Editor's note: The below excerpt from this interview is not the full transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview with Bill Walker by clicking on the audio link.
Bill Walker: I’m Bill Walker, and I was born in the territory in Fairbanks, and I've lived here all my life. My wife and I have four children, eight grandchildren, and I served as governor in 2014 and 2018. I ran because Gov. Hickel came to me and said, ‘You run, I'll support you and do everything I can to get you elected.’ And he was the chairman of my campaign when I ran the first time.
I was governor from 2014 to 2018. We had a terrible fiscal situation; Senate Bill 21 had just passed, the price of oil dropped to $26, we had a $4 billion hole in our budget. We worked hard on a fiscal plan, which I can explain later. We didn’t get the whole fiscal plan through. Since then, nothing's been done on the fiscal plan, and we have about $3 billion left in the savings. We had about $20 billion when I came into office, and we’ve just been living off of savings and shortchanging education and everything else that needs to be done in this state ever since. And so it's time to finish the fiscal plan. My running mate was my commissioner of revenue, so he knows the numbers. So we’re running to fix Alaska.
Katherine Irving, KMXT: Here in Kodiak, one of our top priorities is commercial fishing. We have a lot of commercial fishermen across gear types and sectors, and our industry as a whole is struggling. So, how would you propose addressing some of those issues that are currently plaguing that industry?
Walker: I'm a big believer that science should prevail in making decisions on fisheries. I want to make sure that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is fully funded, so we have the science available, so we're making decisions based upon science, not based upon political persuasion. So, I believe that the fishing decisions should be based upon the absolute best science available, and that takes money, and that takes a fiscal plan.
KMXT: Another thing that is very relevant to our island is the ferry system, which is vital for transportation. So, what is your stance on the marine highway system as a whole? How would you support it or change it?
Walker: I remember well the very first ferry that came into Valdez in 1965. In fact, there's a picture of the people on the dock when it came in, and Gov. Bill Egan was there as well, and I was there. I was 12, we just happened to be on the same spot for this picture. So I remember, you know, how exciting that was for the first ferry. And I've watched the ferry system rise and then decline significantly. So my proposal is this: I will separate the ferry system from the Department of Transportation. When they combined the marine highway system with the Alaska Department of Transportation, it was for efficiency purposes, and it sounded good, I think, on paper. But I think that it’s become sort of the stepchild of DOT, and not necessarily intentionally, but I think that it has, and I think it can do so much more than it's doing now. I want to see it grow like it was intended, and not continue to shrink.
KMXT: Another big topic is the permanent fund dividend. So, do you support the full statutory PFD, and why or why not?
Walker: If we paid the full PFD for like two years, the whole program would go away. There's just not enough money for that. A lot of people think it’s tied to the resources, it's really not. It's tied to the earnings of the permanent fund. So let's tie to the resources. Let's take all the revenue on oil taxes, mining taxes, timber, fishing, and put that all into one one pot and split it. And half of it goes to the dividend, and half of it goes into governmental services, with a minimum payment of $1,000. And on low oil years, it goes down, but in high oil years, it goes up. It also has the longevity that people want, and also ends this whole fight in the Legislature every year about how much the dividend is going to be every year.
KMXT: The cost of living in Alaska, and rural Alaska, is high, and continues to increase with the cost of fuel and groceries and housing all going up. How would you focus on keeping the cost of living down across the state?
Walker: Well, let’s start with housing. We need a statewide housing trust so that we can get houses built by local contractors, but at an affordable rate. And you take out the cost of the land and the cost of the utilities, suddenly you've got yourself an affordable house. So, that's what I would do on that.
On energy, I've always been frustrated that we have the oil pipeline, and it's got 436,000 barrels of oil coming down to Valdez every day. About 56,000 of those barrels belong to you and me. It's our royalty oil, and what we do with it is we sell it to the highest bidder at the refineries, and we index it to someplace else, and then all of a sudden, when we get it, it's at the highest price. And refineries are just getting their normal margin. I would like to see us be able to give that to the refineries, such that it's a pass through that brings the cost of energy down in Alaska. Renewables, I mean, we have so many opportunities, and here I am in Kodiak. It has the highest renewables in the state, if not the nation, as far as what is done here between the hydro and the wind. We need to take a page from the book of Kodiak. So, we need to bring down the cost of energy. There's a couple of different ways that we can do that for sure."
The primary election is Aug. 18 and voters will each pick one candidate. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will advance from there to the general election on Nov. 3. Here is a full list of all gubernatorial candidates running in this year's election after the June 1 filing deadline:
- Former state Sen. Tom Begich (Democrat) and Lt. Gov. candidate Julia Hnilicka
- Former state Sen. Click Bishop (Republican), and Lt. Gov. candidate Greta Schuerch
- Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Josh Church
- Current state Sen. Matt Claman (Democrat) and Lt. Gov. candidate Sarah Skeel
- Former state revenue commissioner Adam Crum (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Robert “Bob” Craig
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate George B. Hightower
- Organizer Meda DeWitt (nonpartisan) with Lt. Gov. candidate Christopher Steere
- Anchorage podiatrist and state medical board member Matt Heilala (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Jesse Sumner
- Former state Sen. Shelley Hughes (Republican), and Lt. Gov. candidate Blake Gettys
- Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (Democrat) and Lt. Gov. candidate Zac Johnson
- Author Hank Kroll (Registered Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Tommy Nicholson III
- Former state Sen. Lesil McGuire (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Elizabeth Rexford
- Angoon resident and former teacher James William Parkin IV (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Ramadhani Greer
- Destry Payne (Undeclared) and Lt. Gov. candidate Cliff Silvers
- Former Attorney General Treg Taylor (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate CEO Candi English
- Businesswoman Bernadette Wilson (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Mike Shower
- Former Gov. Bill Walker (Nonpartisan) and Lt. Gov. candidate Randy Hoffbeck
