{"id":49383,"date":"2019-06-14T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/opinion-governor-legislature-need-to-do-due-diligence-on-pfd\/"},"modified":"2019-06-14T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T11:00:00","slug":"opinion-governor-legislature-need-to-do-due-diligence-on-pfd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/opinion-governor-legislature-need-to-do-due-diligence-on-pfd\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Governor, Legislature need to do due diligence on PFD"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has stated that he will veto any bill<\/a> that does not provide for a full $3,000 Permanent Fund Dividend amount. I do not feel that a full PFD is the answer, in fact, I agree with many legislators who have clearly and thoughtfully stated that a full PFD will be a problem.<\/p>\n The House and the Senate have done considerable due diligence, in a very short period of time, on the PFD issue. They have looked at making cuts to numerous programs across the board. The governor has not provided enough time to make the draconian cuts he proposed without having dire consequences to Alaskans and the Alaska economy.<\/p>\n The Legislature will now continue their PFD due diligence in a special joint committee<\/a> between this legislative session and the 2020 legislative session to come to agreement upon a reasonable and sustainable plan for the PFD. I am told that there have been studies in the past relating to looking at the responsibilities of state government and how many employees are required to carry out those missions. It is time to resurrect those studies and update them. The governor’s office told me that they would be looking at that.<\/p>\n [Behind the gridlock: Two arguments divide Senate on PFD<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n