Alaska State Government Spending Since 1979: Tracing The Growth

Abstract

During the decade of the 1980s the state of Alaska collected $46.3 billion (1989 $) in revenues, $31.8 billion from the production and ownership of petroleum resources, $8.2 billion as earnings on financial assets (the majority from the Permanent Fund), $3.2 billion from the federal government, and $3.1 billion from all other sources. Since 1979 state government has been on a spending spree of unparalleled proportions. This paper is an attempt to analyze the composition of that spending and in particular to identify the spending which is over and above a "maintenance level". It is a historical analysis but the objective is to use this information to look · into the future, to try to understand how state government will evolve in the next 2 decades. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Economic Association in San Diego, California July 2, 1990