‘Fair Share’ organizers will weather the economic storm. Alaskans may not.

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My grandparents and their children moved to Alaska in 1964. Since then, my family has called Alaska home, and owned 12 Alaska-based businesses. My grandparents were drawn to Alaska for the increased opportunity oil finds would bring their young family. The rest of us have stayed because Alaska, with a strong oil industry, remains a land of opportunity.

Alaska’s state budget, which relies heavily on oil revenues for funding, has been a point of contention for the last few years. The sudden economic impacts of the COVID-19 virus and a squabble over oil production between Saudi Arabia and Russia have caused the price of oil to plunge to less than $1 per barrel, placing Alaska’s state budget in grave peril. It is going to be a rough time in Alaska until these situations resolve, and it is anyone’s guess when that will happen.

Our state’s economy depends on oil and gas production. Unfortunately, Alaska now faces pressure and uncertainty from within our own state; we must decide if we will act as a long-term partner with oil producers and reap the benefit of future decades of growth and development, or stifle future development in our state by voting for the latest oil tax ballot measure.