Thursday, January 15, 2015

Fiscal Responsibility in Alaska: On the Challenge of Falling Oil-Tax Revenue

With West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. benchmark oil price, at $46.07 on January 12, 2015, lawmakers in Alaska were getting nervous because the government was relying on oil-industry taxes to cover 89% of the government’s operating revenue.[1] At the time, the government had a $3.5 billion deficit in the $6.1 billion budget.  How the governor, Bill Walker, planned to deal with the shortfall can give us a glimpse of what fiscal responsibility might look like in government.

The full essay is at “Fiscal Responsibility in Alaska.”



[1] Ana Campoy, Mark Peters, and Erica Phillips, “Energy-Heavy States Get a Crude Awakening,” The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2015.