Alaska Governor Bill Walker’s empty campaign rhetoric is once again falling flat.
In a recent interview, Walker admitted that he wouldn’t be able to fix Alaska’s multi-billion-dollar budget deficit before the end of his term, breaking his past campaign pledge to achieve “a sustainable budget.”
Walker is now trying to deflect blame onto the legislature, but in 2014 he refused to give the same benefit of the doubt to his predecessor. At the time, Walker attacked then-Governor Sean Parnell’s management of the budget, claiming the state was in “fiscal free fall.”
Walker’s budget failure is just another one of his broken campaign promises. Despite telling voters in 2014 that he had “no intention” of supporting “a statewide tax,” he is now pushing a major tax hike on working Alaskan families.
Walker may try to distract voters from his failed record and broken promises with empty campaign rhetoric, but unfortunately for him, Alaskans have already learned that his words mean nothing.
Gov. Bill Walker is an optimist, but even he thinks Alaska’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit won’t be resolved this year.
Walker spoke to the Empire in an interview Friday, a little over one week before the start of the 2018 Alaska Legislature.
"I don’t anticipate we’ll completely close the gap this year," Walker said.
Previously: