[Part 1 of our oil tax coverage can be read here.]

What $10 Billion Could Buy

Governor Parnell’s plan to give a tax bailout to the oil companies would roughly cost Alaska $10 billion over the next five years. The bailout is “no-strings-attached,” as the companies are not required to guarantee job creation or Alaskan investment in return for the cash. That’s a lot of money, so we wanted to put it in perspective by figuring out what else the $10 billion giveaway could buy. Here are some ideas:

Give every single Alaskan high school senior a free, four-year college education for the next 42 years. 

One year of UAA tuition plus books plus fees is $6,019, meaning a four-year education would cost $24,076. There are approximately 9778 Alaskan high-school seniors this year.
9,778 x $24,076 x 42.5 = $10 billion
[UAA] [EED]

Provide every uninsured Alaskan with free health coverage for 14 years.

There are 125,800 uninsured Alaskans. The average individual health insurance policy in Alaska is $5,626 a year.
125,800 x $5,626 x 14 = $10 billion
[HHS] [Kaiser Foundation] [Profiles]

Pay every Alaskan’s property taxes for the next 10.5 years.

There are 710,231 Alaskans. According to the Alaska office of the State Assessor, the average property tax per capita in Alaska is $1,338.
710,231 x 1,338 x 10.5 = $10 billion.
[Census Data] [Office Of State Assessor]

Provide  61,148 Alaskan families with free groceries for twenty years.

Under the “thrifty” food plan, the USDA estimates the average Alaskan family of four spends $681.40 a month on groceries, meaning $8,176.80 a year per family, or $163,536 spent on food over twenty years. $10 billion would allow 61,148 families to eat for 20 years for free.
61,148 x 163,536 = $10 billion
[USDA] [Census Data]

Provide free gas for every licensed driver in Alaska for six years.

The national average spent on gasoline (at $3.61 a gallon) is $3,235 a year. Using that same formula with Alaska’s $3.91-a-gallon gas, an Alaska driver spends an average of $3,503.80 on gasoline in a year. There are 481,487 licensed drivers in Alaska.
481,487 x $3,503.80 x 5.9 = $10 billion
[Licensed Drivers] [Gasoline Prices] [Reuters]

Build the Susitna Dam…and the Chakachamna hydro project…and the geothermal plant at Mt. Spurr…and still have money left over to fund half of the bullet line to bring natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral.

The Susitna Dam project carries a $4.5 billion estimated price tag. Chakachamna project carries an estimated $1.6 billion price tag. Mt. Spurr would cost $170-$368 million. The bullet line has an estimated $7 billion cost.
$4.5 + $1.6 + $.368 + $3.5 for the bullet line = $10 billion
[ADN] [ADN] [Mt. Spurr] [Bullet Line]