Alaska Progress Report

Alaska has highest per capita gun death rate

According to the Violence Policy Center Alaska had the highest per capita rate of gun deaths in the country in 2008, the most recent year for which data was available (really?). Data is from the federal Centers for Disease Control:

"The analysis reveals that the five states with the highest per capita gun death rates were Alaska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Wyoming. Each of these states had a per capita gun death rate far exceeding the national per capita gun death rate of 10.38 per 100,000 for 2008. Each state has lax gun laws and higher gun ownership rates. By contrast, states with strong gun laws and low rates of gun ownership had far lower rates of firearm-related death. Ranking last in the nation for gun death was Hawaii, followed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York and New Jersey (tie)."

Alaska is listed as having a gun ownership rate of 60.6 percent with 20.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people. Hawaii had the lowest rate at 3.2 gun deaths, with a household gun ownership rate of 9.7 percent. What would be more informative would be to break the rate down by homicide, suicide and accidental. Suicide is the most common type of violent death in Alaska.

Alaska has highest health costs per employee

From an October 6, 2011 press release by PlanSponsor.com: "According to a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors (UBA), Alaska has the highest average annual cost (AAC) per employee for employer-sponsored health plan coverage, at $11,926.

"The survey, titled UBA 2011 Health Plan Survey lists the most expensive and most affordable states for employer-sponsored health plan coverage. After Alaska, the top five highest AAC per employee states included New York, at $11,308 AAC; Massachusetts, $11,004; Connecticut, $11,000; and New Jersey, $10,642.

"Mississippi has the lowest ACC out of the five least expensive states at $6,282. The lowest five states also included Arkansas, $6,741; Kentucky, $6,801; Idaho, $7,029; and Arizona, $7,119."

Alaska ranks 43rd on homeownership rate

Our tax dollars at work: the US Census Bureau "...released a 2010 Census brief, Housing Characteristics: 2010, that shows the homeownership rate is the second highest on record, behind only 2000, since homeownership data collection began in 1890. However, the rate decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 65.1 percent between 2000 and 2010. The decrease is the largest since the period from 1930 to 1940."

Alaska's homeownership rate is 63.1 percent. Although just two percentage points lower than the national average it ranks Alaska 43rd, ahead of just seven other states and the District of Columbia.  Alaska has the fourth highest percentage of seasonal, recreational or occasional use homes at 9.1 percent, behind Maine (16.4), Vermont (15.6) and New Hampshire (10.4). 27,907 housing units out of 306,967 total in Alaska fall into this classification.

Alaska leads in state funding for schools

A new analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows Alaska at or near the top in state funding of schools. This is not an apples-to-apples comparison because state funding for schools is different in Alaska than most other states. Alaska's economy is also doing very well relatively.

The study shows Alaska as having the highest change in spending per student, adjusted for inflation, from FY08 to FY12: $1,156. That's the third-highest percent change at 14.6%, after Iowa (17.1%) and oil-booming North Dakota (24.2%). From FY11 to FY12 only nine states increased funding per student on a dollar and percentage basis, and Alaska was not among them with a drop of $130 per student for a -1.4% change.

How will Alaska deal with the end of oil?

A cheery new paper from the ever-optimistic Scott Goldsmith at the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research looks at the end of peak oil in Alaska. Warning: explicit charts and graphs depict harrowing statistics! Not safe for work, especially if you work in the oil industry...

"Two-thirds of the economic growth since statehood, as measured by jobs and income, can be traced to petroleum production, petroleum revenues, and petroleum spinoffs that have given a boost to other industries and households throughout the state.1 Although these effects are most obvious in urban Alaska, they reach into every corner of the state—through generous public spending, low taxes, and the Permanent Fund dividend.

"This prosperity has come from giant, low-cost fields—the largest being Prudhoe Bay—that the state owns on the North Slope. But now, those fields are in serious decline. As Figure 2 shows, we’ve used 80% of this high-revenue oil, with only about 20% of the identified 23 billion barrels of reserves remaining. Still, despite this situation, two things are currently creating a sense of complacency among Alaskans. There’s a lot of petroleum employment right now, because more people are needed to squeeze the last reserves out of these fields. Also, high oil prices are bringing the state big revenues, even as production drops. Together, high employment and high prices have diverted our attention from the reality: when there is no oil left in the barrel, the associated jobs and revenues will also be gone.

"And although it’s impossible to predict how future events will unfold, Alaska’s experience in the late 1980s—when a crash in oil prices ended the first huge oil-revenue boom—provides a glimpse of what could happen. Virtually all Alaskans were affected—by losing jobs, seeing the value of their houses plummet, or watching friends leave the state."

Anchorage fifth most dangerous city in US

And the Oscar for Most Dubious List goes to... Forbes Magazine, for their list of the most dangerous cities in America. Anchorage is ranked number five based on the number of violent crimes per 100,000 residents as reported in the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. The envelope, please:

• #5: Anchorage, Alaska, 813 violent crimes per 100,000 population.
• #4: Flint, Michigan, population 419,608 and 827 crimes per.
• #3: Springfield, Illinois, population 206,000 and 855 crimes per.
• #2: Memphis, Tennessee, population 1,313,722 and 1,006 crimes per.
• #1: Detroit, Michigan, population 1,895,974 and 1,111 crimes per.

Forbes's assessment of Anchorage: "With 813 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, Anchorage has a somewhat higher crime rate than cities of comparable size, and a rate that is double the size of Alaska as a whole. It is the largest city in the state, but it also has the largest rate of forcible rape, which contributes to Anchorage’s high crime statistics. Property crime, while not factored into our survey, is also double Alaska’s rate. Methamphetamine use has been a perennial problem in Anchorage and elsewhere in the state, and although laws have been passed to limit access to the pharmaceuticals necessary to manufacture meth in the state, a steady supply of the drug is still flowing in from Mexico."