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Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

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Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#81

Post by rovolo »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #75
rovolo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you're underselling the size of the PFD relative to the state budget when you say "akin to digging through [the] couch cushions for change". Here's a comparison of the numbers: // (expected - actual) * valid applicants // ($2,300 - $1,100) * 666,047 PFD withheld 2017: $ 687M Total state revenue 2017: $1,018M Also, these statements are in conflict: > the PFD that isn't constitutionally protected > pay res…

The phrase was meant to illustrate that the fund isn't for the legislators to spend regardless of its size. It is the people's money. The whole thing looks like the Grasshopper and the Ant. The ant(people) established investments to benefit themselves and their descendants. The grasshopper(legislators) spent damn near every penny of oil revenue. Now the grasshopper has stolen part of the ant's cache and is begging fo…

Sorry for clipping out the 'neighbors' bit, but my point is that "stopgap measure", "couch cushions for change", and "is a distraction" imply that the size of the PFD is insignificant compared to state revenue. Or, the PFD size should at least be considered sacrosanct.

Rereading your comment though, it's clear that you're mainly focusing on the legislators not dealing with the budget to your satisfaction. Closing the deficit caused by low oil prices/production will require more revenue or lower expenditures.

However, I would note that governor Walker made a "hard choice" increasing revenue from the PFDs given that it caused voter outrage with people such as yourself. All of the money the legislature manages is the "people's money" since the government should be answerable to, and working for the residents of Alaska.

---

Tangent, reading the statutes, it's painful to be reminded that Alaska was the first state in the US to pass a constitutional amendment denying marriage to gay people.

> AS 25.05.013. Same-sex marriages.

> (a) A marriage entered into by persons of the same sex, either under common law or under statute, that is recognized by another state or foreign jurisdiction is void in this state, and contractual rights granted by virtue of the marriage, including its termination, are unenforceable in this state.

> (b) A same-sex relationship may not be recognized by the state as being entitled to the benefits of marriage. (§ 2 ch 21 SLA 1996)

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#82

Post by omegaworks »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #68
AWildC182 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this may be true, Alaska, unlike almost all other states, basically operates without any income or sales taxes. They depend almost entirely on oil revenue and property taxes which obviously isn't sustainable long term. https://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/state-taxes-alaska.as...

Agreed, it is not sustainable. Alaska put themselves in this situation by growing government whenever oil prices were high without any regard to oil prices dropping. There was an opportunity to build Alaska wealth without taxes but I feel the time has passed. If Alaska had instead taken the 75% share of oil revenue allocated to government and invested it the same as the people's portion they wouldn't be in this situa…

>The entire historical debacle just illustrates in vivid color how horrendous politicians are at managing money.

This is not true everywhere. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund that is doing quite well. Libya was once the most prosperous African nation before the US demolished their government. Sovereign wealth funds are an effective management strategy for the resource curse, if western nation backed multinational corporations don't find a way to seize control of it and/or block you from accessing the global marketplace.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#83

Post by toomuchtodo »

drak0n1c wrote: post #51
justin66 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That money has to come from somewhere, and it's going to be the voting minority. This is not dictatorship, this is pure democracy in action - the popular vote. Tyranny of the majority. This is a little like discussion of frictionless surfaces and spherical cows in high school physics. In reality, a lot of laws are written for the rich minority.

I agree that there is a lot of regulatory capture in lawmaking. However, this is a case of exactly the opposite. The cuts are happening to a relatively wealthy minority in Alaska (academics, college attendees, the engineering community, and oil corporations that depend on engineering schools) while more popular welfare and training programs go untouched.

But this is good. Those who the cuts impact will relocate to better states, and Alaska will be left holding that bag as oil revenues continue to decline.

Market forces at work.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#84

Post by Thrymr »

Jtsummers wrote: post #21
hpoe wrote: post #17

On the flip side if they just continue to run at a deficit for extended periods then they have to cut even more as they will no longer be able to fund what they have. I get that this isn't an ideal situation but it seems like so often whenever anyone wants to cut anything its the end of the world. I mean what would you cut in order to reduce the deficit? Welfare services? Health services? Emergency services? It may n…

They need to raise taxes. Alaska has been riding the oil money for a long time, but that's being reduced every year. Since they didn't invest it wisely, they have nothing to fall back on. The only way to reduce the deficit is a combination of eliminating government services and raising taxes.

Raise taxes? They need to stop giving free money to residents first, that is the direct cause of this budget crisis.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#85

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mywittyname wrote: post #30
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If/when oil is done, Alaska will probably depopulate rapidly; they will have much larger problems than needing to raise taxes. The governor is doing this not to fill in gaps in the budget, but to increase the Alaskan dividend all residents get every year. Crazy stuff.

It's very possible that the majority of Alaskans support the governor's plan.

I doubt the Inuits do, but probably most of the people in Anchorage/Fairbanks.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#86

Post by craftinator »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #78
darkpuma wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, perhaps not. But I see little reason that somebody over 70 at the oldest should be allowed to vote at all (let alone do something even more serious like hold public office!) If you and your friends were trying to decide what to do next weekend, would you give a vote to the friend who was going to be out of town that weekend? People should not have a say in matters they won't be around for. I'm not allowed to…

Somebody over 70 has seen some things in their life. For a concrete example: There are people alive who experienced the Great Depression. Should none of them be allowed to vote? Is that really a good idea? Should people who lived through World War II not be allowed to vote? Or would it be better to have some of those people, as voters, to be able to say "wait a minute" to some stuff that sounds good to people who hav…

I think his point is that "old people" won't live with the outcome of their votes. It's not a generally correct point, but it makes sense from the perspective that they don't have skin in the game.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#87

Post by seanmcdirmid »

omegaworks wrote: post #82
tastyfreeze wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it is not sustainable. Alaska put themselves in this situation by growing government whenever oil prices were high without any regard to oil prices dropping. There was an opportunity to build Alaska wealth without taxes but I feel the time has passed. If Alaska had instead taken the 75% share of oil revenue allocated to government and invested it the same as the people's portion they wouldn't be in this situa…

>The entire historical debacle just illustrates in vivid color how horrendous politicians are at managing money. This is not true everywhere. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund that is doing quite well. Libya was once the most prosperous African nation before the US demolished their government. Sovereign wealth funds are an effective management strategy for the resource curse, if western nation backed multinational c…

From what I heard, it’s own people got tired of Ghadaffi’s crap and revolted, but let e know if that is just western media bias.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#88

Post by tastyfreeze »

omegaworks wrote: post #82
tastyfreeze wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it is not sustainable. Alaska put themselves in this situation by growing government whenever oil prices were high without any regard to oil prices dropping. There was an opportunity to build Alaska wealth without taxes but I feel the time has passed. If Alaska had instead taken the 75% share of oil revenue allocated to government and invested it the same as the people's portion they wouldn't be in this situa…

>The entire historical debacle just illustrates in vivid color how horrendous politicians are at managing money. This is not true everywhere. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund that is doing quite well. Libya was once the most prosperous African nation before the US demolished their government. Sovereign wealth funds are an effective management strategy for the resource curse, if western nation backed multinational c…

An Alaska wealth fund is what I had alluded to. It would have been a prudent investment in the wealth of Alaska. But, that didn't happen when the money was there. Now, there isn't the necessary time or money to build a wealth fund. Maybe the pain of the coming cuts will be enough to encourage building a fund for the future. I haven't seen anything that makes me think it will but, I can dream.

It is really good to read that there is at least one country that built a wealth fund to provide for the government and citizens.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#89

Post by chillacy »

omegaworks wrote: post #63
chillacy wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a big issue. We all see the high healthcare and education costs and want healthcare and higher education for all, but our healthcare (current system) is way more expensive than other developed nations' and college prices have only increased over time, turning student loans into college administrators. We'll have to address this inflation either way.

This is why these universal programs are coupled with monopsony leverage. Healthcare prices have exploded because the government has been intentionally hobbled at the bargaining table, legislatively blocked from using its weight to negotiate better deals for prescription drug prices. Tuition has exploded because a system of credit has been created that is untouchable by bankruptcy. These are solvable problems.

Agreed, they look pretty solvable and semi-obvious to me, but the pace of government has been slow (assuming they're not being incentivized against fixing these problems through lobbying in the first place). It's very sad to watch.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#90

Post by scarejunba »

sweetcherrypie wrote: post #66
somethoughts wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is kind of interesting is - does it make sense for the environment to actually grow the population of Alaska? Its not like its an easy environment to live in without using an increasing amount of greenhouse gases. The population should migrate toward areas where the temperature/humidity does not require resources just to be comfortable. The population should also migrate toward where energy that is renewable and…

Alternatively, let people live where they'd like to.

Oh yes, certainly. I just don't want my money going to them to incentivize things. So I don't want the government to subsidize living in flood plains or in Alaska or even in coastal California.

We will all pay a carbon tax and we'll all live with the results of our actions. Let the chips fall where they may.

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