Okay, so by some convoluted reasoning process, instigated by that backward political species inhabiting the Potomac’s erstwhile swampland, we get to hold onto ―our‖ cash just a little longer.I suppose we should be grateful for small favors. For, while we can’t legally spend what we owe Uncle Sam, we can still hold it in our hands, admire it, maybe cry over it a little before our final parting on April 18th .Because that’s when income tax is due this year. Read more->
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ALASKA DISPATCH A recently published study by the Tax Foundation rates Alaska second-best in the U.S. for business, but another report, published last year by CNBC, claims Alaska has the worst overall business climate in the country. Read the Juneau Empire report and CNBC study and decide for yourself whether Alaska’s business climate is the best, the worst or somewhere in-between.  Log transfer facility at Corner Bay, Chichagof Island Question: When it comes to balancing the desires of interest groups wanting their say in management of the Tongass National Forest, how much say is enough? For environmental groups, the answer is always – just a little more! For those of us who reside in Haines, we are in a unique geographic situation with regards to federal forestry. In all of Southeast Alaska there are only two organized communities, Haines and Klukwan, that fall outside the boundaries of the nation’s largest national forest. At 17 million acres, an area roughly the size of West Virginia, the Tongass encompasses virtually all of the Southeast Panhandle. Read more->  Haines power consumption: Hydro vs. Diesel HAINES–Monday’s joint meeting between the Haines and Skagway borough assemblies underscored a number of issues of mutual concern. Among the most important is just how tenuous is our source of reasonably-priced electrical power. Presently, Haines receives nearly 100% of its power from hydro projects in or near Skagway. The day the Haines-Skagway undersea cable fails, all of this power will have to be generated by the diesel-fired power plant in Haines. Read more-> JUNEAU–As the state legislature reaches the halfway point of the ninety day legislative session, the legislature for the most part has shut down for the week to allow 28 of the 60 members to attend an Energy Council meeting in Washington D.C. A call to a Fairbanks legislator’s office seeking information on a budget matter was met with the response, “It’s energy week so everyone is gone.” Read more at Andrewhalcro.com.  The Hungry Moose on 2nd Street, a summertime favorite, is open all winter this year. Most of the contentious issues that spring up in Haines are the result, not of a desire on either side to see the town fail, but a clashing of core values and a refusal to see the other side’s point of view. One side believes that business owners who depend on customers and profit are the core of our economy. Government does not create wealth–it only make more government jobs and transfers wealth from one group to another. The best thing government can do to encourage a sound economy is to get out of the way of private business. Read more-> by Paul Rosenzweig | THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION But one aspect of the bill now making its way through the Senate deserves a great deal more public debate and consideration: the scope and extent of the government’s role in defending the Internet from external threats and, in particular, the extent to which the government can order private-sector actors to take action (including disconnecting from the Internet) in times of cyber emergency. Read the full article at the Heritage Foundation. by Brent Bozell | Townhall.com Post readers could look at the Fiscal 2012 budget outline right under the headline. Projected spending: $3.7 trillion. Expected tax revenue is $2.6 trillion. The expected deficit is $1.1 billion, “down” from the estimated Fiscal 2011 deficit of $1.6 trillion. Obama’s policies actually add $11 billion to the deficit. Any deficit reduction would only come from economic growth and the end of “stimulus” projects. Read the full article at http://www.Townhall.com.  Ice sheaths the hull of the MV Aurora as it is made fast to the loading dock in Haines HAINES, January 12, 2010–Today we begin our journey to Seattle for a medical tune-up, and our yearly visit with relatives. Our careful planning includes travel aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System ferries to Prince Rupert, then a 2 day drive to Seattle. We love the ferries, the inside passage, even more than we love the long drive down the Alaska Highway–but the costs of ferry travel to Bellingham are prohibitive. In the summer we save money by driving. But winter is a different story. Read more-> Take this test. Almost 16 million people have taken it already and it’s supposedly very accurate. You’ll be asked just 10 questions, and then it instantly tells you where you stand politically. It shows your position as a red dot on a “political map” so you’ll see exactly where you score. Read more-> by Hugh Hewitt, Townhall.com NPR’s and CPB’s days of clover should be at an end. The public doesn’t want to pay for public broadcast any more. Read this opinion article in Townhall.com. SAN FRANCISCO–Steven Pascowitz writes in SFGate.com,
HAINES–(Updated Nov 30, 2010) The Haines Borough Assembly is considering ordinance no. 10-10-242 that will limit the ability of local residents to apply for commercial tour permits. The ordinance contains some good ideas, but part of the ordinance is an attempt to protect borough employees from the nuisance of dealing with repeated applications for commercial tour permits by making it impossible for the public to reapply. It removes the right to due process for certain applicants by simply closing the door to further consideration. This is bad policy.
This year, as our government plunges headlong toward more control of the private sector, more government jobs, more handouts for everyone, and more land locked up in trusts, parks and wilderness areas, there is a lesson we can learn from the Pilgrims’ experiment in socialism: It doesn’t work.
HAINES – With the recent revelation by borough attorneys that our Helicopter ordinance exceeded the limits of the Haines Borough Assembly’s authority, it’s time for the borough government to reassess its direction in this matter. Read more-> Read between the lines – Haines is no different than some of the communities described in this Wall Street Journal article. This is why the past and present attempts by the borough Assembly to over-regulate the heli-ski industry are so wrong:
Read the Institute for Justice study at ij.com. by Roger Maynard We agree with Tom Morphet’s opinion in the Chilkat Valley News on October 7, 2010, that the Haines Borough Assembly is pushing the limits of the open meetings act. It’s too easy to call for an Executive Session, handle the confidential business, and then keep on talking after the conversation has drifted into matters that should be discussed publicly.  Cruise Ship Silver Shadow, docked in Haines. Photo by Roger Maynard by Roger Maynard HAINES — Everyone, it seems, favors economic development. Even some of our borough candidates who oppose growth say they are for “a diversified economy” and “economic development.” Words, like clothing or music, go through fads. Some words such as “sustainable,” and “alternative energy” have become such cultural buzzwords that meanings become skewed. Different people using the same phrase can be describing completely different ideas. Read more-> Our Runaway Borough Assembly
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The late afternoon sky heaves and boils, a panoramic of sullen gray cloud heavy with the threat of rain. The faintest breeze wanders aimlessly through tall yellow grass, just a soft huff of wind disturbingly reminiscent of the labored breathing of a dying man. Then an otherworldly quiet swathes the fields, and human footsteps seem oddly out of place, an intrusion onto a plot of land that could easily be a graveyard.
by Roger Maynard
