Guest Editorial

The state of Alaska has spent decades trying to predict, forecast and even guesstimate the price of oil in an ongoing effort to help the governor and legislators draft an annual spending plan.

If state officials truly could know the price of crude a month, a year, two years out, budget-building work would be much easier. Or at least more accurate.

And while Alaska’s budget health, public services, education funding and road maintenance is much more dependent these years on Permanent Fund earnings than on oil revenues, any periods of high oil prices can be the proverbial icing on the low-fat bu...