SEPTEMBER 29, 2015
Features
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
A&E
PAGE 3
THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG
PAGE 5
Senshi-Con celebrates 10th anniversary
Ramen doesn’t have to be boring anymore
Renovations underway for “re-imagined” campus bookstore By Nolin Ainsworth
sports@thenorthernlight.org
The UAA Campus Bookstore is ordering much more than textbooks for next semester. Along with the thousands of new textbooks that will make their way to the shelves, the Bookstore will also be getting… well, a new bookstore. The Bookstore is orchestrating a groundbreaking $1.8 million renovation that will include a new café, lighting, carpet and everything in between. The project is funded through Bookstore savings. For the last 20 years the Bookstore has been setting aside about two-percent of its annual income for the project. “[The staff] have been real-
ly diligent about saving these funds so they can invest them and make a big splash,” Bookstore director Penny Kimball said. For three decades, the campus Bookstore has been a fixture in the Student Union. The overall store design has remained relatively constant. The only major renovation occurred in 2005 with the addition of the second floor and a new entryway. As the years have gone on, as fads come and go, the store layout has become somewhat convoluted. Kimball said that staff has just been shoving stuff in wherever there was room. “The current store really doesn’t reflect the products that the Bookstore sells,” said Michelle Wells, Marketing
Director of UAA’s Business Services. Snacks hide themselves behind the checkout counter, gifts and cards require a trip to the second floor, and the most expensive products — laptops and tablets — are in a place few people know to look. The new design should fix that confusion. “The [design] team was really diligent in thinking through from start to finish, how a student would interact with the store and tried to make choices based on that,” said Wells. “Everything was kind of made with the students in mind.” In addition, the new Bookstore will be clearing out one side of the store for a full-fledged café complete with an espresso bar, reach-in cooler and all the
The UAA Campus Bookstore is currently undergoing a 1.8 million dollar rennovation. The rennovation will include a new cafe, lighting, carpet and more.
PHOTO BY RYAN JOHNSON
SEE BOOKSTORE
PAGE 2
Economic forum looks to cover three billion shortfall By Nathan Burns
nburns@thenorthernlight.org
On Saturday, Sept. 19, a group gathered in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium. The group was comprised of students, state senators, professors, professionals and regular citizens, armed with pens, paper, PowerPoints and props. Their target: finding the predicted three billion dollars necessary to cover the 20152016 Fiscal Year budget deficit. The Forum of Alaska’s Fiscal and Economic Future, hosted by Alaska Common Ground sought to tackle the state budget crisis in the short term, and to seriously talk about the future of the state’s economy. The state budget crisis has been caused by the recent sharp drop in oil prices from previous projections as explained in helpful handouts prepared for the meeting by UAA Economics Professor Gunnar Knapp. In the spring of 2014, the Department of Revenue predicted an average oil price of $105/ barrel. This spring DOR projected an average FY15 price of $67/barrel At the FY16 spending level ($5.3 billion), the projected deficits would drain our savings reserves by FY22. Last fiscal year, the state ran a major deficit. “We’ve got a savings account we built up called the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund. We built that up when oil prices were high, and we didn’t spend all of our revenue. Last year the legislature paid for more than half of the budget by tapping into it,” said Knapp.
At the current FY16 spending level ($5.3 billion), the projected deficits would drain our savings reserves by FY22. To establish context Bill Popp CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Coorporation said, “One third of your economy is oil, one third of it is federal spending, mainly military, and one third of it is everything else. Seafood, air cargo, tourism, all of that is included under everything else, so a big chunk of everything else is based on the price of oil, or every federal dollar spent in Alaska and sometimes both.” The event hosted by Cliff Groh, Chair of Alaska Common Ground, began with a game to illustrate the challenge of budgeting. On stage, a set of scales were erected with one side having blocks, each representing 100 million dollars in state revenues, and one side with blocks representing state expenses, with the scales starting heavily tipped towards expenses. Participants were challenged to balance the scale by adding additional revenue blocks by tapping the constitutional budget reserve, enacting sales taxes, enacting a state income tax, or even tapping into the Permanent Fund Dividend or cutting state program such as education. Then, each had a chance to propose a plan to the assembled audiences: Brad Keithley, president of Keithley Consulting, Gary Wilken, former Alaska state senator, John Havelock, former Alaska attorney general and Liz Medicine Crow, president/CEO of First Alaskans Institute all presented. Each
facebook.com/northernlightuaa
provided thoughtful approach, ranging from Wilken’s plan to cut general fund spending to 4.5 billion by 2021, to Medicine Crow’s plan to raise new revenues from a variety of taxes. Plans even included increasing spending to invest in the future. Bill Popp and Mark Foster, Chief Financial Officer of the Anchorage School District, discussed and debated the future direction of our state. They each believed that compromise was essential. “The smartest thing we can do today is to create a deal-space like we are doing today, where there are both reductions spending and increased revenues as part of a package,” said Foster. “We can’t do this in some piecemeal approach of a couple cuts this year, and a couple cuts next year, and eventually kick the can down the road on revenue. We’ve got to start talking about all of this now,” said Popp. Popp also wished to address some of the fear mongering he felt was going on in local politics. “We have to stop talking about the ‘fact’ that we’re broke, we’re not broke. We’ve got a hundred billion dollars in cash reserves and assets in the state of Alaska,” said Popp. “Any business in a down-cycle with that amount of resources would be looking at restructuring, reinvesting and getting itself competitive for the next growth period. It would be planning for the long-term, and frankly, we don’t have a long-term plan right now.” Foster believed that one of the keys to understanding the
twitter.com/tnl_updates
budget crisis was to get more citizen involvement so they can see the challenges inherent in raising revenue and cutting programs. “It’s easy to talk about cuts. It’s easy to talk about taxes without the context of having the people directly affected staring you down and going, ‘that hurts me,’ and that’s a tough business,” said Foster. Following lunch and a debate, a straw poll was conducted and the audience had an option to vote on which of the four proposed plans they would prefer to see enacted in order and the numbers were tallied. “ISER is going to do a month-long 75,000 dollar study to figure out what those numbers mean and we’ll get back to you,” joked Knapp. John Havelock’s proposal, “The Hat Trick,” took the most votes. Havelock’s plan focused on cutting oil tax credits, capping the PFD at $1,650 a year, a seasonal sales tax to take advantage of tourist dollars, raising taxes on alcohol, sugar and tobacco and keeping the constitutional budget reserve untaxed. Following the plans, a panel consisting of Randy Hoffbeck of the Department of Revenue, State Representative David Guttenberg and R. John Coghill, the Senate Majority Leader frankly discussed their concerns with the State of Alaska’s ability to implement a solution to our looming budget crisis. Guttenberg expressed dismay at the State Legislature’s shortsightedness, especially when the arctic is opening up to the rest of the world.
thenorthernlight.org
“Arctic Policy conferences are going on now in Dubai and Singapore,” said Guttenberg. Hoffbeck talked at length about the need for Alaskans to first recognize the severity of the issue. “People look outside their windows and everything looks okay, the roads are still being plowed, the schools are still being funded, the police are still answering calls, everything looks as it’s always looked,” said Hoffbeck. Hoffbeck believes that given the projected prices, and the shrinking production, Alaskans cannot rely on earning the same way we have been. “People need to understand oil and gas isn’t going to bail us out this time,” said Hoffbeck, who stressed the need for citizens to support their legislators as they make the tough fiscal decisions. “You can get 99 people talking openly and honestly about the issues that the state has, and then one voice says ‘we don’t have to do anything,’ and there are some constituents who are going to only hear that voice.” The session adjourned at 4:15 p.m. after six hours of passionate debate, discussion and deliberation. The participants stepped out into a sunny Saturday afternoon. The full event is posted online on Alaska Common Ground’s website, along with the four citizen proposals and supplementary data.
youtube.com/tnlnews