According to the Bradner Report, despite all the gloom and doom rhetoric, the state is not in bad shape financially. According to the June 20 Standard & Poor's report, the combined Constitutional Budget Reserve and Permanent Fund's Earnings Reserve is about $16.8 Billion. Projected FY2018 deficit is $3.4 Billion at the highest.

The Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve was intended to be used as a rain-day fund. Those are the exact words used by Hammond when discussing it.

The Senate Republicans have a good plan that would bring us to fiscal stability at $50 a barrel oil in five years WITHOUT an income tax. The corpus of the PF would be untouched and the earnings reserve would be replenished if oil prices rose (which they always have, eventually). But the House Democrats want to keep spending like drunken sailors by taking money away from the working people of the state.

It's really that simple. One side cares about we the people. The other side cares about growing government.