Governor Mike Dunleavy has said that our state needs everyone to say “yes” to everything. For the governor, “everything” can essentially be defined as any industrial development.

The governor seems to have a vision in mind of transforming the Alaska of our fond memories into a kind of North Detroit with heavy engineering, a growing road network, mines with their associated sewage dams, and large-scale oil and gas production.

However, the governor is walking a path littered with many “no's.” Consider the $70 million in three-year cuts that were rejected to the university in 2019. Or how about $13 million that was rejected in 2020, among other cuts from the ferry budget. And let's not forget the $87 million that was rejected in the legally approved temporary aid for elementary schools in 2023.

The governor has also said a resounding no to bears, authorizing the killing of nearly 100 brown bears shot by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in a single cull. Add to that the no to wolves, of which half or more of the population was killed on Prince of Wales Island in a single year for biologically incorrect reasons, supposedly to increase the deer population.

Added to this list is an existential “no” to salmon (a state landmark species) which is in danger across the state and whose populations are threatened with extinction in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, and a resounding “yes” to the large trawler interests based in Seattle that continue to decimate our salmon stocks and destroy the Bering Sea biosphere.

So the governor's path is paved with “no's,” which he justifies by calling funding for scientific research on fisheries and wildlife, the university, public transit, elementary school funding, and all these and more “unsustainable increases” and demanding that we Alaskans learn to “live within our means.”

But with his vetoes and cuts to services across the board, is the governor really concerned with living within our means? Does a governor who regularly proposes “unsustainable increases” to PFD checks care about a “balanced” budget?

A recent article by Nathaniel Herz in the November 30 Anchorage Daily News states that Governor Dunleavy plans to reinstate what he calls a “tax credit for gas production at oil and gas wells.”

Legislation to create these credits dates back to Governor Frank Murkowski, but they were eventually eliminated because they were a huge drain on the state's coffers (nearly $8 billion) and did not contribute to increased production.

Governors Walker and Dunleavy both supported the passage of HB 331, a bill that would have authorized $1 billion in bond debt to pay off outstanding tax credits, even if the payments were not due. In a unanimous vote by the Alaska Supreme Court, HB 331 was declared unconstitutional in its entirety. Had the Alaska Supreme Court not lifted the debt to pay off the cash-for-credit program, the state of Alaska would still have to pay back hundreds of millions in principal and interest on a program that did not work. The governor is apparently willing to push through the cost of a renewed tax credit program under the guise of “living within our means.”

The implicit message is obvious. Alaskans have to settle for a double handful of “no's.” But the companies exploring for gas and oil in our state deserve a break.

There is a deep, persistent hypocrisy here. The oil companies, who are committed to the laissez-faire market mantra – which dismisses the utility of government and enthrones financial and commodity markets as the controlling force – have never been able to function and profit without subsidies from public funds at any point in their existence. These subsidies have been provided by politicians at all times and at all levels, from infrastructure funding to loan guarantees to price supports, ad infinitum. It all falls into the category of public risk, private profit.

Governor Dunleavy is in lockstep with this group, shielding himself from the needs of the state's people under his shield of “available resources” and handing out state resources in bulk to the private sector and its insatiable demands. Why the average Alaskan tolerates this kind of ruinous economic policy is a mystery.

Eric Forrer is a retired carpenter/contractor living in Juneau and declares no political affiliation.