Editor's note: The below excerpt from the interview is not the full transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview with Matt Heilala by clicking on the audio link.
Matt Heilala: My name is Matt Heilala and not Polynesian, not Lebanese, it’s Finnish. I’m fourth generation Finn. But I was born and raised here, 1969 in Anchorage, but raised on the Kenai Peninsula… My first work experience was from the time of nine or ten years old, I was a commercial fisherman in Cook Inlet. Beach site, then drift, then [at] 14 years old we went over to Bristol Bay. And I took over my dad’s operation at 18, when you could legally have a permit in your name. So that was my first exposure to risk, danger and being bold enough to catch enough fish to pay costs.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: What would you do or focus on to help out folks living in rural Alaska and urban Alaska, but especially in rural Alaska, who are dealing with just a high cost of living across the board?
Heilala: The answer is to allow for the opening up of the opportunities that are natural resources, primarily, out there. Now communications disruptions like Starlink and things are [sic] also creating more opportunities in remote areas where you’re having no limitation of communications now, which is amazing, and it’s pretty cheap. So there’s going to be a lot of things that we see in these next few years, if we can get the economy booming out in rural Alaska with mining, hydroelectric, energy projects, all kinds of things. You know, we start saying yes.
KMXT: Switching topics here, I’m wondering where you stand on education and what your thoughts are about charter schools, and trying to sort of change outcomes [for students]?
Heilala: So number one, I think the funding of schools is a real challenge right now, because we’re broke. I keep using the line, we can’t buy a ham sandwich right now, we’re so broke as a state. And there’s no excuse for that…. I like choices. Our public educational system needs to be adequately funded. I’m not about pulling the rug out overnight and have it collapse, that would be a disaster. Number one, charter schools, home school, these different co-ops and things, they do not have the resources to help with our special needs kids. That’s critical.
KMXT: One of the topics that always comes up every year is, of course, the Permanent Fund Dividend [PFD]. Where do you stand on the PFD and what would you sort of commit to, I guess, if you were elected governor?
Heilala: I would never want to impose the idea that it’s been bad for Alaska. I don’t think it has been. I think it’s a wonderful sovereign wealth fund. Just like a business startup, you want to spin off as much of a dividend as possible when you’re a thriving business, when you’re jamming along, but that requires time. It requires diversification of your revenue stream. It requires discipline and our permanent fund is not exactly like that…. I aspire to big dividends when we’re jamming along and we should be jamming along with all this natural resource development, energy projects, all the above. Right now, even though a governor might say ‘hey, I aspire to this giant dividend,’ It never happens. And there is a tacit approval of that by not vetoing a smaller dividend. So the reality is, it’s smaller now. Will it have to go to zero? I don’t know. I sure hope not, but we have to get a more diversified economy and get our economy booming.
KMXT: Thank you Matt. And finally, just sort of your one-minute elevator pitch, what you want voters to know and why they should choose you out of the growing pool of candidates.
Heilala: Yeah, there are plenty of us. My differentiating value offering to Alaska is I'm not a politician, I'm not a bureaucrat, and I have a passion for the next generation. I'm a lifelong Alaskan. I've been in business, commercial fishing, healthcare, real estate, several other things. And my world is not promises. You know, I'm going to make roads better, education better, crime better. My world is, if you're in the boardroom, you're a proven performer, and you don't leave the boardroom until you accomplish something, even if it means discussing things that are uncomfortable…and you can't be in a special interest’s back pocket, or you're going to compromise on the, you know, what all of Alaska needs. You need to be in all of Alaskans’ back pocket, and in particular the next generation.
