 Knowles to Meet with Investors, Wall Street Journal to Discuss Gasline October 08, 2002
"Alaskans this November will be asked to authorize hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds to build and repair schools and maintain roads and ports," Knowles said. "We want to ensure that Alaska's national bond ratings continue to receive the highest marks, which saves Alaskans money in the cost of bonds. My mission is to reassure bond-rating agencies and financial advisors that Alaska's economy is sound." The governor has made similar visits to Wall Street in recent years. He will be accompanied by state Revenue Commissioner Wilson Condon, Deputy Commissioner for Treasury Neil Slotnik, Permanent Fund Corporation Executive Director Robert Storer and Alaska Housing Finance Corporation Executive Director Dan Fauske. Knowles plans to meet with Moody's Investors Service, Standard and Poor's and institutional investors in Alaska. He also will meet with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, primarily to promote the Alaska Highway Natural Gas Pipeline. The newspaper recently wrote a misinformed editorial about the project that the Governor plans to rebut. Standard and Poor's recently reaffirmed Alaska's high bond ratings but Moody's, while recognizing the strength of the state's economy, revised Alaska's economic outlook. It did so primarily because of the deadlock over how to address sizable budget gaps projected in the future. "Since the state Legislature has rejected the governor's proposals to enact a modest broad-based tax or tap the excess earnings of the Permanent Fund, these budgetary shortfalls have been primarily offset through substantial draws on the state Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund (CBRF)," Moody's said. The governor will meet with the authors of that report.
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