It seems to me that the more money that comes pouring into state coffers, the more services residents should be seeing. After all, if we are the owner state, it is our money. While I understand the need to put some of it away for tomorrow, I don’t see why that precludes our enjoying a better quality of life today.
When money was scarce in those bad old days a few years ago, belt tightening was the watchword on everyone’s lips. The permanent fund could not be raided because it was sacred. It was for a rainy day and the deities who make these decisions decided it was never raining enough. So Alaska managed to limp along, providing some services while eliminating others based on some unknown formula for what is expendable and what is not.
Longevity bonus…expendable. Detox programs…expendable. Treatment programs in prisons…expendable. Employee retirement program…expendable. Debt repayment on retirement programs…could go either way. PFD…not expendable. Not now, not ever.
But now it is 2008 and our state is probably best symbolized by Scrooge McDuck in his basement vault throwing his millions over his head in a virtual money shower. We are raking it in so fast that we hardly have time to stop and count the zeroes. Oil per barrel is in a range we never dreamed possible and the end of this ride is not yet in sight.
So what is happening to all this money that there seemingly isn’t enough left to adequately fund Denali Kid Care or restart a detox program or get some treatment into the jails so that we at least offer a small ray of hope for changing the future of the people incarcerated?
AGIA, oil prices and political corruption have pretty much been the headline grabbers for the past year. All are compelling stories, even if most of us only pretend to understand AGIA. But lost in the shuffle is any real debate about the morality of this state swimming in money while its citizens suffer from a lack of some very basic services. Yes, there is always the credit card debacle that emanated from our governor’s mansion, followed quickly by the $1200 one-time give away that followed the credit card’s demise. But neither of those ideas really touches the core quality of life issues. The issue of a rich state with a poor population has simply received little to no attention.
Before the more conservative readers of this paper…and I’m assured there are some…stroke out over this idea. I should add that I am not advocating a general give away program. Something we get for nothing is usually valued by us at just that level. But for those who have nothing, or little to nothing, I would argue that a state as rich as Alaska has a moral obligation to seriously examine the problems its citizens face and work on solutions that are truly solutions and not just one time cash give aways.
Which brings me back to programs like Denali Kid Care, women’s shelters, substance abuse treatment facilities, mass transit, a university system not being slowly starved to death – all those things which improve our quality of life or give us a chance to improve it on our own. Spending money on substance abuse programs in jails that can potentially prevent prisoners from re-offending will pay for itself in a very short time when you consider that in 2001, Alaska was paying $36,730 per inmate per year. As for a program like Denali Kid Care, is there really anyone left in this state who does not get that the healthier a kid is from the start, the healthier and more productive that child will be his or her entire life?
Alaska is pulling in money by the fistfuls as the price of oil remains in the stratosphere. Some should be saved. But a lot should be given back to the people of this state, not as a one-time check, but through programs that will improve the quality of life for all of us.
Meanwhile, nothing I wrote in this column should be taken to mean I don’t want my share of any free money the state of Alaska plans to pass out now or in the future. I may be altruistic, but I’m not an idiot.