By MAYOR DAVE BRONSON
Alaska’s economy needs a reboot. Alaska and Anchorage, as the economic hub of the state, have struggled to regain the jobs lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While states like Texas, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona have regained the jobs they lost during the pandemic, we remain far behind the pack.
The devastating lockdowns imposed by the Assembly and my predecessors did not help small businesses overcome this once-in-a-generation pandemic. The anti-development policies coming out of D.C. via the President and his allies are not boosting oil production or creating new jobs. Policies that make it more difficult to start and run a business in Anchorage aren’t what we need.
Thankfully there are solutions on the table to change this narrative. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed a plan that I support, to responsibly invest in our state at a moment when we need it the most. The governor’s general obligation bond bill – known as GO bonds – represents a chance to complete critical projects and create high-paying jobs.
The proposal totals about $325 million that would go towards roads, ports, airports, harbors, and other key infrastructure projects across our state. As a supporter of small government and fiscal restraint, I normally wouldn’t be in favor of such a proposal.
However, a few key factors have led me to support the governor’s plan. First and foremost, the state can afford the bonds for these projects thanks to strong investment returns that exceed the cost of paying down its debt. Further, due to rising oil prices and revenues, the state has its first deficit-free budget in a decade.
Additionally, since this proposal entails the issuance of general obligation bonds, both the legislature and people of Alaska must approve it prior to taking effect. I’m a strong believer in letting voters have a say in important matters like these.
Though the bond proposal has a statewide reach, it contains two projects of supreme importance to the nearly three-hundred thousand Anchorage residents I represent: the Port of Alaska and Bragaw road extension.
I thank the governor for funding both projects in this bill.
Securing state funding, specifically $600 million, to construct a seismically resilient cargo dock at the port is my top priority. The port serves ninety percent of the state, so it’s importance cannot be understated. Likewise, the Bragaw extension project is crucial for the health and safety of Anchorage residents. Studies have shown that extending Bragaw would enable first responders to reach our emergency rooms 5-7 minutes faster than current road conditions allow.
Rebuilding the port will provide food security for Alaska, while extending Bragaw would enhance public safety operations in our city. Both projects would create high-paying, family supporting jobs. These are the type of jobs we need to rebuild our economy and get Alaska back on the right track.
Some will say that we should rely on the federal government to solve all our infrastructure needs and problems. When did it become the Alaskan way to seek a handout, rather than striving on our own to accomplish what we believe in? The people of Anchorage and our state know what projects are truly needed, not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. We must not place our future in the hands of those who live thousands of miles away.
We are at a critical moment in our state’s history. Are we still a people that believes in building great projects, like generations before? Do we still have it in us to unite for a common cause that transcends politics?
It is my belief that we are such a people and can create a bright future together for our children and grandchildren. The governor’s bond bill is a great first step toward jumpstarting our economy and building our state.
I hope legislators can put partisanship aside and give Alaskans a chance to vote on this proposal. The people should have the right to vote on the economic future of our state.
Dave Bronson is mayor of Anchorage.
I am interested in your support for Mayor Bronson’s projects. I appreciate that you believe in them. Why are you unidentified? Guest Contributor? That could be anybody, and I’m not inclined to place any value on the words and beliefs of someone who speaks only anonymously. Too bad, as I might be onboard until I found I was supporting someone nefarious, and there are plenty of those around this town.
It says, “By MAYOR DAVE BRONSON” under the photo.
Glenn, it looks to me that the Mayor wrote it himself, says so at the top of the letter!
Hello, hello. This is by Mayor Dave Bronson. Read the byline
If you look at the line above the article you’ll see the guest contributor is the Mayor
Glenn,
Get another booster shot.
Everything will be ok…
Well! The baby isn’t yanked from mama’s chest to solid food for an independent eater. Baby secondly baby goes on to jar baby foods. So must dependent alaskans. So its bonds! Just not too long, even a toddler grows tired eating mush food.
This is one of the very few things government does that I believe in. Fix the port and support infrastructure projects. Don’t let the progressives waste your government money on wokeness.
Only a fool would borrow money when you have a $1.5 B surplus to use instead.
No. The Alaska economy does not need a boost! Everyone who wants a job can find one today! Contractors of every sort are booked for years. And the last thing the state needs is more spending. The second last thing the state needs is more debt. The state is rolling in cash right now. Borrowing today to prop up state spending, already way too high, so that Alaskans 20 and 30 years from now have to work to pay the debt service is a proposal that SHOULD NOT have come from a Republican. Leveraging future Alaskans just adds to inflation right now. It’s wasteful and it aggravates the economic problems Alaska faces. Alaska should save money, hand out the rest of the stolen PFD amounts, and reduce spending. Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, TANF, Section 8 and many other programs have ruined our economy. I cannot believe anyone wants to borrow in order to spend even more.
no fiscal conservative would support this bond issue. Either Bronson did not look at the entire bond package or he did not understand it. Tying the funding for the port of Anchorage to the boondoggle at Point Mackenzie is not in the best interest of Anchorage or anyone depending on the Port of Anchorage. Sadly this is election year partisan politics at its worst.
If Bronson wants to fund projects that will promote economic development he should push for building bike trails and hiking trails. There are around one million non cruise ship visitors to Alaska each year. Each one averages around $150 a day. If you can get each of those visitors to stay one extra day in Alaska that is 150 million real dollars in the Alaska economy.
I am waiting to see how this plays out in our MOA campaigns. Who will not be in favor of these? Who can afford to think or say (or not) that the mayor has Anchorage’s best interest at heart? Even though our current regime has opposed almost any proposal thus far.
The governor on the other hand has a lot to gain, especially in the main metropolis! It’s election season; Ya gotta love Alaska!
A couple of things. First of all, the article states it will cost $600 million to get the Port of Anchorage up to snuff, but the bond package is for $325 million. That gets us to a little over half of what the port repair will cost. Let’s keep in mind that a few hundred million went into a port project that was an abject failure, and for which we are now paying the repair bill. I’m all in favor of the port rehab project, without it we face dire consequences when the current port becomes unusable, but let’s not forget that it will be expensive and that bonds will only get us part way there.
Where will the rest of the money come from? Probably from the feds. It’s the Alaska way. That’s why we need to keep Lisa in DC She’s the new Ted Stevens, and we know what he did for the state.
The Bragaw extension is probably a boondoggle. The locals seem mostly opposed, but the state seems determined to punch it through. Then there’s the Ambler Road, a total boondoggle, that should be built by the mining companies who want it, not tax payers who will end up footing the bill for the bonds.
These projects always get pushed with the “…high paying, family supporting jobs…” meme. There will be a few of these, but they will last a couple of years and then go away. Not the way to build a long term economy.
“Are we still a people that believes in building great projects, like generations before?” Let’s hope not. Look where that has got us, the Susitna River Damn that refuses to die no matter how hard it tries to do so, the Anchorage Fish Plant (now a church, I think), the Pt. McKenzie railroad to nowhere, the list goes on and on, mostly to nowhere. Imagine what we could have accomplished if that money had been put to good use rather than to pie in the sky projects that failed to pan out.
Bronson seems to think we can spend our way out of our problems with other people’s money or yours. Some of them yes, but don’t be fooled into thinking that projects to nowhere will get us any further down the road than we are now.
And yes, we do mostly rely on the federal government to fund our infrastructure projects. Don’t put some QT carpetbagger in the Senate when we have Big Teddie Lite (only respect intended, Lisa) well placed in the Senate with seniority and the ability to get things done.
Mr. Bronson is in over his head, and I don’t think he knows it. He flying VFR in an IFR situation.
And there are mountains about.
What about giving the eligible Alaskans what is owed to them for the past due balances of their PFD’s rather than incurred bonded indebtedness? It would be the best economic reboot since oil in the early ’80’s for the people of Alaska. Since 2016 4 years before the scamdemic, these monies are owed to Alaskans. It would pour billions into our economy.
I hate to say it, I am a thoroughly onboard Trumpite, but the Biden conspiraminstration has done more for Alaska oil prices than most people will admit because of its global market impacts. Over $90 a barrel with over 500,000 barrels daily. What will the Marxists, I mean Democrats, say next?
This conservative rectalcranialinversion approach to getting the Alaska economy started with GO bonds looks great on the surface but it will as all Alaska government money go to the unions, public education industry, healthcare industry and welfare industry and then just leave the state in debt. Now is not the time to bond for such projects as the Port of Anchorage and Bragaw. Now is the time to reform and get government out of the way, build small business and give Alaskans their money.
Why is it Alaska “conservatives” need government to bail out Alaskans in times of need?
Novel idea #1. Get government out of the way. Instead of creating new laws and regulations, why not reform the over 52,000 restrictions in the Alaska Administrative Code so our business communities can grow again. Why not repeal and reform Alaskan Education and Health and Social Services regulations and statutes? Why not do it? Because it’s hard and requires work, most politicians see the delight in the easy way out by throwing money at the problems and kicking the can down the road. The solution to Alaska’s problems are not capital improvement projects. They are regulatory and statutory reform.
Novel idea #2. All Alaskan sovereigns, tribal governments and the state, and all other Alaska political entities need to form and act as a TEAM to implement the The Citizens Advisory Commission on Federal Areas (CACFA) and the Alaska State Lands Advisory Group (ASLAG) petition to the President and Congress on restructuring ownership and management of federal lands in Alaska to continue maintaining the environment and biodiversity, allow public access to public resources as guaranteed by Congress, and bolster economic development. Can you imagine if the sovereign politicial strength of over 240 tribal governments and the state government hooked it up and convoyed that to DC?
Novel idea #3 Pay all eligible Alaskans their past due balances of their PFD’s. If you really believed due to rising oil prices and revenues, the state has its first deficit-free budget in a decade, then you and all conservatives would make sure this was done first. Why? Because, as Wilfred Brimley used to say, “It’s the right thing to do!”
Novel idea #4 Very unpopular thought, but we need to close the Port of Anchorage. It is not and never will be economically solvent. Cook Inlet silt will always win. Establish “food security” through rail and ice free deep water ports such as Seward and Whittier.
Novel idea #5 Seriously decentralize Anchorage. Having several small cities and/or boroughs (that’s the way it was in the early ’70’s), instead of the Anchorage behemoth will create socio-economic and political competition which is needed more than ever as we watch our current Anchorage Mayor’s agenda nullified by a Marxist assembly which is controlled by the unions, education industry, healthcare industry and welfare industry.
Michael,
The last 2 novel ideas are approachable from the mayor’s position. I have thought through #4 and don’t think we can disrupt the infrastructure in place to see that to reality. Number 5 is a good plan; we will need to see how the Eagle River effort plays out before trying to divide up Anchorage proper though. You need the platform of 1,2, and 3 to run for statewide office it would seem to me. With our current RCV policy, now would be a good time to put these thoughts before all voters not just this platform.
Ok, one more time Dave, exactly what does Anchorage have to do with the rest of the state?
If anything, the people that come up to Alaska from the Midwest like Idaho are only allowed to build projects in Alaska, not Alaskans.
Forgive the tardiness of my comment, I’ve been on vacation away from my computer… Big projects do some good, but the biggest issue I see all over Alaska is that no one wants to work a job that pays less than $25 per hour. We have many businesses struggling because they can’t find lower-cost employees and don’t have the ability to raise their prices enough to pay more. Start with reforming our welfare and unemployment programs, reduce medicaid to below Walker expansions, and really encourage the small businesses that are the true drivers of Alaska’s economy. Government does NOT drive economics, it only interferes, leeches off circulating funds, and hinders economic development and growth.
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