{"id":24774,"date":"2016-02-17T09:02:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/alaska-editorial-pfd-checks-shouldnt-be-a-budget-priority\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T09:02:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:02:57","slug":"alaska-editorial-pfd-checks-shouldnt-be-a-budget-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/alaska-editorial-pfd-checks-shouldnt-be-a-budget-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Editorial: PFD checks shouldn’t be a budget priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following editorial first appeared in the Peninsula Clarion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more important, a big permanent fund dividend or more teachers in public school classrooms? How about better road maintenance, or a stronger law enforcement presence, or a fully staffed court system, or the ability for Fish and Game to conduct adequate research?<\/p>\n

A number of budget proposals are being vetted by the Legislature, and nearly all of them have, in some form, \u201cpreserving the dividend\u201d as a selling point. Yet just about every public agency looking at cuts that significantly impact the ability to perform its functions.<\/p>\n

Our question is this: Does it really make sense to promise to put dollars in Alaskans\u2019 pockets if it means every other service provided by state government is slashed?<\/p>\n

Certainly, it\u2019s one of those hard decisions we\u2019ve been talking about over the past year, and the question doesn\u2019t have an easy answer. For many Alaskans, the annual dividend check is a nice bonus, spent on vacations or flat-screen TVs or new skis. Others put their PFD check into savings, or donate a portion to nonprofit organizations. But many people rely on it as part of their income, helping to pay the bills.<\/p>\n

However, we\u2019re clearly past the point where the state needs help paying the bills, too. Good schools, well-maintained infrastructure, and efficient government agencies are crucial not just to Alaska\u2019s present, but also to Alaska\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

As the Legislature works through the various budget proposals, there likely will be a fair amount of feedback, from the public and from individual lawmakers, not to touch the dividend, that Alaskans can spend their dividend better than the government can.<\/p>\n

In a different fiscal climate, we might agree. But the state\u2019s spending priorities have been and should remain education, public safety, transportation and infrastructure, and economic development. For a long time, Alaska has been able to find other ways to foot the bill, leaving money available for dividends. That\u2019s no longer the case.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to lose the dividend program. It provides an economic boost to our communities, and in many cases, helps Alaskans get by \u2014 but it shouldn\u2019t be a budget priority. It doesn\u2019t make sense to promise the annual payments if we can\u2019t promise any of the other things that government needs to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following editorial first appeared in the Peninsula Clarion: What\u2019s more important, a big permanent fund dividend or more teachers in public school classrooms? How about better road maintenance, or a stronger law enforcement presence, or a fully staffed court system, or the ability for Fish and Game to conduct adequate research<\/a>? A number of […]<\/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":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24774","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=24774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24774"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}