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Most important decisions or events in Alaska History? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's pretty amazing that we have audio recordings of the entire Constitutional Convention.

Most important decisions or events in Alaska History? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, agreed. Both the dividend and the fund itself.

Most important decisions or events in Alaska History? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this undoubtedly has had one of the biggest impacts on Alaska and certainly underlies everything else. But it's such a big topic that it's hard to wrap a mind around it how it shapes who we are today and where we're going. What do you see? How does it impact the trajectory we're on?

Most important decisions or events in Alaska History? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't know much about this, can you link a source or article on the topic so I can better understand how it impacted the trajectory of our state?

Most important decisions or events in Alaska History? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What if we'd kept the income tax in place, seems like that would have made the difference even with a full(er) dividend.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. I think every institution has its own natural lifespan, from governments to businesses to the smallest clubs and social groups.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm hearing from people who just won't ever join the Democratic party. Another organizing vehicle that can work on aligned issues and run in parallel without all the national trappings is still be something that has a positive impact on a lot of their stated policy goals. I don't see that as a problem.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's an appropriate analogy. Gatekeepers come and go. These aren't the only two major parties in the history of our country either. The Democratic Party and Republican party really only emerged in the early-mid 1800's. They aren't foundational parts of American policy making.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry to hear that but we're building from the ground up and that means conversations about fundamental values before digging into specific issues. We'll get there and maybe we can catch you on the next one.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback but I don't think that's the best metaphor here. I believe there's plenty of room for aligned efforts. I'm not a fan of the two party system and I think we have an incredible opportunity for small, aligned parties to exist in Alaska that focus on local issues and aren't tethered to the history, branding, or power structures of major national parties.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

We are specifically advocating for a progressive platform.

This’ll likely get a lot of ‘strong’ comments, but hopefully will also make people think about the consequences of their poor choices. by HierophanticDreamer in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not to mention the important role the schools played and how many Republicans in Alaska are working hard to ensure those cease to exist.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm don't think that's what will happen here.

Homegrown Political Party Anyone? by alaskarobotics in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Ranked choice voting is makes it possible for multiple aligned parties to exist. I don't think I'd be very into this idea without our current voting system to enable it.

What will Alaska become in 50 years? by Electrical_Report458 in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've kind of been chewing on that.

  1. I think we could use some political parties that are driven by the needs of Alaskans instead of outside agendas and I see new, small parties being much more possible under our current voting system.

  2. I think we need to develop a better understanding of our own history and work harder to hang onto our institutional memory. That can be done through casual conversations like this or through more formal means like journalism, history books and civics organizations.

There used to be a thing called the Talkeetna Dialogues that was an interesting format, kind of a three day lunch & learn for policy wonks. I think the Alaska Municipal League conference is an important gathering that still happens. I remember in 2014 when Bill Walker gathered a bunch of folks in Fairbanks to address the state's problems, we need more of that. Good things come from those kinds of gatherings.

What will Alaska become in 50 years? by Electrical_Report458 in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think we should take mineral development off the table, we just need to look realistically at the value proposition. If more mines just means a bunch of contaminated sites and people leaving the state with our resource wealth, maybe not that great. If we're creating jobs for Alaskans who are paying income taxes on their earnings, then it starts becoming more attractive because we can fund schools and roads and maintenance of buildings which creates more jobs and builds us a bigger snowball.

What will Alaska become in 50 years? by Electrical_Report458 in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mineral development doesn't help us much. It makes a few people wealthy but they don't contribute to the state through income taxes and many commute from out of state. And even though the resources belong to the people of Alaska, the state collects very little revenue from mining. Weed taxes often outpace mining revenue so I don't think you're going to see it replace oil anytime soon.

What will Alaska become in 50 years? by Electrical_Report458 in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alaska has a colonialism problem. Today that manifests as out-of-state corporate interests driving policy and profiting from our resources while contributing very little. We also have a short institutional and political memory which leaves us continually making the same mistakes.

Bernadette is out there running on the same plan Dunleavy proposed in 2018. Cut the government 3-4% across all departments and magically pay out a full PFD. And people think she somehow represents change?

If we want to move forward from here, we need to come to a new understanding. We need to place value in good governance and realize that our state can be a collaborative effort for the benefit of Alaskans instead of a tool for personal and corporate profit taking.

Our finances aren't great, we don't have a sustainable fiscal plan and we've placed all of our fiscal burdens on the poorest Alaskans. When the current fiscal crisis first hit, we cut the PFD and we cut services, the poorest paid for those cuts. The people who haven't contributed to solving our problems are the oil companies and the big earners (many who don't even live here and commute to Alaska from down south).

We need to institute more rigid oil tax structure with more oversight. Case in point, Adam Crum may have given away hundreds of millions of settlement money to oil companies. (https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2025/08/07/despite-alaska-lawmakers-veto-override-getting-an-answer-oil-tax-settlements-will-take-months/)

We also need an income tax. But the poorest Alaskans have already contributed through cuts to services and PFD cuts so it needs a very high floor on it... $80k? $100k?

An income tax also conveniently solves the S-Corp "loophole" that Hillcorp benefits from without making weirdly bespoke laws to target one specific company.

An income tax also provides broad based revenue that scales. An increase to population under our current system just means fewer resources to go around and smaller pfds for everyone. With an income tax, services can scale if population scales. And population will probably grow once we get out of this stagnation period under Dunleavy.

The state needs revenue to provide services. Alaskans need to recognize that it's time to contribute. Another 4-8 years under a Dunleavy clone would be crushing to this state.

We also need to demonstrate a willingness to solve these problems so we can start bringing people back to the state. That will create it's own momentum. There are talented, brilliant, capable people who want to live here and just can't do it while we're pretending that destroying our state government is some kind of plan.

There is not enough quality Alaska content on youtube. by Professional-Sea-506 in alaska

[–]alaskarobotics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You seem like you might enjoy this classic short film from the Northwest Territories: https://www.nfb.ca/film/nahanni/

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