Alaska’s Main Street entrepreneurs would like to see changes in 37-year-old formula
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Thor Stacey, Alaska State Director, 907-723-1494, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, 415-640-5156, [email protected]
JUNEAU, Alaska, April 12, 2019—Alaska’s small-business owners are on board with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s call for stronger constitutional caps on state spending, according to the results from a poll released today by their leading representative association.
In a special survey of its Alaska members, NFIB asked them, “Should NFIB support a constitutional amendment that would change the cap on state spending?” Of those responding to the survey, 76 percent said ‘Yes,’ 11 percent said ‘No,’ and 13 percent were undecided.
“We conducted our special poll on this issue, asking about a constitutional amendment, before Senate Bill 104 surfaced seeking a statutory spending cap,” said Thor Stacey, NFIB’s Alaska state director. “Our survey did not ask small-business owners if they preferred a constitutional amendment or a statutory change. Regardless of the specific measure, small business supports a defined cap on state spending.”
Voter-approved spending limits were put in place in 1982 just as oil revenue was really beginning to fill state coffers. The current spending cap has not been exceeded and is wildly recognized as being ineffective. Governor Dunleavy has proposed limiting state spending to the average of the previous three years’ budgets, plus half the rate of inflation and the state’s population growth. That growth rate is capped at 2 percent, even if inflation spikes. If oil prices increase and the state earns much more money than expected, excess earnings would go into the Permanent Fund and the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
“Our poll made clear our members’ support for a cap on state spending but we’re keeping an open mind on whose plan would best achieve that,” added Stacey. “That’s because many believe government doesn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Others, rightfully, too, believe the wrong cap would leave the Legislature without any flexibility to craft the state budget during an economic downturn.”
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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
NFIB Alaska
P.O. Box 211231
Juneau, AK 99821
907-723-1494
NFIB.com/AK
Twitter: @NFIB_AK
