This was announced by an Alaskan conservation group. New set of reports He criticized Alaska’s state-owned investment bank for incompetence.
The report was written by economists Greg Erickson and Milt Barker on behalf of the Salmon State Association. concluded The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s flagship lending program created few new jobs in Alaska and amassed huge funds with little oversight.
“These detailed reports show that AIDEA has been poor at creating jobs, has had very low returns on investment, has taken credit for work it shouldn’t have done, and has done serious damage,” said Salmon State Executive Director Tim Bristol. “It is clear that they are successfully evading legislative oversight,” it said in a prepared statement. Announcing the release of the report.
SalmonState is an initiative of the center-left national organization New Venture Fund, which opposes this. Several Some of the infrastructure projects supported by AIDEA.
The report comes as AIDEA is seeking approval from the Alaska State Legislature. You can borrow as much as $300 million. It will be used for various mining projects that have not yet been identified.
The new report is: 2022 analysis The report found that state spending on AIDEA cost Alaska $10 billion over 40 years and resulted in lower economic returns than a comparable investment in the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. .
The analysis does not take into account job creation, which is addressed in this week’s report. One report found that AIDEA had overstated the number of jobs it created through its small business loan participation program by 94%.
The Salmon State is one of several conservation groups opposing the construction plan by AIDEA, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and the Alaska Department of Transportation. Highway crossing the Susitna River Located in south-central Alaska.
AIDEA, which is also developing 200 miles of mine access roads in northwest Alaska and oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rejected the new report’s conclusions.
After the analysis in 2022, we requested a rebuttal report, which is still being developed.
AIDEA Executive Director Randy Ruallo said in an email that AIDEA disagrees with the conclusions of the new Salmon State-funded report.
“Northern Economics continues to work to provide independent analysis of AIDEA from an economic perspective. AIDEA has a rich program and projects that have benefited Alaskans, so we provide a thorough and accurate analysis of AIDEA. “It’s a complex job to do,” he wrote. “What we’re seeing so far is very positive. There are flaws in the report carried out by environmental groups, including not including AIDEA’s flagship project, the Red Dog mine. ”
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