She did leave the state better off than Begich left Anchorage
Let's see, we went from having a gas line project on paper with the previous governor, and now we have no project.
And I'll be lazy and post what I did in another thread:
How many billions has the state taken in oil revenue in the past 30 years? I'm sure someone has the number, I wouldn't be suprised if lease sales and taxes have resulted in $100 billion to the state. I don't think the state has been getting screwed, though we certainly haven't always been getting the best deal. The oil companies certainly haven't taken all the money.
The reality is, oil revenues provide 85-90% of the states opperating budget from taxes, as well as the $ in the permanent fund. So to my way of thinking, 85% of state employees are oil company employees (or wouldn't be employed if not for oil revenues) Then you have the money spent by folks that work in the oil industry on houses, cars, boats, food, etc. So the stance of, I don't work for the oil industry so it doesn't affect me, is very, very short sighted. We all profit from the industry, some more than others, and if the industry takes a sever down turn, we will all suffer.
There are two basic factors and oil company looks at, how much does it cost me to get the oil in the ground to market, and how much are my taxes. What's left is their profits. Alaska is the most expensive place in the world to produce oil, due to high salaries in our industry, which is a good thing and the distance to market. But, our taxes have to be structured so that the overall cost to do business is competitive with the rest of the world.
If you have $1 billion to invest to build a new oil production facility, are you going to invest in a location that offers you a 5% profit when you can make 10 or 15% in another country? Simple economics, and that is what drives investment by oil cos. The increased taxes from Aces has directly reduced the $ invested in Alaska since it was passed, and eliminated alot of jobs that likely had average salaries of 6 figures, or near there. So say we lost at least 500 in state oil co jobs, that's $50 million in lost incomes and money being spent in state.
Oil fields don't produce forever, so after the oil companies have invested billions in the infrastructure, they need to keep investing to keep production up by bringing online smaller fields that weren't economical to produce w/o existing infrastructure. But if those marginal fields are too expensive due to costs and taxes, they will not be built.
When I moved to Ak 12 years ago the trans alaska pipeline was pumping 1 million barrels per day, now we are at 600-700,000. Projections of decline are 3-6% per year if the oil co's don't invest in more production. So those high taxes sounded great, but if they result in oil production dropping in 1/2 in 10 years, they aren't so great. The state will take in more money with lower taxes on higher production, and those high paying jobs won't keep disapearing. We also won't see house prices tank.
So was that extra $1200, one time for every man women and child worth loosing out on 13 million barrels of oil each year in declined production (6% of 600k bpd)? At an average of $75 bbl and lets say 20% tax, that's a loss of $200 million per year, but then at that rate, the loss will be $400 million the following year, and then $600 million, that's 1.2 billion in 3 years just in tax revenue.
Oil has been good to our state, though they haven't been great. I just can't understand the attitude of, F em, we don't need em. Folks that have that attitude really don't grasp how our states economy is mostly run by oil $, and we'd be really screwed without it.
Alaskans have acted like a bunch of spoiled kids telling their parents to go F themselves because they don't have a big enoug allowance, with no clue what those parents provided them. Hopefully we aren't stupid enough to get our azzes kicked out of the house and have to fend for ourselves, but I'm not that hopeful. Why people think that Sarah is the greatest when Aces has cost at least 1000 of the highest paying jobs in the state to be terminated is beyond me. I figure it's a combination if ignorance and jelousy. Those that are ignorant of what drives Alaskas economy, and those that are jealous of high paying jobs and figure if they can't have such a job, might as well screw the pooch so no one else can either.
