Alaska’s credit rating could be diminished if new revenue measures aren’t implemented according to Governor Bill Walker’s budget director Pat Pitney.
She said major budget cuts in agency spending alone will not erase the deficit.
A member of the Senate Finance Committee worries that next year’s legislative elections may impede lawmakers’ desires to make deeper cuts, take steps to increase revenues, or do anything with Permanent Fund earnings.
Senator Lyman Hoffman said in a Fairbanks committee hearing that his greatest concern is politics of reelection interfering with addressing the state’s budget situation.
