By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO
Alaska’s government no longer serves its people
Alaska has always stood for independence, resourcefulness, and self-reliance. But today, Alaskans are not in control of their state. Instead, a network of entrenched bureaucracies, corrupt agencies, clueless legislators, and outside special interests dictate how elections are run, how resources are used, and even how Alaskans live their daily lives.
This is controlled by a state budget process which corrupts the Alaskan government with billions of dollars and produces an unnecessary welfare state.
A twisted mockery of justice—where power isn’t earned by integrity but bought with special interest bankrolls. In this upside-down reality, the Golden Rule is rewritten: Those who hold the gold make the rules.
This is not by accident. It is by design.
Washington, D.C., along with state-level bureaucrats, legislators and politically connected organizations, have deliberately built a system that serves their interests—not the interests of Alaskans.
The solution: Dismantle bureaucratic control
To restore accountability, Alaskans must eliminate local, state and federal taxpayer-funded money laundering, strip excessive government power, and return decision-making to the people.
Step 1: Abolish agencies that block energy independence
Alaska is energy rich but remains shackled by federal and state regulations that stifle drilling, mining, and infrastructure projects.
Agencies to dismantle or reform:
- Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) – Wastes funds on politically driven green initiatives that fail to lower energy costs.
- Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) – Focuses on securing grants rather than delivering real-world energy solutions.
- Other agencies to evaluate – Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR), Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), and Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).
Solutions:
- Ensure permitting decisions are made by elected officials rather than unelected bureaucrats influenced by external agendas.
- Limit AEA and ACEP’s influence over regulatory decisions, ensuring they serve as advisory and research bodies rather than gatekeepers of development.
- Eliminate state subsidies for politically driven green energy programs that do not provide cost-effective benefits for Alaskans.
Alaska must reclaim control of its energy resources.
Step 2: Defund the election manipulation bureaucracy
The biggest threat to Alaskan democracy isn’t voter fraud—it’s state-controlled election manipulation.
Agencies to Dismantle or Reform:
- Alaska Division of Elections (DOE) – Facilitates Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), benefiting establishment candidates.
- Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) – Fails to prevent dark money while protecting political elites.
- Alaska Division of Legislative Audit (DLA) – Selectively shields corruption while targeting political adversaries.
- Other agencies to evaluate – Alaska State Legislature, Alaska Judicial System, Department of Public Safety, and Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).
Solutions:
- Ban state agencies from changing election policies without a public vote.
- Require full transparency for out-of-state campaign donations.
- Pass voter ID laws and enforce strict ballot chain-of-custody rules.
Alaskans—not bureaucrats or special interests—should control elections.
Step 3: Dismantle the education bureaucracy
Alaska’s public education system does not serve students; it serves teachers’ unions and political interests.
Agencies to eismantle or reform:
- Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) – Implements federal policies that do not align with Alaskan values.
- Alaska State Board of Education – Enforces top-down curriculum mandates.
- Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) – Adds unnecessary bureaucratic layers to financial aid.
- Local School District Administrative Bodies – 54 school districts exist largely for bureaucratic self-preservation.
- Alaska Professional Teaching Practices Commission (PTPC) – Abolishing PTPC allows for local teacher oversight and flexibility.
- University of Alaska System – Must be audited for financial mismanagement and undue external influence.
- Other agencies to evaluate – Alaska State Legislature, Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Department of Natural Resources, Housing Finance Corporation, State Council on the Arts, Workforce Investment Board, and Commission for Human Rights.
Solutions:
- Pass universal school choice and competitive education, allowing education funds to follow students.
- Eliminate bureaucratic mandates, restoring curriculum control to local communities.
- Repeal Title 14 and abolish all school districts and replace with the Alaska Education Freedom and Local Control Act which decentralizes education by eliminating bureaucratic oversight, directing funding to parents through Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), expanding school choice, and ensuring curriculum decisions are made at the local level—empowering families, improving educational outcomes, and reducing government waste.
- Ban federal education funding with ideological conditions.
Alaska’s schools should teach how to think—not what to think.
Step 4: Reclaim land and resource control
Over 60% of Alaska’s land is federally controlled, and state agencies collaborate with Washington to restrict land use, hunting, and development.
Agencies to Dismantle or Reform:
- Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) – Continue to streamline its permitting processes, environmental oversight, and balance development of state lands for the benefit of Alaskans.
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) – manage Alaska’s natural resources for the benefit of all Alaskans.
- Other Agencies for Evaluation – Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED), Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF), Alaska Department of Revenue (DOR), Alaska Department of Administration (DOA), and Alaska Department of Law (DOL).
Solutions:
- Pass a Land Sovereignty Act to prevent federal agencies from unilaterally seizing or restricting Alaska’s land and resources without explicit state approval, ending backdoor deals that undermine local control.
- Expand private land ownership opportunities to break the bureaucratic stranglehold that keeps vast areas of Alaska locked away from responsible development, resource use, and community growth.
- Strip DNR of its ability to enforce federal environmental policies, preventing it from acting as a local enforcer for Washington’s anti-development agenda and restoring its duty to serve Alaskans, not federal regulators.
- End bureaucratic stalling and forced dependency by immediately convening meaningful negotiations between Alaska Native communities, sport hunters, and commercial interests—resolving land-use disputes through transparent agreements rather than indefinite delays that serve only to maintain federal and bureaucratic control.
Alaskans—not Washington bureaucrats—should control Alaska’s land.
Step 5: Reform or dismantle Alaska’s health bureaucracy
Alaska’s healthcare system is burdened by inefficiency, regulatory delays, and high costs driven by bureaucratic mismanagement.
Agencies to dismantle or reform:
- Alaska Department of Health (DOH) – Fails to control Medicaid costs, creating an unsustainable financial burden.
- Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED) – Licensing delays contribute to healthcare provider shortages.
- Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA) – Lacks transparency in spending and program effectiveness.
- Other agencies to evaluate – Division of Health Care Services (DHCS), Health Facilities Licensing and Certification Unit, Office of Children’s Services (OCS).
Solutions:
- Audit and reform Medicaid to prioritize direct patient care over administrative waste.
- Streamline licensing to get more doctors and healthcare providers into the system.
- Encourage private-sector competition to lower costs and improve services.
- Redirect mental health funds to real-time crisis intervention services instead of administrative overhead.
Step 6: Reform or dismantle Alaska’s welfare bureaucracy
Alaska’s welfare system is managed by agencies that fail to efficiently deliver assistance.
Agencies to dismantle or reform:
- Alaska Department of Health (DOH) – Administers Medicaid, public health initiatives, and various welfare programs.
- Alaska Department of Family and Community Services (DFCS) – Needs oversight for child welfare programs.
- Division of Public Assistance (DPA) – Administers financial aid programs like Alaska Temporary Assistance Program (ATAP).
- Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) – Bureaucratic inefficiencies delay housing assistance.
- Other agencies to evaluate – Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Commission on Aging, Mental Health Board, Disabilities & Special Education Council, and Statewide Suicide Prevention Council.
Solutions:
- Streamline administrative processes to reduce delays in assistance.
- Improve accountability through audits and public reporting.
- Shift programs to community-driven initiatives.
Final Step: Restore power to the people
Alaska’s deep-state bureaucracy must be dismantled. Every agency that serves special interests instead of citizens must be reformed or abolished.
The Alaska State Constitution’s Declaration of Rights states:
“All political power is inherent in the people. All government originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the people as a whole.”
The government exists to serve Alaskans—not to rule over them. The time to reclaim Alaska is now.
Michael Tavoliero writes for Must Read Alaska. Stay tuned for Parts II and III of this series, later this week.
Tavoliero for Governor… 2026.
After reading this article, I thought the same thing. What Tavoliero needs is a DOGE team to go to work ! Alaska needs a DOGE team. We need those audits. The corruption runs deep.
We have one but it’s all political theater, retribution & paybacks. They have zero interest in reform. Try reaching out to them. Try reaching out several times, with tangible specifics. Crickets.
All said and good, Michael. Now we need to get some Legislators on board that will grow a pair and get some steel in their backbone. We as Alaskans, need to tell our elected officials once again, they work for us, not the special interest groups … everybody get that?!
Quite a comprehensive set of solution proposals, Mike. It is indeed sad, that America has pushed itself to the edge of a precipice, before landing itself on the brink of collapse. The myriad solution proposals are real and necessary. The commonalities of bureaucracies running democracies across the world tends to be couched, as you stated, in operational methods that actually are destroying Occidental democracies. Too, unelected, unaccountable bureaucracies tend to ALWAYS expand their tentacles. “Incentives”, a word key to perpetuating our Occidental way of life with capitalism at the helm….it has all slowly lost its way. Servants of the people have become (as Volodymyr Zelensky has stated); masters of the people. Once we simply all accept: With “it is as it is” as the common modes operandi, indeed democracy fails and dictatorships grow, either with dictatorships run by individuals or an aggregate of bureaucracies, well-funded ones. Freedom must be the most diffficult to attain & secure. The major changes that America, indeed small states like Alaska require are represented well in the above litany of contentions. The “people”, who have been delinquent in preserving democracy today are countenanced with changes akin to a “rank”, rather than a “bicycle”. It may all too late for America. Internecine chain g measures May include change. Bureaucrats and complacent overt idealist private sector persons will be resistant to change.
Excellent plan and solutions, I totally concure! Regarding “Step-4” … I would also propose reasonable access to stranded parcels of State owned lands.
Excellent article and clearly designed road map to gaining an actual state. We never had one, there is nothing to reclaim, we went from a territory to a state in name only, we need to enact these steps you lined out now.
I would add to amend how our judges are appointed to our judges being elected by the citizens, with a 5 year maximum term. The public can then evaluate their performance, re elect or replace them.
And the head of the Troopers be an elected position.
We also need to revisit federal ownership outside of military reserves. Don’t play the losing game of “working” with the federal land owners, eliminate their presence in the state.
Either the state owns all our public lands or we opt for independence. The Washington DC colony arrangement must end too.
The nation as a whole benefits from flourishing sovereign states, not top down mismanagement from Washington DC fiefdoms.
Michael has provided quite the mouthful with just this first part. As a life long resident, I hadn’t known how restricted my life has been controlled by this volume of governmental activities. I would assume my life of flying under the radar has some connection to this ignorance. That there is two more segments assumed to be as voluminous as this first segment.
Fascinating conclusions to solutions. In first read, it would seem Mr. Musk
should be contracted to deal with the topics Michael has exposed.
Just as a common man with a limited knowledge to the working of the “Wizards of Smart”, the sense being that no way would the legislature commit suicide in addressing these agency flaws. Many of the legislators are invested and protective, would be the case.
Cheers,
Johnson-Ketchikan
I agree with you Mr. Tavoliero. I came up north in 1978. The people we have nowadays are considerably different. We were resilient. We worked hard, we played hard. If you were smart, you invested well and did well. A majority of us didn’t wait for the government with our hands out in the tough times. You learned to be resourceful. My career path changed 4 times. All dependent on the needs of Alaska. Resourceful people wore different hats and welcomed the change. We all remembered the tough times in the 80’s when there was a caravan of people headed down the Alcan. The resourceful ones, adapted and weathered the storm. Look no farther than what has happened in Anchorage. It has an out of control assembly. Its members has their own agendas. Juneau is a mess, it’s like the Anchorage assembly on steroids. I seen the writing on the wall and moved to the valley over 30 years ago. And it’s starting to happen in the valley with the migration moving from Anchorage.
Voters have successfully voted to get the capital moved to the road system more than once.
We have a governor that I voted for twice. The alternative was worse. He lacks the backbone the lead.
I sure don’t have the answers. Term limits of 2 terms for all city & state elected officials might be a good start. Same goes for federal elected politicians that has the best interests of Alaskans in mind.
Michael my friend, your bellyache here sounds like just that. We can split some hairs (seriously, what does AIDEA have to do with education… nothing), and there is much truth you have spoken regarding bureaucratic excess, ineptitude, and corruption – though the conclusion of your “reforms” would be a mobocracy with no accountability, the exact opposite of what you desire. Be careful how we do these “reforms”.
One specific area you are dead wrong – attempting to “negotiate” more access to hunting in remote areas – even on just State land – will start a war, a shooting war no less. There is no issue more dear to our rural population than hunting and fishing access. Any “negotiation” will be seen as an attempt to take what they already have – a game population already declining they depend on for food. There are no more salmon in the Yukon. Do you really think we will negotiate away the moose and caribou? Don’t start that war Michael – the feds will use it as an excuse to seize more control from the State. You will lose, to the detriment of all. You don’t need to hunt in my backyard – you need to be a better hunter and game manager in your own.
Posted in a butcher shop in Glennallen, forty years ago:
With his rump on a stump and his feet by a fire, the mighty moose hunter dreams of antlers – like a liar;
Dreaming while hunting, a very bad habit – you usually wind up with a snowshoe rabbit.
I know I’ve triggered the trucons and the hunting orgs with this one. I’m NOT a RINO. But I did live in a Bush village for 33 years and can see several sides to this – and the outcome.
Perhaps we need more action than bellyaching. I don’t believe I tied AIDEA to education, but rather elections. AIDEA has been accused of politically motivated activities in recent discussions. ‘https://salmonstate.org/press-releases/new-economic-reports-aideas-investments-are-politically-driven-gambles-that-have-lost-alaskans-billions
Regarding “attempting to “negotiate” more access to hunting in remote areas – even on just State land”, again you may be missing my concerns. I agree, in many ways, Alaska’s wildlife management is ineffective or overly politicized, which has led to resentment and acrimony for some. Is it unreasonable to suggest improved game management strategies, supported by local communities, for long-term sustainability rather than immediate deregulation or restriction? Although I have not lived in the Bush for 33 years, I was the head of an Alaskan Native family in the remote area and for many years provided for my family. I still have that wonderful taste in my mouth. But I think you missed my main point on this, the settlement of state lands which continues to be a huge not often discussed issue. The advantage that Alaska has that no other state in the nation has is that we have a “sovereign” state government and some 220+ federally recognized sovereign tribal governments. Why haven’t we as the Alaskan people used this immense political presence to settle our land issues for the benefit of our children with the federal government? Because it is much simpler to keep the tension and conflict between the state and the tribes rather than uniting and negotiating with the federal government.
Can anyone tell me where I can send money to donate? “Tavoliero for Governor… 2026.”
Lucus Smith, thank you for a perfect idea, “Tavoliero for Governor… 2026”.
Let’s make Energy Great Again and Alaskans the most prosperous people in our great Nation.
Who thinks it is a good idea to distribute all the Permanent Fund Money equally to all Alaskans in 2027? Would that be $80,000 for every Alaskan?
Who thinks it is a good idea to distribute all the land and rich oil and gas/ mineral rights to each Alaskan through a lottery?
Texans own their oil and gas rights and elect the oil and gas Commission so Alaskan citizens can prosper, not just a few big companies from Texas.
I agree with streamlining, reducing waste, inefficiencies, and ineffective bureaucracies. UoA does get audited by the state, however. See ‘https://legaudit.akleg.gov/ .
Clueless. None of that is possible without a Republican Majority. A Republican majority is impossible as long as fellow republicans continue to publicly attack their republican elected officials.
This is the mantra of the Republican party. Elect someone who sounds interesting, then the very first time they vote wrong or talk to the wrong person, or have their picture taken with the wrong person, ATTACK THEM PUBLICLY. Label them a RINO. Make them know you no longer trust them. Make sure all the progressive liberal democrats, who are laughing all the way to the ballot box, know that they no longer have any support.
Bang your public anger drum loud and clear. Don’t bother to call them and ask about strategy before you write your attack piece. Dont bother to ask why they were seen talking to a democrat before you get on here and post your self agrandizing drivel. Toss handgrenades from the cheap seats. Don’t bother to run for office yourself or even get the inside baseball facts from someone who know. Just climb on MRAK and ATTACK!
Tavolero you are among the worst. Dont bother looking for solutions. Just attack those from different districts who do not do what YOU think they should do – even though their district constituents might want them to do what they are doing. Circle the wagons and shoot each other in the back. Thats helpful. No wonder so many decide to leave the party and caucus with democrats.
Ha ! Tell that to Trump and Elon ! The Alaska State gov’t needs a good house cleaning. But you can’t expect the existing gov’t to clean itself up. We need DOGE like activity here in AK. Real Audits. There are not enough real Conservatives to right the ship. The corruption in Juneau runs deep. Tavoliero does a good job at shining the light. We may need some help from the new Boss in DC.
DOGE would be dead if Trump did not have a majority in both houses. Elections have consequences. And spending time, like Tavoliero does, to continually rip apart those who don’t agree with his methods or positions does not consider the district that those legislators work for. It is not them. They are (generally) representing their district – Tavoliero is not a voter, they are not responsible to him. So here is a clue mike. Run against Merrick. Step away from your keyboard pacifier, get off your asset, and run! Or help build up republicans so we can find a way to do what needs to be done. Stop shooting your warriors in the back. You go to war with the soldiers you have, not the soldiers you want.
It will take more then one man or women as governor to make these changes and to be honest, there are to many people on the hand outs here now who wont vote against their freebees. I agree with Mike and support most of his changes, but somehow we need to reach the low information voters.
AEDIA has a duty to negotiate with Vigor in Ketchikan to provide training for high school seniors and Alaskans the whole purpose of the shipyard was for that purpose. We need a workforce and ADEIA has funneled millions into the rich owners of Ketchikan and none into our students.. Randy Rurro is from Ketchikan and should do something for this hollowed out town..We need a new Governor that stands up for education and puts money into CTE and on the job training program. Negotiate us out of dead last in everything except filling the pockets of the Boss Hogs..