Alaska faces a seriously long list of long-term serious problems.
Our population is aging, people are not moving here fast enough to replace those who leave, too many employers lack enough workers to fully staff their operations, and the state’s finances are as stable as oil prices — which is to say not.
State funding for K-12 education is frozen in time from the past decade.
We maintain our deteriorating public buildings about as well as a teenager cleans their room.
And we seem in a contest to see which is in shorter supply in our communities— new housing or child care services. No matter which one wins the title, Alaskans lose.
Thankfully, we have the Permanent Fund, which, through its earnings, provides the largest single source of general purpose revenue for public services in the state budget.
Yet, with the Permanent Fund, we also have the Permanent Fund dividend, the largest single source of political divisiveness since Adam and Eve started arguing whether apples should be regulated.
I am starting to think the dividend is Alaska’s political equivalent of comfort food. We know it’s not healthy to keep eating oversize portions, but we can’t help ourselves.
Such as the cooks in the House Finance Committee last week. The $2,272 PFD in the draft budget unveiled by the kitchen leadership was unhealthy enough — it would overspend state revenues while ignoring multiple statewide and community needs that belong in the budget.
But then some pastry chefs on the committee tried to amend the budget to inflate the dividend to about $3,500, which would have required overdrawing on the Permanent Fund or draining the state’s budget shock absorber account dangerously close to bottoming out at the next financial pothole.
The effort to serve up a $3,500 dividend, a favorite dessert of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, ultimately failed. But the committee still needs to finish its budget work and the spending plan still needs to go to the full House for a vote, at which time it will be open to amendments to bring back the dessert tray.
And while the battle over the amount of this fall’s dividend will continue until the Legislature adjourns in mid-May, there are several proposals in the House that would permanently alter the fund and Alaska’s fiscal future — and not in a good way.
One proposal would ask voters to put the dividend in the state constitution, which is the last place you would want a political virus. Talk about a ransomware attack.
Another House bill is intended to remove the PFD from the annual legislative appropriation process, making it an automatic annual transfer. It’s similar to setting up an autopay on your credit card, regardless of whether you can afford it.
Doubling down on two bad ideas at the same time, a House bill would direct the Permanent Fund to put billions of dollars of real money into a mirage. It would direct the fund to invest in a 25% stake in the proposed Alaska North Slope gas pipeline project. I suppose we should be happy it’s not a 50% stake.
The most recent indigestible idea served in the House would allow Alaskans to opt out of receiving the annual dividend if they would rather get $5,000 a year for three years. It’s like a game show: Door No. 1 is guaranteed money you can take with you and then leave the state, while the prize behind Door No. 2 could last for future generations, if you trust Alaskans not to mess it up.
House members would do better to just close the door on unaffordable and irresponsible dividends.
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