Brian Vander Naald loves Alaska, but he and his young family are leaving because they see a downturn coming and don’t trust the Legislature to handle it.

A friend put me in touch with Vander Naald after recent comments by Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, the Finance Committee co-chair who said the state should cut spending more to address its enormous deficit before looking at new revenues. As I explained in a previous column, economists say that strategy is the most harmful choice for the economy.

“He said something to the effect of, obviously we haven’t cut deep enough, because people aren’t feeling the pinch,” Vander Naald said. “And the problem with that statement is that people don’t only make decisions just based on what is happening in the past and the present, they also make decisions based on what they expect to happen in the future. And when legislators make comments like that, it drags down people’s expectations.”

Vander Naald, 36, knows what he is talking about. He is an economist specializing in natural resources, with a set of skills in high demand nationally and much needed by Alaska. The University of Alaska Southeast recruited him in 2012 with a fresh Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He and his wife Anne, a massage therapist, bought a house and nine months ago had a son, Isaac.