By CRAIG CAMPBELL

Every public conflict reaches a climatic point where decisive action leads the way to closure. 

In 2020 the coronavirus pandemic has created a conflict between freedom-loving Americans and socialists who have used government control to force compliance with government dictums, in the name of public safety and health.  

The strain of excessive and illegal government over-reach these past nine months in restricting our liberties has reached its limits. We are starting to take back control from the autocratic fanatics currently running our local government. 

We can no longer endure government mandates that force businesses out of business.  We’ll remember the CampoBello Bistro, Perfect Cup, Red Chair Café, and others Anchorage businesses that are permanently closed due to our government’s response to COVID.  

But times, they are a changing.  We are starting to resist the draconian government mandates controlling every aspect of our lives.  

SAVE ANCHORAGE is a grassroots movement to rally citizens to reject the closures of government meetings to the public and to support businesses trying to operate against Mayor Ethan Berkowitz unconstitutional closure mandates. It’s a great initiative to take back Anchorage.

ALASKANS FOR OPEN MEETINGS has been created to legally challenge the Anchorage Assembly’s violation of the Alaska Open Meetings Act.  Finally, a legal challenge to the illegal actions of our local government this past summer.

LITTLE DIPPER DINER is taking their case against the Anchorage closure orders through the courts to invalidate Mayor Berkowtiz Emergency Order. 

Enraged citizens are protesting outside the Assembly chambers, something I have never seen before. We are fired up.  Tired of this tyrannical government denying us our rights. 

I know, COVID-19 is a serious infectious disease, but it never should require us giving up our freedoms to protect society.  

Imagine, if they are successful in restricting our freedom of movement and assembly based on a virus, could they also not restrict private ownership and use of guns by declaring a public safety emergency due to a rising crime rate caused by their own lack of supporting law enforcement.  They are already trying to control our police, visa vie cabal member Meg Zaletel’s resolution 2020-339 which gives the Assembly power to review APD’s policies and procedures.  

The coronavirus has tested our society.  It has shown us what life is like under an authoritarian system which dictates societal practices that take away personal freedoms. A government forcing people to wear masks in the name of public health is just the first step towards forcing people to wear a certain type of clothing in the name of safety; or forcing people to buy only certain products under the guise of public health; or forcing people to buy government controlled health care. 

See where we’re headed?  When will this madness end? I say, right here, right now!

The resistance is working. Black Lives Matter was permitted to put up a sign on the publically owned Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (APAC) building. There were no riots, no public demonstrations, but there was public recognition that if a politically charged sign can be displayed supporting a radical Marxists organization on the APAC façade, then they have created a public forum and others can also display their political messages on the building.  

Recognizing they created a hornet’s nest, the APAC denied Save Anchorage permission to put up their sign and stated they are changing APAC policy to prohibit all political signs. What idiots. Anybody with half a brain could have foreseen this outcome.   

We’re winning. The Assembly has reopened, albeit on a limited and controlled basis. Restaurants and business are again open, with restrictions.  Resistance has been peaceful in Anchorage, no riots. Patriotism is rising, more American flags being flown. You can feel the change in the air. But we have not achieved victory, yet.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has been politically damaged by his excessive “hunker down” and business restrictions.  The Assembly cabal has been seen for what they are, an elitist, despotic autocracy.  Recalls are in the making against cabal members who arrogantly flaunt their superior authority over us peons. 

Don’t misunderstand my concern about COVID.  I have been tested twice to make sure I am not asymptomatic and potentially infecting others. I wear a mask at retail outlets that have corporate policies mandating masks. A business requiring masks is far different from a government dictating universal mask usage.   

Face it, we can no longer trust our local government. While the Anchorage infection rate has been rising and currently is at 5.1% of those tested, the World Health Organization sets a positive test rate of less than 10% as manageable. We’re half that. In fact, 94.9% of people tested came back negative for COVID.  

Mayor Berkowitz said Friday that there’s an “increased reluctance” for people to share information about their social interactions with contact tracers. He assured us that all contact tracing data is confidential. Really?  We have been told our personal information with the IRS and Social Security are confidential, only to later be told they had been hacked and our personal data released to unknown sources.  

We are learning to live with COVID without having to destroy our economy and take away our freedom to assemble. The balance between managing a very contagious virus and wrecking our economy and taking away our freedoms is a no brainer. We must protect our freedoms and retain a viable economic city, while reasonably managing the transmission of an infectious disease. 

We must never allow autocratic bureaucrats to create a society of subservient vassals, bowing to excessive and unnecessary government control, in order to “protect us from ourselves.”  

In a free society, businesses can determine when to operate and how many customers they can accommodate. In a free society, citizens can determine whether they want to go into a place of business, eat at a restaurant, or go to the movies. In a free society government provides services, but is not the puppet-master of our everyday lifestyles.

Ronald Reagan once said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

No more shut-downs. No more closing down government public meetings to the public.  No more mandating business practices to the private sector. 

This is the time, this is the place to stop the insanity of government over-reach and the unconstitutional deprivation of our liberties. Like a cancer, if we don’t stop it now, it will only metastasize and eventually kill democracy.

Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor.  He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation.  He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).

By JIM CRAWFORD

 Let me say that again: “Alaska is not broke.”  

As a banker in Alaska for about 50 years prior to retirement, I have a time-consuming habit of reading lengthy financial statements, since the devil is always in the details.  

I was most pleased a dozen years ago when I discovered Alaska’s “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” (CAFR), required by federal law.  The CAFR is the audited financial statement report that shows the actual income and expense and balance sheets of our whole state government. 

The report shows anyone exactly how our Alaska money is managed.  You can find it at http://doa.alaska.gov/dof/reports/resource/2019cafr.pdf.  

Studying the CAFR reveals one truth: managing assets through legislative appropriation is not working. 

Take the POMV (percentage of market value) system that draws money from Permanent Fund Earnings in a convoluted way. We have a standing law on the books that clearly says to Legislators: “Pay the dividend of 50% of permanent fund earnings to Alaskans and you can use the other 50% for government, if you need it.” 

Instead, legislators adopted a different approach, and nine legislators were retired this year in the primary election as a result. Legislators who thought that they could spend our dividends on larger government, rather than follow the formula, lost their right to represent us.  They were wrong, and paid the price for being rebellious public “servants” who forgot whom they worked for. 

After reading the CAFR for fiscal year 2019, I came up with a plan that could manage the assets of the state of Alaska better than now.  The plan is a bridge, because we need the economy not to tank during our rebuilding effort to produce more revenue from increasing oil production on the North Slope.  

There is good news. In addition to our current oil production of the legacy fields on the North Slope at around 490,000 barrels per day, there is another 1,063,000 barrels per day ready to go into the pipeline. In turn, two times more production means multiplying the revenues for Alaska by three.

These are actual oil discoveries awaiting development investments either by infrastructure investors, the producers, or both. Those new barrels of oil solve all our financial problems – if we do not kill the golden goose by voting yes on the disastrous Ballot Measure 1, or chase another producer out of Alaska.  

Defeating Ballot Measure 1 is an immediate action that must be taken for this plan to work. 

So, how do we bridge the few years we need before we produce enough oil to get out of the pickle we are in?  By remembering, “we’re not broke,” and using our strong financial assets to meet our fiscal needs.

Here are some of the state agencies with billions of dollars of overcapitalized balance sheets that can help us through consolidation:

University of Alaska                                       Net position $1,820,190,000

Alaska Housing Finance Corporation            Net position $1,571,423,000

Alaska Industrial Development Corp             Net position $1,374,903,000

Alaska Energy Authority                                Net position $1,543,000,000

Non major components                                  Net position $1,461,757,000

Total available capital                                    Net position $7,771,273,000

What I mean by “overcapitalized” is that each of these organizations have real money on their balance sheets, but do not use this money for their missions.  

How you can tell if it is “overcapitalized?”  If the agency had this money last year and the year before and the year before that – it is overcapitalized.  This growth in government does no good for the Alaska people. Let us put this “lazy money” to work in the Constitution Budget Reserve, wipe out the Legislature’s prior borrowings to the CBR, and invest it or make it available to the General Fund. Solve the budget wars and build our bridge to a very bright future.    

Of course, we still need to shrink state government, but following this simple plan and remaining patient can provide the resources required to get us through the right-sizing process.  

After all, just like the Alaska Permanent Fund, it is our money – Alaskans’ money.  And in the immediate future, we must vote NO on Ballot Measure 1 to preserve the PFD. 

Jim Crawford is a third-generation Alaskan entrepreneur who resides in Anchorage with his bride of 36 years, Terri.  The Alaska Institute for Growth is a local think tank which studies and reports on and may sponsor projects of sustained economic growth for the Alaskan economy.   Mr. Crawford known as the Permanent Fund Defender was a member of the Investment Advisory Committee, appointed by Governor Hammond to plan and execute the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.