Hi! The Alaska Memo is a political newsletter by me, Matt Acuña Buxton, focused on Alaska politics with a dash of Anchorage and a smattering of everywhere else. At the heart of it, my mission is to explain not just what happened but why it matters, bringing in the context and background that I’ve amassed in more than a decade of reporting in Alaska.
Sullivan's safe space, sales tax dumped and PFD panic
A time crunch or a convenient excuse? A fix for a flailing bill. And is the PFD really going away?
State's penny-wise handling of Mt. Edgecumbe shows the folly of running schools like a business
It's Friday, Alaska. In this edition: If we needed an example of why the Dunleavy administration's top-down, run-it-like-a-business approach to everything isn't well-suited for the state's public education system, then look no further than the only school the state's directly
'It's cold out here.' Students, teachers warn of an education system in crisis
Teachers and students decry larger classes, fewer opportunities and "deplorable" conditions.
Legislators, local governments and Alaskans pan Dunleavy's silly sales tax pitch
Dunleavy's flimsy fiscal plan ran into one of the most thorough demolitions of a bill to take place over the course of a single legislative day.
State's salary study conveniently lost in 'Byzantine bureaucracy'
The state argues the latest delay is because they need to go out for a second study to study whether the implementation of the salary study is feasible.
The Alaska Disconnect
Ultimately, as the report outlines, the question of “who pays” is not just about Alaskans versus non-residents, but poor and middle-class Alaskans versus ultra-wealthy Alaskans.
Dunleavy’s fiscal plan: Sales tax for you, tax cuts for corporations
It's not just a plan to branch the state's finances until the next great oil boom, but a plan to shift the state's tax burden from the well-connected to everyone else.
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