Election Candidate Forum: Governor Candidate Charlie Pierce
Nome Nugget: What are the most pressing issues the state faces and how do you propose to solve them?
Charlie Pierce: Alaska is once again facing a financial problem. How often have we seen this before – oil prices and state revenues go up, we increase our spending even beyond what is coming in, oil prices and revenue decline, and then we’re in panic mode? Our biggest challenge today is having and sticking to a budget. Right now we do not have a budget. My administration would immediately put together a budget team that would develop a 10-year sustainable fiscal plan, one that can survive the extremes of oil and gas prices.
The other “elephant in the room” is the PFD issue. We need to resolve our differences and move this issue off the table so the other work can get done. The best way I see this can be accomplished is to have the issue addressed in a constitutional convention. Alaska residents need to be a part of the solution. Their selected delegates need to come together and hash it out, come up with a plan, and allow our resident to vote on it. I would support their decision 100 percemnt, whatever it is, but let’s get it done.
We need a fiscal plan that limits spending. Our budget is a mess and it is not responsible to spend more than we make as a state. My first priority will be to prepare a sustainable budget. Secondly, we need to reorganize our education systems. Teachers should not be the lowest paid within the organization. Third, mental health/Child Protective Services needs an overhaul. There are many important issues facing Alaska and we need leadership now more than ever before.
NN: What actions would you support to address the climate crisis and how can the Alaska Governor prepare the state to avoid subsequent natural disasters brought on by flooding, erosion and high winds?
CP: The state government cannot control the weather. Government can respond to the results of the weather and implement policies and procedures that reduce risk. One example would be to modernize building and permitting standards, and not building (or rebuilding) in areas that have become susceptible to flooding.
NN: Failing salmon returns cause hardship for Alaskans, especially those who live in rural Alaska where subsistence harvests are crucial to the survival of residents. How do you propose to address the failing fish harvests? Do you believe the importance of subsistence in the rural economy is adequately recognized at the state level and if not, how do you propose to address this?
CP: Our depleted ocean harvests are killing our coastal communities. I would do everything I could to restrict the trawler bycatch that’s killing millions and millions of our fish. Outside of state waters, I’d work closely and urgently with the federal government to shut down this annihilation of the ocean’s harvest. We need to return to true science on this issue. It’s been a political football for too long. We used to have more biologists who truly studied this problem; now we’re just making assumptions about what’s causing our fisheries to decline, and one group blames the other. What’s the science? We need to hire the best biologists and make our predictions based on real data.
