Curtis W. Thayer

Since 1953 the Alaska Chamber has been the voice of Alaska business large and small across Alaska with a mission to promote Alaska as a great place to do business. To better understand the concerns and needs of Alaskans, the Chamber conducts a robust annual statewide poll — and the 2018 numbers are in.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our congressional delegation of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young. They delivered the ultimate Christmas gift to Alaska: the ability to open the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for safe and environmentally responsible oil exploration.

ANWR has been a 37-year, uphill battle, once passed by Congress only to be vetoed by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Now that Congress and President Donald Trump have finally approved ANWR, Alaska must not squander the opportunity.

Creating wealth unfortunately doesn't just happen; rather, it’s a function of having a "can do" spirit, working hard, being smart and sometimes even a little luck comes into play.

Change is hard… even when everyone agrees that change is necessary. It’s easier to do nothing than it is to affect change. But every once in a while you bump into something that’s just so utterly broken that change is the only option. That’s where we’re at with Alaska’s workers’ compensation system.

In 2004 Alaska was the second most expensive workers’ compensation state in the country. It took us almost a decade, but in 2012 we finally dethroned states like California and Illinois as the worst in the United States.