Alaska stands at a crossroads. For nearly a decade, the State Legislature has drifted through cycles of chaos, crisis and confusion. Committees meet, debates stretch late into the night, and press releases declare progress – but the core of state governance is failing. We are managing symptoms while ignoring the systems that keep the state alive.
The next election cycles, 2026 and 2028, cannot be fought on political gossip, personality or petty partisanship. They must be built around four essentials of the State of Alaska: Health and Social Services, Education, Energy and Natural Resources, and the Permanent Fund Dividend. These are the air, fuel, spark and lubrication of Alaska’s operating engine. Without them functioning together, nothing else works.
Today, Alaska’s government behaves like a driver fussing over chipped paint while the engine seizes up from lack of oil. Legislators tinker at the edges of policy, but the powertrain, the structure that moves the state forward, remains broken. The warning lights have been flashing for years, yet leadership keeps straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic rather than turning the wheel away from the iceberg. It is time to look squarely at the dangers ahead and take immediate, structural action.
Health and Social Services: The Expanding Sinkhole
Health and Social Services is the single largest drain on Alaska’s operating budget, consuming over 40% of general fund spending. Yet outcomes remain stagnant. The system has grown into a bureaucratic labyrinth that sustains itself rather than the people it serves. Every year, more is spent while fewer citizens achieve independence from state programs. The Department of Health has become a fiscal sinkhole, absorbing resources that could be used to build jobs, infrastructure and opportunity. Reform must start with performance accountability: tie funding to measurable outcomes, streamline overlapping programs, and shift from managing dependency to enabling self-reliance.
Education: High Cost, Low Return
Education stands as Alaska’s second-largest expenditure, and our second-largest failure. Despite billions invested annually, test scores remain near the bottom nationally, and enrollment continues to decline as families seek alternatives. The problem isn’t a lack of money; it’s a lack of direction. The system measures process, not progress. We must restore the purpose of education to prepare young Alaskans to compete, contribute, and stay in Alaska. Reform means empowering parents, rewarding excellence in teaching, and aligning school funding with outcomes rather than bureaucracy. Until we fix education, every other investment in Alaska’s future is built on sand.
Energy: From Resource State to Energy Crisis
Energy should be Alaska’s natural strength, yet it has become our greatest vulnerability. We sit atop vast resources but import electricity and fuel at some of the highest costs in the nation. Political gridlock and regulatory inertia have crippled new development. Without cheap, reliable energy, Alaska cannot grow its economy, attract industry, or support the rural grid. A true energy policy must include local generation, regional micro-grids, modern transmission systems, and bold investment in both conventional and renewable production. Alaska should be exporting innovation, not excuses.
The Permanent Fund Dividend: Restoring Public Trust
Finally, the Permanent Fund Dividend, the most visible symbol of Alaska’s covenant with its people, has been reduced to a political bargaining chip. What was once a non-negotiable share of resource wealth has become a casualty of legislative power struggles and disingenuous propaganda. Restoring the integrity of the dividend is about more than a check; it’s about rebuilding trust. The PFD connects every Alaskan to the state’s resource wealth and provides a stabilizing economic foundation in a volatile fiscal environment. Any path to reform must enshrine a clear formula, protected from annual political raids, ensuring that both the Fund’s growth and the people’s share are preserved.
The Road Ahead
Fix these four pillars first. When health, education, energy, and the dividend are strong, everything else, housing, law enforcement, local governance, can be repaired. But until these are stabilized, nothing else matters. Alaska must become a state that governs by priorities, not headlines. The Legislature must stop rewarding gridlock and start rewarding results.
Alaskans are not asking for perfection. They are demanding focus. The 2026 and 2028 elections will decide whether Alaska continues down a path of decline or regains control of its future. The iceberg is dead ahead. If we have the courage to turn the wheel now, to reform the four essentials that sustain our state, we can still steer toward prosperity. The time for talk has passed. The time for disciplined, focused, results-driven leadership has come.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
7 Comments
To the author: Did you have 6 sugar coated donuts with your coffee this morning?
“……..four essentials of the State of Alaska: Health and Social Services, Education, Energy and Natural Resources, and the Permanent Fund Dividend………”
Where’s Law and Order? Has the mere thought of it dissipated in this sick society? Your “four essentials” appear to be a dream list (or line of BS) for Vladimir Lenin. We have way too many social services, brain washing disguised as “education”, and PFD. We need Law and Order. That means lots more prison beds and substance abuse treatment beds and the will to fill them up.
HSS must face charges for the global fraud with Covid mandates. And the budget well let’s invite DOGE in here and audit the books for the last 3 administrations in the capitol especially the current one with the cares act money!!! Then audit the PFD board and anyone who hand their hands on the money !!! And what must be done with the education is fire every liberal teacher and professor strip all contracts with a gpa in the crapper and hasn’t seen daylight in decades compared to the national average, pushing the demonic agendas on school children. The list just goes on and on. With electronic ballot elections that can not be certified anywhere in the state or country you can’t even vote the corruption out!
IOW, stop electing democrats, get rid of the rinos and elect true conservatives.
Give murkowski the boot for starters. Her last vote with the demorats was unbelievable. She has to go before she wrecks more stuff!!!!!!!
The problem is within government, pull your heads out of the sand. left vs right is exactly where they want us, divided, inflamed with our own ideology and constantly fighting while they bloat with bureaucratic bliss.
The misdeeds of the legislature really have to be examined. Every time the governor put forth a request for any money to be accompanied by measurable results the legislature, led by Loki Tobin, shot it down. Stop electing people who just throw money at a problem without demanding results.