Throughout the country we are experiencing tough economic times . We see at the gas pump everyday ; will l I see 5.00 a gallon for gas by June ?. There are indeed a large number of families who are struggling to stay ahead of their bills, facing possible foreclosures issues, and or possibly relocating to other areas of the country (i.e. Alaska , North Dakota) where there may be better opportunities for a more productive and happy life. In the general job market many companies are consolidating their work force by laying off personnel, offering early retirements, and eliminating departments to meet their "bottom line". Lets take a look at how this economic downturn has effected the teaching profession. States such as Ca., Hi, NY, and Tx are try ing to stay afloat by having teachers work a 4 day week instead of the usual 5 to save money and hopefully save jobs. How much of this economic down turn is effecting life in Alaska...
The stories and statistics are there but in the overall picture Alaskans are being effected by these problems but near to level of the rest of the country ... not even close. I tend to look at the fact that our unemployment rate is a point lower than the rest of the country. Our state budget is balanced. We have almost $12 billion in the state savings account. How many states who are experiencing severe economic problems even have those types of numbers in a savings account ! Or even have savings account? I think were doing fine ; no massive lay -offs, no enormous number of foreclosures noted , and I haven't heard of any large forced furlough days applied to personnel in our public sector jobs either. Oh I forgot to mention to everyone : make sure you fill out your PFD form by March 31...
Tim Lynch
To say Alaska is doing fine, I believe, is a bit shortsighted. All indicators point to building paralysis of our primary income source. If we don't figure that out the piggy bank that gets filled will be just that, and may someday sit on a small shelf.
ReplyDeleteI believe your blog is a bit over optimistic. We must watch the current situation very carefully. We are in a significant down swing in production of oil, not making new discoveries or advancements in use of our natural resources. At the same time we are not working together to collaboratively solve our issues rather we have a great deal of discussion and fighting without solutions. If we continue in this manner we will soon find the price of gas going back to normalcy and our false sense of security gone. We need to take this opportunity to find workable answers to very important issues or our economy will quickly go back to per oil days in the 60s.
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