Well Governor......I'm with you all the way - but you are in the middle of a war in which even strong words are losing their effectiveness. If you want legislators to move your way then you need to show their constituents what real pain will feel like. 

People can talk and fight about whether the budget has really been cut until cows build spaceships. But until everybody knows a state worker or teacher screaming about salary cuts they just received - it's hard to get worked up. So they close a field office of some branch of government and few folks lose a job while the same employees some where else take their annual step raise - how seriously do we take this?

It's possible you will need to inflict far more pain on us Alaskans if you want them to join your army instead of electing the folks who don't agree with you.  If not - I predict we will spend until our savings are gone and the chips will fall wherever.  

Wars can end quickly when the pain of losing is immediate and personal.