State, city leaders tap UAA for expertise in crisis and transition

Both Governor Bill Walker and Mayor-elect Ethan Berkowitz have tapped experts and alumni at UAA for help in the current challenges both leaders face in the state and in Anchorage.

STATE

Gunnar Knapp, a UAA economics professor and director for the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), will offer an overview of the state's fiscal picture at the governor's budget summit June 5-7. Called "Building a Sustainable Future: Conversations with Alaskans," the summit at UAF is open to the public and the media. Click here to watch it via web stream.

Reached by phone while traveling back to the state, Knapp offered some perspective about the 20-minute talk and PowerPoint he will deliver June 5.

"The goal is not to advocate for any particular solution, but to help the audience understand the issues we all face," Knapp said.

He, and ISER, have had practice in this role before, he said. Already, he's presented versions of this overview 40 times to civic groups that range from an East Anchorage Community Council to Rotary Clubs in Anchorage and Juneau to the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Clubs of Alaska.

Knapp even coached Goldenview Middle School students before they debated an income tax for the state. He offered an overview he likes to call the Alaska Family Fable. In that scenario, dad has lost his $70,000 a year job. Now making $20,000 a year, the family meets for a discussion on how adjust their $50,000-lifestyle.

Knapp asked the students: Should the kids get jobs and contribute a percentage to the family budget? Should they give up their allowances? What shall this family do?

"The kids got it," he said.

The complexity of the budget details, though-getting to the accurate numbers-is hard and tedious, Knapp said. Also, elements of the budget are so politically sensitive that some audiences either don't want to even consider them (tapping any part of the PFD) or only want to blame the whole crisis on one element (oil tax structure.)

None of it is that black and white, he said, and all of it is a challenge to absorb. "It is mind-boggling," Knapp said. "The scale of the fiscal challenge is really so alarming, that you just don't want to even think about it. Or you just hope it goes away."

Knapp noted that Alaskans have walked this path before.

"The state has been through this so many times," Knapp said. "ISER has been studying this for decades. Our files are huge with reports."

Whether the state's finances will bounce back again remains to be seen. Knapp said he fully appreciates the challenge facing state leaders.

"The issue is difficult and complex," Knapp said. "I sympathize with the governor and the legislators. They have to make difficult decisions and explain them to people who may not understand the dimensions of the problem."

Knapp will provide a link to his PowerPoint on Friday.

CITY

An Alaska Dispatch News article June 3 detailed the five subcommittees that will help Mayor Ethan Berkowitz chart the city's course under his administration. More than 80 are involved, and a number are either UAA alumni or faculty and campus administrators. Check out the story and find UAA's contributing citizens.

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