Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Legislature ponders oil-fueled spending spree

Only five days remain in the legislative session, and we're getting down to the really fun part — consideration of the capital budget.

The capital budget is essentially a long list of earmarks for state and local projects, everything from airport upgrades to zoo equipment.

Legislators fund this annual spendorama with Alaska's vast surplus oil revenue.

Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee rolled out a $2.8 billion capital budget. You can see it here.

Deckboss took a look and found lots of interesting items including $400,000 for a "CDQ Fishing Fleet Relocation Study."

For the background on this, click here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forget the CDQ study; the truth is obvious: The quotas end up with the processor of with the largest boats.

However, an ideal government spends in bad seasons and repays debt or saves in good. Maybe, unlike other governments the State of Alaska can achieve that

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agree with the blogger above, "Forget the CDQ study;...". I say let them pay for the study themselves, they could afford it 100 times over since they are ignoring the real stakeholders of the Public Money - the hundreds and hundreds of poor people of the Western Alaska Coastal Area whose tradition and culture is being destroyed by the CDQ Managers and their involvement in the Pollock Fishery - Salmon ByCatch. Bad, bad, bad business.