Tom Begich visited Kotzebue on July 21.
Begich, a former state senator and Alaska Senate minority leader from Anchorage, said he has spent years working in villages across Alaska. He said his work in juvenile justice in the state’s smallest communities sets him apart in the crowded race for governor.
“I had to learn how communities worked,” he said. “That makes a very different history than anyone else running for this position.”
Three tax proposals
Begich said that unlike other candidates who speak broadly about closing Alaska’s budget gap, he supports three specific tax changes. One, he said, could boost state revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars a year without raising taxes on Alaska residents.
“We need to remove the tax credits for Prudhoe, Kuparuk and Alpine,” he said.
Those are among the state’s oldest and largest oil and gas fields, all located on the North Slope.
“Tax credits are for developing new fields, not for legacy fields that have already produced a profit for the largest multinational corporations in the world,” Begich said.
Begich said he would like to close what he calls the “S corp exemption” that lets oil and gas company Hilcorp avoid paying state corporate income taxes. He said he also wants the state to collect corporate income taxes from out-of-state internet companies for the business they do in Alaska, something 36 other states already do.
Alaska’s lawmakers passed a bill to tax out-of-state internet companies, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it in the fall. A veto override attempt failed and lawmakers passed another version of the bill in May, which the governor also vetoed.
Education
Begich said the tax revenue could help fully fund education — and on time.
“Right now, this governor hasn’t even bothered to tell your district what their budget’s going to be this year, and you’re already in the year,” he said.
Alaska’s fiscal year began July 1, and Dunleavy has said he won’t tell school districts their annual education budgets until Aug. 31. Many districts are already weeks into the fiscal year and have had to make staffing and program decisions without knowing their funding levels.
“That is inappropriate and unacceptable,” Begich said. “It doesn’t give your district a chance to actually recruit teachers. Instead, you pink slip them because you don’t know what your future is going to look like.”
Begich said he wants to help rural districts retain teachers by, among other things, reestablishing a defined pension plan. He said one of his biggest achievements in the state Senate was helping add pre-K to the state’s education funding formula — an example, he said, of his ability to work across party lines.
“Everyone told me it was impossible to do,” he said. “You’re in the minority; you can’t do it. But by building relationships, working with people one on one, I built that bill the first year I got there.”
On the Permanent Fund dividend, Begich said Dunleavy has never delivered the “full statutory” payout he campaigned on.
PFD proposal
“The Permanent Fund is our renewable resource for tomorrow,” Begich said. “That fund will produce the income that will ensure state services continue for years to come, so I proposed a very unique approach.”
Begich said he wants the dividend to continue rising or falling each year based on the fund’s investment returns, as it has historically, but with a cap of about $1,500 and a floor of about $1,000.
Begich’s running mate is Julia Hnilicka, Alaska’s former USDA Rural Development director during the Biden administration. Begich said Hnilicka, who was raised in Nenana, would lead on energy and rural Alaska issues if elected. He said he also wants to lower energy costs through state-backed loans for home solar and weatherization projects.
Begich is one of 17 candidates running in the Aug. 18 primary.
KOTZ news plans to produce local stories about every gubernatorial candidate that comes to campaign in Kotzebue. Democratic candidate Meda Dewitt plans to visit on Wednesday. Stories from Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Adam Crum and Bernadette Wilson’s earlier visits are also in the works.
A story on Click Bishop and Greta Schuerch’s visit is available here.
Kotz news will post the full candidate interviews here.
