Commonwealth North is a nonpartisan public policy forum in Alaska that convenes business, civic, and political leaders to study state issues and host public discussions.
Anchorage, AK, USA
Video Clips
Browse all clips
0:11
Brett Watson
“federal spending over the last 10 years has grown by approximately $9 billion.”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
0:23
Brett Watson
“if you think about the difference in our GDP between 2015 and 2023, our state's economy grew by $16.5 billion. Well, federal spending grew by just under $9 billion, meaning half of the growth in our total GDP, both our basic GDP and all of our non-basic GDP, all the money sloshing around in the bucket, not just the new money coming into the bucket.”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
0:22
Bob Loeffler
“federal government is the most important industry, if you will, that brings money in.”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
0:38
Brett Watson
“Many regional economists have often commented that Alaska's economy is a bit like a three-legged stool, that there's kind of three pillars that support the rest of our, the rest of our economy. Bob described that metaphor as a bucket in which industries like the oil and gas industry, the federal government, and kind of all of our other basic industries bring new money into the state.”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
0:27
Brett Watson
“I was presenting data from 2023 because that's sort of the latest data that we have available to us to see what actually got spent”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
0:28
Brett Watson
“Around half of the growth in our total GDP, half the water in the bucket was federal spending growth. And I think that that's, that's pretty significant, especially if you compare it to some of our other key basic sector industries. For example, oil and gas, which Bob mentioned, is kind of our second largest basic sector industry in the, in the state.”The Impact of Federal Dollars On Alaska’s Economy - 6/23/26 · Jun 26, 2026
Federal money built Alaska's recent growth — now it's receding fastest here
UAA economists say federal spending drove about half of Alaska's growth since 2015 — and the state is now losing federal workers faster than most, hitting rural areas hardest.
by Bill AlaskaNews3w ago2 min readAIAlaska
