{"id":24327,"date":"2016-10-03T21:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T04:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/alaskans-bemoan-sum-of-pfd\/"},"modified":"2016-10-03T21:30:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T04:30:31","slug":"alaskans-bemoan-sum-of-pfd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/alaskans-bemoan-sum-of-pfd\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaskans bemoan sum of PFD"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE<\/strong> \u2014 Yes, you could call it free money.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean all Alaskans are happy about the $1,022 dividend checks nearly every resident will receive starting Thursday from the state\u2019s oil wealth fund.<\/p>\n

Folks were looking at getting more than twice that amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really putting the hurt on my community,\u201d said Joel James, mayor of the tiny Yup\u2019ik Eskimo village of Gambell, which, like many remote communities around the vast state, is plagued by chronic unemployment and astronomical living expenses. \u201cI\u2019m definitely disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, residents get the checks from the Alaska Permanent Fund, a reward of sorts for living here at least a full calendar year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun money for some, with businesses offering highly advertised dividend deals. For others, it\u2019s a way to make ends meet. The amount of the annual checks is based on a five-year average of the multibillion-dollar fund, and they took a hit when recession years were part of the formula, with $900 checks issued in 2013 before payouts rebounded again.<\/p>\n

Last year, the amount for every person was a record $2,072. And this year, the check was estimated to be even higher at about $2,100. That is, until Gov. Bill Walker stepped in and shrunk the amount because of the state\u2019s multibillion-dollar budget deficit, a situation exacerbated by low oil prices.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s action is being challenged in court by state Sen. Bill Wielechowski and two former lawmakers who allege the governor illegally vetoed fund earnings appropriated for dividends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not done legally, it was not done appropriately, and it did not belong in the budget,\u201d said Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat. \u201cAnd because it didn\u2019t belong in the budget, the governor couldn\u2019t veto it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker said in a statement he did not take his decision lightly, and he acknowledged it may have upset some Alaskans. He said setting the amount of this year\u2019s dividend \u201cmore in line with the historical average\u201d will ensure there\u2019s money for future distributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlaska lost over 80 percent of its income in just two years, and we are burning through $12 million of savings each day,\u201d Walker wrote. \u201cThis is simply not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, the Gambell mayor, is among those also questioning Walker\u2019s veto, saying it leaves a financial vacuum for rural residents who depend on the money for life necessities. Another is Shirley Adams, a clerk in the tribal government office in the Inupiat Eskimo village of Kivalina, on Alaska\u2019s northwest coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m wondering, does he have the right to do that,\u201d said Adams, who often uses the money to catch up on bills.<\/p>\n

Some people are asking the same thing in the Yup\u2019ik village of Manokotak, said Nellie Alakayak, the community\u2019s temporary tribal administrator. The money often goes to survival expenses, such as clothing and other basics, for many people in her village.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they kind of feel cheated,\u201d she said of this year\u2019s check.<\/p>\n

The fund was established in 1976 after the discovery of oil on Alaska\u2019s North Slope, with the first dividends distributed to residents in 1982. Excluding the upcoming payout, more than $21.1 billion has been distributed to Alaskans over the decades since.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s distribution has prompted mixed feelings for longtime Anchorage resident Jerry Wolf, 85, who moved to Alaska\u2019s biggest city as a teenager in 1947.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, he understands the governor\u2019s action and believes the lawsuit is a distraction from the real problem \u2014 that the state has been too dependent on its shrinking oil resources. On the other hand, many rural residents really need the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see in our villages across the state that they have been very dependent on this little boost, and in many cases maybe even to put some more food on the table,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n

The amount is fine with Quamaundya Elliott. Until this year, the 21-year-old Anchorage nanny has pooled her money with her mother\u2019s checks because she was living at home rent-free. This is the first check she\u2019ll get for herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish it were bigger, but you know, it\u2019s OK,\u201d she said. \u201cMoney\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 Yes, you could call it free money. But that doesn\u2019t mean all Alaskans are happy about the $1,022 dividend checks nearly every resident will receive starting Thursday from the state\u2019s oil wealth fund. Folks were looking at getting more than twice that amount. \u201cIt\u2019s really putting the hurt on my community,\u201d said Joel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24327"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}