Acting Revenue Commissioner Marsha Davis has been booted upstairs to the Governor’s Office to assist Chief of Staff Jim Whitaker. Davis will continue to live in Anchorage. Meanwhile, new Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck is back in state and has taken over the top job at Revenue.
Former state revenue commissioner Sterling Gallagher is now a Special Assistant for Finance in Gov. Bill Walker’s office. Gallagher said he will be taking a look at the investment performance of state assets, some of which have been underperforming, he said.
Lower oil prices are beginning to be felt in Fairbanks in lower heating oil prices–reported most recently at $3.40/gal. and headed down–and that is threatening to upend a plan to build a small liquefied natural gas liquefaction plant at Prudhoe Bay and to truck LNG to the Interior city. Cost estimates of the LNG project are rising, which is increasing the expected price of gas to consumers. Delivered costs could now reach $18 to $20 per million British Thermal Units,…