The Weekly Top 3 (8.26.2024)

Our take on the primary results, our strong concerns about the efforts by some to combine two separate Permanent Fund issues together & how some are seeking to dodge a critical fact about oil revenues

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind here at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets — for the week of August 26, 2024.

The Weekly Top 3 is a regular weekly segment on The Michael Dukes Show. The Show broadcasts on Facebook and YouTubeLive as well as via streaming audio from the Show’s website weekdays from 6–8am. I join Michael weekly in the first hour of Tuesday’s show, from 6:10–7am, for a discussion between the two of us about our three issues.

This week, our top 3 issues are these: 1) we discuss our take on the results for various legislative races from the primary election and what we see as the path forward (2:33); 2) we discuss the effort by some to combine what we view as two entirely separate issues related to the Permanent Fund: whether the Permanent Fund Board should be reformed (which we strongly agree with), and whether the two-account Permanent Fund structure should be merged into a single account (which we strongly disagree with) (20:25); and 3) we discuss how a recent letter to the editor from Keep Alaska Competitive co-chairs Joe Shierhorn and Jim Jansen dodges a critical fact about oil taxes (38:18).

In addition, we include a brief discussion Michael and I had about the proposals by some to return state employees to a defined benefit pension plan (47:10).

The segment is at the YouTube clip above. For those who prefer the audio version, it is available on our Spotify and Soundcloud pages. And for those interested, a rough draft of the transcript of each show from July 23, 2024 forward is available through our Buzzsprout page.

Go to the Show’s Soundcloud page here for this and other complete podcasts of The Michael Dukes Show.