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.