Decades of mismanagement have left Alaska broke and stuck in toxic partisanship gridlock

Alaska politics is heating up, and like the hotter climate, dysfunction is more and more a chronic feature of Alaska politics.

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy seems to be facing a political and popular insurrection. The legislature has literally torn itself in two, meeting in two different cities 500 miles apart, over whether to override the governor’s vetoes of the state budget. The last two weeks has seen thousands of Alaskans gather in cities and towns all over the Last Frontier to protest the governor’s budget decisions. Along with this summer’s record-breaking Arctic temperatures, Alaska’s politics are heating up. And like the hotter climate, dysfunction is more and more a chronic feature of Alaska politics.

What is going on in Alaska right now?

Alaska is experiencing a financial crisis. This is nothing new. The state runs on oil, almost 90% of state government is funded directly by oil revenues, and the legislature is perennially debating how much the state should get from the oil companies and how that revenue should be spent. However, state economies dependent on natural resource extraction often suffer instability and Alaska is no different. The price of oil tanked in 2014, hasn’t yet recovered, and Alaska’s leaders have done little since then to address their revenue and spending problems.