Cutting
state employment by 50% would be a place to start, so would raising
income taxes with a progressive plan of 0% for those earning less
than $50,000 and 20% on those earning more. The business tax rate
would be 0% for those earning fewer than one million dollars and 20%
on those earning more.
Next
up is moving the state capitol to Point McKenzie and Anchorage to
save money. Maybe the legislature could be on the Dimond Mall ice
rink until the capitol and Governor's palace are built. Juneau should
return to being a free enterprise city-it would do well. Also,
natural resource use of state properties should be taxed a flat 20%
royalty.
Reforming
and reducing the size of state government procedures such as the
prison and highway systems is desirable. They can all be upgraded.
Of
course the major problem is that state government mostly 'serves'
state government and doesn't want to stop 'serving' in times of
crisis. Government insiders kickback contracts to local contractors
and other favorites and that too is a challenging thing to stop.
Plainly
though the hope in the capitol is that oil will return to 100 dollars
per barrel-and it might. If the Saudis can lever Iran into a brief
war with missiles and Saudi Persian Gulf oil terminals are blasted
into rubble then shortages along with American oil exports permitted
again will help produce domestic American oil shortages and let the
price skyrocket. Then government business as usual can return to
Juneau.
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