Gov. Mike Dunleavy reviewed his seven years in office and outlined his agenda for his final year during his annual State of the State address on Thursday.
“I believe the people in this room can accomplish big things, whether it's in public education, public safety or stabilizing our fiscal situation,” Dunleavy said. “We've got the time to do it. We've got the smarts to do it. We just have to have the desire to do it.”
Dunleavy spent much of his 79-minute speech presenting a long list of accomplishments from his first seven years in office.
He highlighted the state’s recovery from an economic downturn after emerging from a recession in early 2018. Dunleavy said his administration had enabled six consecutive years of job growth.
“I know there's a feeling that things can be better, and of course, they can,” he said. “But our economy has been getting stronger and stronger every year under my administration, and diversifying as well.”
Dunleavy also called out a significant drop in crime across Alaska. The number of crimes reported to police dropped by more than 40% between 2018 and 2024, according to the state Department of Public Safety, and violent crime fell nearly 20% over that period.
He also previewed a new “quality of life” initiative that would seek to reduce crime in Anchorage. He said he was working with Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance on the effort.
Dunleavy said the first phase is already underway, focused on retail theft, illegal camping, disorderly behavior and drug use. He says later phases will focus on drug smuggling and violent crime.
The governor also used the speech to highlight progress on the Alaska LNG project, which would bring natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska. He applauded an announcement from project developer Glenfarne saying it had secured nonbinding commitments from ExxonMobil and Hilcorp to provide gas for the pipeline, a nonbinding commitment to purchase gas by Southcentral utility Enstar and the planned Donlin Gold mine, and a variety of other deals with other companies to provide materials and support for the project.
Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval said the series of announcements indicated the project was “progressing from planning to building,” though the company stopped short of saying it had made a final investment decision.
Dunleavy said the progress on the gas line was only one piece of good news from his tenure.
“Today, we are on the cusp of realizing a decades-old dream of delivering abundant, affordable energy that will benefit all Alaskans,” he said. “Today, unlike seven years ago, oil production is increasing, reading scores are improving, and the Permanent Fund has reached record highs thanks to steady and strong leadership.”
Dunleavy also said he would work to expand the supply of housing across the state in his final year in office.
Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican leading a bipartisan caucus that has often found itself at odds with Dunleavy, said many of the accomplishments the governor touted were in fact items lawmakers had worked on, too.
“I noted down a whole lot of them, all things that we were involved in, and we appreciate the governor's leadership on those things, but (those are) things that we have worked hard on,” he said.
Dunleavy also pitched a forthcoming fiscal plan that he said would stabilize the state’s turbulent budget, though he stopped short of outlining what the plan would include. He outlined the goal of his plan — to reduce volatility in the state budget in order to make the state a more attractive place for investment — but stopped short of providing specifics.
On Friday, he introduced two measures in that vein: a cap on government spending and a constitutional amendment that would combine the Permanent Fund into a single account and set up a new formula for dividends. On Wednesday, he said his plan would also include a "temporary, seasonal sales tax concept."
But lawmakers in the bipartisan, Democrat-heavy House and Senate majorities said they were not optimistic the governor’s plans would pass this year. Even if they did, Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman said he did not expect them to provide immediate relief.
“Even if we move forward with a fiscal plan, it's going to take a couple years to engage it and get the revenue collected,” he said. “So this year, I would tell the people around the state to expect something very similar to last year.”
