Comments by jeff
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Posted on March 26 at 12:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The talk of vesting is silly. Chancellor Jones is almost certainly enrolled in the "Optional Retirement Plan", which has no vesting period but also no medical benefits. It is a 401(k) plan. Since the standard retirement plan in place 4 years ago had an 8-year vesting period, someone new to Alaska in a high administration position would be very unlikely to have signed up for that. Retirement has nothing to do with it.
It is not a surprise that Jones is moving on, and probably safe to assume that it really is for family reasons.
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Posted on March 30 at 11:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OK, but the State government does not receive very much in "tourism dollars". Most (if not all of the bed taxes and so on are collected by local government, not the State. Most of the tourism dollars go to hotes, motels, merchants, etc, who then employ people (but none of this pays taxes to the State government). So if the State wants to help events like the Yukon Quest bring those tourism dollars to Alaskans and Alaskan businesses, then it has to use general fund money.
Also, while I am sure that I would find many things in the budget that I think ought to be cut (some of those listed certainly qualify if they are not pass-through funds), and many things I would support strongly (again, some of those listed). But if you asked everybody you would probably find that most everything in the budget has both supporters and detractors. At least that's what should happen if the Legislature has done a careful job. We elect them to pay closer attention to the details than we have time to do, and it's good to check up on them, but you can't run something the size of the State of Alaska by having every citizen vote on the budget.
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