text: No, it's tying it to the market price of a traded commodity. Mind you, the chances of this hitting the completely pulled out of no where $90/bbl benchmark is slim to none in the next five years barring a major geopolitical conflict in the Middle East. This is a way to stick it to the state employees who are vilified for who knows what reason, but makes for good radio chatter. 
  
  If the state runs a balanced budget, through PFD restructuring, new revenues (taxes!), and strategic cuts we can get back to fiscal solvency. This can happen without the price of Alaska crude hitting $90/bbl leaving state employees stagnant on merit and more than likely turned over year over year. 
  
  If they want to be serious about merit raise freezes, they need to benchmark it in a way that actually makes sense.