The Chambers of Commerce from three Southeast communities issued a statement on the Governor’s budget. This move follows a Southeast Conference survey that revealed Governor Dunleavy’s fiscal plan may be out of touch with what regional business owners want.
The Haines and Sitka Chambers of Commerce joined the Juneau Chamber in a statement they distributed to lawmakers this month.
Craig Dahl is the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Executive Director. He wrote the joint statement and says the Governor’s proposed budget is short-sighted.
“We believe that while the concept behind the Governor’s budget makes sense the timing does not. And we feel like it’s difficult to say the state is open for business and welcoming investment when in fact you’re doing things to drive people out of the state and make this a not very friendly place to live and work,” Dahl said.
The joint statement puts forward what he calls long-term strategies for balancing the budget. Foremost among them is a change to the formula to calculate the permanent fund dividend. He says the state government should use earnings from the permanent fund to help balance the budget.
The statement also supports continued investment in education and transportation infrastructure.
Those local investments make sense to Tracey Harmon, Executive Director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce. She signed off on the joint statement.
“The Haines Chamber really mostly is reacting to the proposed cuts to the ferry,” she said.
She says the service is not only a lifeline for Haines residents, but a gateway to the local tourism industry. The Haines Economic Development Council estimates that visitors spent between 20 and 25 million dollars in the municipality in 2017.
“We wanna urge the legislature to continue funding what we think is completely a critical service to do everything it possibly can to continue funding this service,” said Harmon.
All three chambers are members of the Southeast Conference, the region’s economic development group.Their recent survey asked business owners how they would like to balance the state budget. The results revealed that business owners don’t agree with the Governor’s state budget.
Like the chambers of commerce, the majority of business leaders who took the survey are opposed to cuts to education and the ferry system.
Those polled don’t want state taxes to increase, but they overwhelmingly support reducing tax credits to oil companies. The nearly early 80% who said they support reducing tax credits to North Slope oil producers ranged in degree of cuts—from “to the fullest extent possible” to “a small amount.”
And while the Dunleavy budget aims to preserve Permanent Fund payments, three quarters of business owners are in favor of reducing them. In fact, most would like to see more of the Permanent Fund earnings reserve spent on state services.
