{"id":24864,"date":"2016-06-29T02:20:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T09:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/alaska-editorial-pfd-divide-a-part-of-politics\/"},"modified":"2016-06-29T02:20:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T09:20:18","slug":"alaska-editorial-pfd-divide-a-part-of-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/alaska-editorial-pfd-divide-a-part-of-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Editorial: PFD divide a part of politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following editorial first appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an election year.<\/p>\n

The state House \u2014 where all of the seats will be on the ballot \u2014 won\u2019t touch the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend no matter what; right or wrong, it won\u2019t touch it.<\/p>\n

At least not until after November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n

And if Alaskans are happy with the state of the state pre-election, then they\u2019ll support their House members. If not, new members will be seated in November.<\/p>\n

Maybe House members will luck out and the price for a barrel of oil will zoom up between now and election day and make the permanent fund discussion moot. Maybe not.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bet, and it\u2019s risky.<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Walker doesn\u2019t want to risk the Alaska Permanent Fund, nor the future of Alaska. With the state\u2019s $3.5-billion deficit, he\u2019d rather prepare to avoid the worst case scenario. That means a variety of spending cuts, increased revenue and a temporary cap on permanent fund payouts.<\/p>\n

Then, if the worst case scenario doesn\u2019t happen, all the better for Alaska. (It\u2019s like putting on a life jacket. It\u2019s better to have worn it and not needed it, than to go into the water without it.)<\/p>\n

From Walker\u2019s viewpoint, at least Alaska wouldn\u2019t risk its economic future and the permanent fund dividend.<\/p>\n

Walker is now in the unenviable position of deciding whether, or by how much, to fund the dividends this year. Distributions are estimated at $2,000. He\u2019s proposed a cap of $1,000, applying the difference to deficit reduction.<\/p>\n

He has the Legislature\u2019s budget before him; all he\u2019d have to do is alter the permanent fund allocation with his veto pen.<\/p>\n

Walker isn\u2019t concerned about re-election. He wants to do the job he was elected to \u2014 lead. Leading means doing what\u2019s right, not taking a poll and doing what is politically safe.<\/p>\n

As a lawyer, he knows to review all of the evidence. Then decide, based on that evidence, the best course of action.<\/p>\n

He has substantial evidence for a veto when it comes to the permanent fund.<\/p>\n

A key point is that Ketchikan\u2019s senator, Bert Stedman of Sitka, the Senate\u2019s former, but long-time co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, voted in support of Walker\u2019s permanent fund proposal. Stedman knows state finances better than most of the state\u2019s elected elite.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a numbers guy.<\/p>\n

Add to that the price of oil, the projected price of oil, the state\u2019s downgraded bond rating by not one, but three bonding agencies, the significant loss of Alaska\u2019s oil industry jobs; and, clearly, addressing the deficit sooner rather than after the election is a wise decision. The Senate, recognizing that delays endanger the permanent fund, voted along with Walker\u2019s proposed cap.<\/p>\n

But, House members didn\u2019t act in the regular or the first special legislative session this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s up to the governor to make the next move by July 1. Then, depending on whether he chooses to veto all or part of the permanent fund allocation, the Legislature will get a chance to act on it in a second special session beginning July 11.<\/p>\n

If the House acts then, it might be in an attempt to overturn a Walker permanent fund-related budget decision.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that\u2019s part of politics \u2014 not always in the best interest of Alaska.<\/p>\n

Related article:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Empire Editorial: What if PFDs aren’t ‘permanent’?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following editorial first appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News<\/a>: It\u2019s an election year. The state House \u2014 where all of the seats will be on the ballot \u2014 won\u2019t touch the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend no matter what; right or wrong, it won\u2019t touch it. At least not until after November\u2019s election. It\u2019s the […]<\/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-24864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24864","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=24864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24864"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}