Guest Editorial: It's time to solve our fiscal problem. The price of inaction is too high

As the Legislature nears the end of the constitutional 120-day session, I am gravely concerned about the possible outcome.

Our state is in a difficult fiscal position. Due mainly to world oil prices and our over-dependence on oil, we have only about one-fifth of the revenue we need to balance the budget. And that’s after several years of budget cuts and almost no capital investment.

That’s why I kicked off a series of statewide conversations last spring. Using input from hundreds of Alaskans, we developed the New Sustainable Alaska Plan, which we released in December. Since then, my team and I...