The World According to Doogan: The series.....

According to the data on visits to this site, there is a great interest to what I have been saying about Mike Doogan. Or what he has said................................

So, I have decided to designate a thread to what he has stated on the issues.

Mike Doogan the Statesman.

"...I hope Assemblyman Dan Kendall gets his way, and Chugiak and Eagle River secede from Anchorage. In fact, I wish there were an election tomorrow on the question. I'd vote to show them the door as many times as I could.

Then they could pay for their own unnecessary high school."

(Source: Freedom for Chugiak-Eagle River will mean freedom for us too Anchorage Daily News (AK)September 30, 2003 Section: Alaska Edition: Final Page: B1)

Mike Doogan on the Longevity Bonus.

“...You have to feel sorry for 18,000 Alaska senior citizens. Probably 90 percent of those who voted cast their ballot for Frank Murkowski, and he rewarded them by proposing to eliminate their monthly longevity bonus payments.”

(...)

“...Getting rid of the longevity bonus is a good idea. Paying people extra money for being old, here and breathing never made any sense. But you can only do it once. Where does Murkowski get that $47 million next year?”

(Source: This slapdash budget's a long way from being a fiscal plan, Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 2003)

Mike Doogan on policies on Gang Violence (1997)

“…But making public policy is always a matter of deciding what to pay for. In arguing that paying for a gang unit is more important than paying to bust red-light runners, Begich is dead wrong.”

(Source: Traffic outlaws are bigger threat to the law-abiding than gangs, Anchorage Daily News, September 2, 1997)

Mike Doogan on Education.


“…Is this enough to vote against Prop. 11, the bond that contains the Eagle River high school? It is for me.”

(Source: It looks like we'll have to vote down school bonds once again, Anchorage Daily News, March 18, 2003)

“…You can improve Anchorage's educational system by voting against the $177 million in school bonds headed for the April ballot.”

(Source: The smart vote in the April election is one against school bonds, Anchorage Daily News, February 28, 1993)


Mike Doogan on the Budget.

"...The state's finances are in a dreadful fix. Because Gov. Wally Hickel and the legislators in charge of the House and Senate were big piggies, they may have spent $1 billion more than they actually, legally had. So what? you say. I've been reading about these financial shenanigans for years, and nothing bad's ever really happened. I'd rather ponder what to do with the leftover turkey than the state budget."


(Source: SPENDTHRIFT POLITICIANS HAVE THEIR EYES ON PERMANENT FUND EARNINGS Anchorage Daily News StaffDate: November 26, 1993 Publication: Page: F1)

"...In 1996, the Republican-led majorities in the state House and Senate promised to cut the state budget $50 million a year for the following five years. "Last year we made significant real cuts to the budget,"

Senate President Drue Pearce and House Speaker Gail Phillips wrote in February of that year. "Our strategy projects an additional $250 million in cuts over the next five years."Every year thereafter Republican leaders said they'd made the cuts, and at the end of the five years they said they'd hit their $250 million target.

But budget numbers are slippery things, and a recent analysis by the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research shows just how slippery. According to the paper, "Alaska's Budget: Where the money came from and went, 1990-2002," spending of state funds actually increased from $2.6 billion to $3.6 billion during that period. So much for five years of budget-cutting.

Overall, the state budget went from about $3.2 billion to $5.9 billion, an increase of more than 80 percent."

(...)

"...According to the institute's figures, general fund spending grew by only $130 million during that period, from $2.37 billion to $2.5 billion. That's only slightly more than $10 million a year. Chicken feed. (The draws from the Constitutional Budget Reserve, which totaled about $5 billion during the period, are included in the general fund spending numbers.)Where did the big extra spending come from? One source was federal revenue, which rose from $574 million to $2.3 billion. That's a cool 301 percent increase."

(Source: Murkowski continues flummery Anchorage Daily News (AK)July 22, 2003 Section: Alaska Edition: Final Page: B1)

Take a look at Doogan's website and you will see where he wants to have a State health insurance plan. The plan would be costly and it will increase the general budget and will remain.

Much of the spending that the Murkowski administration did, was on capital projects. That spending is not built into the general budget. And alot of the money came from the federal government as he admits.

And as I admit, I have been criticle of the budget, but it has been directed towards education. I have taken the position that until the school districts put a greater percentage into the classroom, the money directed to the schools is not being spent wisely.

And I have stated my position on the POMV. I support it only if the schools are decentralized and the POMV is used to fund education.

Yesterday, when the bad news came in from B.P. on shuting down half of the production on the North Slope, Doogan has this to say on his website:

"...Irony aside, this spending binge is a bad idea. B.P.'s decision to shut down its half of Prudhoe Bay shows that clearly: Suddenly, the legislature might not have the money to finance its spending spree. If the shut down goes on very long, some serious belt-tightening will result. If that makes legislators look thoughtless and unprepared..... well, they are."

Here is a candidate who is criticising legislators, while he is campaining on a plan to increase the size of the general budget with a State health insurance program and decreasing class sizes.

BUT never states how the state will pay for decreasing the class sizes in elementary schools or the state health insurance plan.

And while doing this, he will protect the Permanent Dividend Fund..............

Who is thoughtless and unprepared?