Most survey respondents favor scaling back PFD to help pay for public services

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete my 2023 Legislative Budget Survey. It was a straightforward questionnaire: Do you support decreasing the Permanent Fund dividend to balance the state budget? If yes, by how much? If no, what cuts and new revenue should we implement to cover the nearly $600 million deficit?

A few weeks ago, House Minority Leader Calvin Schrage said, “If you were to ask legislators how you solve this, you’ll get a different answer from each and every one of them.” And that seems to ring true for District 1 as well. I received nearly 200 responses, and almost all of them were unique in their approach. I tried my best to summarize the results below.

A majority of respondents — 72% — said that they support decreasing the dividend in order to balance the budget. Of those, 58% favored a 75/25 split, with 75% of the percent-of-market-value annual draw on Permanent Fund earnings (our main source of revenue) going to public services and 25% going to the dividend; 18% favored an even 50/50 split; 10% favored a flat dividend amount, with suggested ranges from $300 to $1,800, and 11% preferred no dividend at all.

The other option — not to use the dividend to balance the budget — was preferred by 28% of respondents.

Survey respondents then provided how they would like the budget cut and what forms of revenue they would prefer to balance the budget. Budget cuts, in order of preference, were education funding, the capital budget, the Department of Health, the Legislature and governor’s office.

Revenue options, in order of preference, were a state lottery, oil and gas corporate tax changes, an income tax for high earners who make over $250,000, a graduated income tax for earners over $10,500, a sales tax excluding groceries, a corporate tax for highly digitized businesses, and a carbon offset program.

Once again, thank you all for the responses. It has been helpful during my decision-making in Juneau. You can contact me at Rep.Dan.Ortiz@AKLeg.gov or call my office at (907) 465-3824.

Rep. Dan Ortiz