with oil soon, or start breaking ground soon on a gasoline then we’re headed for a fiscal cliff again. We keep dodging those, but one of these days – perhaps this time – we won’t.
Gut the bloated school funding. With enrollments dropping,they don’t need MORE money, they need less!! They need to consolidate consolidate and not build new TajMahals that they can’t or ( wont) properly maintain. aSD first!! Stop buying stupid SEL materials and hiring idiots like Bryantt
And yet you oppose cutting the bloated state government.
Governor, you’re not done yet! – Let’s talk about how the privileged playbook keeps getting thicker—because apparently, all you need is the right connections to rewrite the rules. Case in point: an employee and promoted in a manager in Kenai but somehow magically is remote from Juneau during the session. Oh, and did I mention she happens to be married to a Senator? Nepotism at its finest!
For everyone else? Good luck convincing the state that remote work is even a possibility. Thousands of employees could benefit from the same setup, but instead, they’re stuck watching the privileged elite bend policy to suit their needs while vacancies pile up like a bad budget plan.
Meanwhile, frontline employees are expected to show up, grind it out for $25 an hour, and just accept that their office is a ghost town. Because leadership isn’t the problem—right? Spoiler: It absolutely is! People don’t just quit because of wages; they quit because they’re tired of watching favoritism run the show.
Governor, what do you say? Maybe set a few of your sharpest minds on this tangled web and see what they uncover. Or better yet—why not confront it directly instead of acting like it’s not there? The Adam Crum embarrassment case is just the beginning—there’s plenty more lurking beneath the surface.