The Juneau Empire’s blog is reporting that Gov. Sarah Palin sent the Alaska legislature a supplemental budget request today that slashes general fund spending by $268.6 million and asks for authorization to withdraw some funds from the state’s savings accounts to bring the budget into balance by the end of the fiscal year. The governor has already put a state hiring freeze into effect.
According to a news release from the governor’s office, Palin told the Alaska lawmakers:
“With changing market conditions and declining oil prices, our state agencies have been working hard to find savings and still provide needed public services. Through savings targets we implemented at the beginning of the fiscal year and by efficiently managing our programs, we have been able to reduce the current budget and minimize supplemental funding. The more we reduce now, the less we will have to draw from savings at the end of the year.”
The governor said the cuts are necessary because the sharp drop in oil prices has reduced expected state revenues by $2 billion. She asked for the legislature’s cooperation to restrain spending and keep her state’s unemployment rate from rising as rapidly as it has in the sixteen states which have higher unemployment rates than Alaska:
“With the drop in oil prices, it will require reductions in the budget and access to reserves to keep Alaskans employed and the economy moving. I am committed to working with the legislature, as we have over the past two years, to make prudent budget decisions and continue to invest in infrastructure that will help develop our resources and our communities.”
Alaska’s unemployment rate rose three-tenths of a percent in December to 7.5 percent. At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose four-tenths of a percent to 7.2 percent.
Gov. Palin’s budget supplement and more state budget information can be found on the Alaska OMB website.
- JP
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Reducing spending during an economic crisis...?
NeoKong (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 6:52PM EST (link)What a novel idea.
Maybe she could jot down some of those ideas and send them over to Congress because they haven’t quite seemed to grasp that concept yet.
Follow me on Twitter.
Indeed, what a concept!! nt
USNJIMRET (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 8:14PM EST (link)This is how you lead, Ahhhrnold.
Tbone (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 6:55PM EST (link)I wish Arnie would send a budget to the CA legislature and say vote it up or down and if down, I’ll send you a new, smaller one tomorrow.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
There goes Achance's pothole fill, Tbone. nt.
furious (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 7:04PM EST (link)–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
I don't get any State money for potholes.
Achance (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 8:32PM EST (link)My road was paved with a local improvenet district assessment that I paid for.
You guys are clueless about how a budget and a government actually works but that doesn’t get in the way of your fantasy about Sarah Palin, does it?
In Vino Veritas
...and you still have a bureaucrat's sense...
furious (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 9:06PM EST (link),,,of humor.
–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
Which fantasy do you refer to?
Flagstaff (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 3:08AM EST (link)nt
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
Urban legend. She didn't cut the AK budget.
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 8:20PM EST (link)She reduced the request for Supplemental Funds that would be in addition to the already approved budget.
Josh, you really need to learn to read budgets
Achance (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 8:30PM EST (link)and not just press releases.
This is the second one of these stupid posts by people who don’t know a damned thing about government.
Alaska is working on SFY 09, budget year ending June 30, 2009, the largest budget we’ve ever had in nominal dollars. The SUPPLEMENTAL budget is the additional requests from the departments for money in EXCESS of what they got in the SFY 09 budget. Now bureaucrats being bureaucrats, if they need two million, they ask for four. She whacked a few million out of the additional requests. That’s a budget cut only if you accept a Democrat definition of a budget cut being giving somebody less than they asked for.
The Alaska Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is her for your reading enjoyment: http://fin.admin.state.ak.us/dof/financial_reports/cafr_toc.jsp
In Vino Veritas
Ah, the bureaucratic mind.
Josh Painter (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 9:17PM EST (link)$270 Million may be only “a few ” million.to you, Achance, but to the people to live in the real world, it’s quite a chunk of change. And politicians who manage to save the normal people who pay their taxes some of that money (because it is theirs, after all) are so rare that everyday folks do appreciate them for it.
Now that may be “stupid” to a good-old-boy-networker like you, but Palin is doing what many of her fellow governors refuse to do. While they raise taxes on “stupid” people, she and a few of her counterparts in other states are tightening the bureaucratic belt a notch or two.
“Drops in the bucket? A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” – Sen. Ev Dirksen (R-IL)
- JP
“An armed society is a polite society” – Robert A. Heinlein, “Beyond This Horizon” (1942)
Whoosh. Come on Josh.
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 9:28PM EST (link)Get over it. What part of “it’s a reduction in money not approved” don’t you get? It’s exactly like Democrats whining about “budget cuts” when proposed expenditures, which are greater than current expenditures, are less than they project they should be.
You’re just wrong on this one, don’t take it personally. She didn’t reduce spending vis the state budget. She reduced a request for additional money. That’s nice, but it’s not the same thing.
Even “I” think you’re beginning to sound like a cult, and I have no problem with the idea of Palin at the top of the ticket. Assuming she does a hell of a job as Governor and gets reelected. And then does a hell of a job as Governor. But, guys, we’re a long way from having that discussion. Relax.
We’ve got the next six months of our Marxist President to deal with and that’s a hell of a lot more important that just about anything Gov Palin could do. And, BTW, I think her comments on the Porkulus are good stuff. You’d do better to focus on that if you’ve just GOT to talk about Gov Palin.
Josh, I can't believe a front page contributor
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:40AM EST (link)is this damned dumb. You don’t know anything about me or who I’m associated with, but you have your talking points down. More importantly, for the sake of your Sarah Love, you adopt a Democrat definition of a budget cut. Sarah Palin has presided over the greatest increases in Alaska’s budget since the first days after the Pipeline. Now, she whacks a little off departmental requests to supplement an already exhorbitant budget and you cream your jeans about what a fiscal conservative she is. Don’t be stupid, it is unseemly.
In Vino Veritas
"This is the second one of these stupid posts by people who don’t know a damned thing about government."
Tbone (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 10:03PM EST (link)Ya see Josh, bureauucrats know about government so what the ___ should a stupid voter do but let bureaucrats who know about government run the government?
After all, we are all surrounded by governments being run really well by bureaucrats, now aren’t we?
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
You are ignorant, superstitious cultists who
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:35AM EST (link)simply fantasize about this stuff. You apply the same logic that applied to the children’s crusade.
This simple fact is that this is not a budget cut. Sarah Palin has presided over the greatest increases in Alaska’s budget since the first days after the Pipeline and you sycophants just keep making up your stories.
This isn’t about whether I agree with her about policy or whether I like or support her. This is simply about you people making up stuff. Now, I’m reasonably confident that none of you will actually read, or even be able to read, those CAFRs, but the numbers don’t lie and you guys do.
In Vino Veritas
Some hear you, Art
civil truth (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:48AM EST (link)But do give Sarah some credit for doing the right thing, even if she runs little political risk in doing so because this is essentially painless from a budget viewpoint. At least she’s astute enough to realize this.
But this certainly is not grounds for beatification.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Having made a supplemental request or two,
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 1:21AM EST (link)you just ask for $5 Million if you only need two. Hell, you ask for $5 Million if you don’t need anything; you might get it and then it is play time.
I’ll plead guilty, I had really good relations with the Legislature and nobody would really challenge me, so I had as much money as I wanted. My Agency lived really, really well. That’s just the way you play the game. Now, if somebody here is smart enough to change that game, I’ll throw in with them, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that.
Those supplementals are ON TOP of record budgets. So, she cut them a bit, good on her, but they knew she would, so they asked for far more than they really needed.
The bottom line is that Sarah Palin has never cut Alaska’s budget if cutting the budget is defined as spending less in current year than was spent in prior year. And I actually don’t hold that against her; the State needed to spend some money. What I hold against her and her hagiographers here is this stupid sophistry about her cutting budgets.
In Vino Veritas
Appreciate your cautions against irrational exuberance
civil truth (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 1:50AM EST (link)But that’s different than begrudging her taking advantage of her good luck in heading a state that still has substantial revenues. (As opposed to the impending death spriral of California, alas.)
I think you know the difference between the two, but sometimes you do come across as begrudging. Some of that may be overcompensation.
If she’s just lucky, then that will become evident when luck turns, as it always does. On the other hand, she has withstood some of the most withering attacks I’ve seen leveled on a public official, and that takes a tenacity of character that most politicians don’t lack. I’m not sure about the tenacity of her advisors, though.
And perhaps her greatest hazard in the months to come will be overselling by her friends and her believing the hype.
Of course, external advesity may intrude at any time – and then she’ll get a chance to demonstrate her mettle.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Isn't a budget cut an increase that is lower than the baseline
JSobieski (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 1:54AM EST (link)Reagan never cut spending in absolute terms, but he did reduce the rate of increases in non-defense spending over a couple of years. Gave the economy a chance to catch its breath and start to grow.
I don;t think the prhase “Cult-like” is fair given the conventional (not literal) use of the word “cut”
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
nope, retarded growth...
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 2:39AM EST (link)which can be taken in both senses… lol
we need actual Budget Freeze… need more somewhere, cut it from somewhere else….
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
Don't call me an ignoran cultist you lazy, pile of washed up bureaucrat
Tbone (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 11:59AM EST (link)and don’t conflate me with children crusade organizers. I am neither, however you are one of the old boys who lost their jobs when Palin whipped your sugar daddy and you been whining about her for months.
Now go hit your cheap bottle of wine some more so you can deal with it.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
No, Tbone, you're just ignorant.
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:13PM EST (link)Now, explain those budget cuts to me. In fact, in the other thread, I posted the actual increments and decrements to give a graphic record of the smoke and mirrors employed.
And don’t conflate me with Palin’s so-called old boys that she really liked to pal around with right up until she turned on each and every one that ever helped her. I left the Murkowski Administration six months before the election because I was sick of it and had my 120 days for the year in to make it count for my high three. As to lazy, I don’t have to work. Everytime you fill up your car, some of that money is going to my retirement. Go buy some gas for me today.
In Vino Veritas
Please
Steph C (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:20PM EST (link)I don’t agree with Achance’s opinion of Palin, either but, please, at least try to disagree with some modicum of civility.
He does have insight that we don’t have although I believe he goes overboard with it sometimes.
This kind of infighting reminds me of the libs… who are anything but liberal.
There are good points and bad points on both sides and the truth is usually somewhere in the middle.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Proverbs 27:17
1SGinTN (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 12:45PM EST (link)This is for Art, Josh & Tbone:
AS IRON SHARPENS IRON, SO ONE MAN SHARPENS ANOTHER. Proverbs 27:17
We’re supposed to be sharpening one another, not the weapons to cut each other with.
Tu Ne Cede Malis
-Virgil
I am just glad she cut the requested money - cutting goodies out is a good thing
Elizabeth Christian (Diary) Tuesday, February 3rd at 10:36PM EST (link); ) Sarah Palin ROCKS ; )
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
~Benjamin Franklin
It is the relative standing that is important.
GB221 (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 1:44AM EST (link)Using bin counting as a way of criticizing Josh Painter is inappropriate. He praises Sarah Palin for being more fiscally responsible than (my guess) 80% of all the US governors.
My guess may be wrong but may be those who know all the data, could rank the US governors in order of fiscal restraint for this year. Where does Sarah Palin stand in this list?
No, it's not inappropriate.
Josh Painter (Diary) Wednesday, February 4th at 11:36AM EST (link)Let Art criticize away to his heart’s content. Even his arguments over semantics doesn’t bother me a bit.
In Art’s world, anyone who disagrees with him is “dumb” or “ignorant” or “stupid”. His increasing reliance on ad hominem attacks to try to make his case are harbingers of his impending total meltdown.
I’ll bring the popcorn.
- JP
“An armed society is a polite society” – Robert A. Heinlein, “Beyond This Horizon” (1942)