"Alaska Permanent Fund"

The Legislature approved a budget last weekend that’s predicted to drain 70% of the cash left in that savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower proposed the payment as an amendment to the budget bill. Senators intend for the payments to be made immediately after the bill passes.

The state wouldn’t have enough money in the Constitutional Budget Reserve to pay the roughly $3,000 PFD using the formula in state law.

Coronavirus continues to upend the global economy in ways that threaten the stability of Alaska’s budget, the Alaska Permanent Fund and the state’s tourism industry.

Alaska’s legislative leaders say the state’s ability to spend down fund earnings is a political dilemma, at a time when Gov. Mike Dunleavy and some legislators want to pay back the amounts PFDs have been cut.

Lawmakers have proposed changing the dividend formula. And Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he wants to engage in discussions about what the PFD will be in the future. But he says that doesn’t change what Alaskans should receive under the current law.

After Goldman Sachs announced it would not finance oil drilling in the Arctic, Gov. Mike Dunleavy suggested he could cut off the millions of dollars a year that the state pays the Wall Street firm. Now Goldman is playing defense: Last week, it hired a Juneau lobbyist to represent its interests in Alaska.

After thinking about it for a year, Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he’s not opposed to putting budget cuts to a vote of the people.

Permanent fund dividends used to be calculated using a formula set out in a 1982 law.  But after oil prices fell five years ago, things changed.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed introducing a state lottery, calling it an “innovative new approach to revenue” for the state.