Guest Editorial

Many Alaskans will be hurting under $5-a-gallon gasoline, and rural residents who pay even higher prices will hurt even more.

The state treasury, meanwhile, is flush with higher oil production tax and royalty checks, depositing tens of millions of dollars more each month than expected at the start of the year.

Oil at $100-plus a barrel is guilty on both counts — making people poorer and making the Alaska checkbook richer.

To use one to help the other, many Alaska lawmakers seem to be nervously coalescing around the idea of using much of the additional oil dollars to pay out what they are calli...