By TUCKERMAN BABCOCK
Alaska and Alaskans are in economic free fall: Forty thousand are suddenly unemployed, oil prices are crashing, new work is coming to a standstill, and tourism season is just about wiped out.
Stay-at-home orders were made, businesses were shuttered, and government declared a health emergency on a scale never experienced by any living Alaskan under 100 years old.
This is a statewide disaster.
There are those trying to help: President Donald Trump, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young.
And then there are the majorities in the Alaska State Senate and State House.
The legislative majority guaranteed automatic pay increases for State of Alaska employees, increased the state budget by $300 million, and cut the Permanent Fund dividend by $1,300 this Spring, and another cut of $2,000 in October.
They were forced by minority members to begrudgingly allow Alaskans to have a third of their 2020 dividend ($1,000 in October).
They did this while sitting on a giant pile of money — $10 to $15 billion dollars in the Earnings Reserve Account of the Permanent Fund, the portion of the fund used to pay PFDs since 1981. During the last three years, the fund was also used to cover some of the deficit in State spending.
Who can argue this isn’t the rainiest of days?
Never before has government been directly responsible for putting 40,000 Alaskans out of work.
The governor has called for a full Permanent Fund dividend, to include all the years the legislative majority failed to approve the full PFD.
$5,044 is owed to every eligible man, woman and child in Alaska.
Gov. Dunleavy also advocates for a full PFD this year – $3,000, not the $1,000 squeezed from the Legislature. And that is exactly what existing law instructs legislators to do, a law that they ignore.
There are Legislators who support more for the PFD – but they are outnumbered by the hoarders.
Senate President Giessel and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon lead the hoarders in the Legislature.
They are proud of their hoarding. They left billions upon billions sitting in the Earnings Reserve of the Permanent Fund, disregarding the law that directs them to transfer a PFD of a statutorily calculated amount to each Alaskan.
They refused. They ignored the law. They would rather hoard the billions for the possibility that government may need the money later.
Hoarders — in a time of great need, with families who have been denied the right to work and resources in short supply. The legislative leadership are hoarders.
I have been involved politically in Alaska since 1979. I have supported the Permanent Fund and the PFD from the beginning. I volunteered in 1999 to Chair “Save the Dividend Mat-Su.”
The fact is that the PFD is your small share of the royalty paid on developing your oil. The government already taxes your royalty 75 percent to spend immediately.
The hoarders refuse. The hoarders are stuffing the vaults with billions for them to spend later.
Only you can stop the hoarders. It is time we all knew just who these hoarders are. Argue about who is most pure another time. Right now we need to know who the real hoarders are.
Through a constitutional amendment we Alaskans once voted to force the government to save and invest 25 percent of your royalties. Since 1981, the law has directed about 50 percent of the 5 year average in realized earnings be transferred to the actual owners of the oil: all individual Alaskans.
Former Gov. Sean Parnell and former U.S. Senator Mark Begich together recently urged the Legislature to act now to get more PFD out to the people.
Not every Legislator supports making good on all PFDs owed, not everyone agrees on exactly how much more PFD should go to Alaskans this year.
However, a good place to draw the line is between the miserly hoarders and those who support more PFD dollars going directly you (and owed to you under existing law!)
Here are the hoarders who are up for election:
- Senator John Coghill
- Senator Josh Revak
- Senator Cathy Giessel
- Senator Natasha Von Imhof
- Senator Gary Stevens
- Senator Bert Stedman
- Representative Bart LeBon
- Representative Steve Thompson
- Representative Grier Hopkins
- Representative Adam Wool
- Representative Ivy Spohnholz
- Representative Andy Josephson
- Representative Harriet Drummond
- Representative Geran Tarr
- Representative Zach Fields
- Representative Matt Claman
- Representative Chris Tuck
- Representative Chuck Kopp
- Representative Jennifer Johnston
- Representative Gary Knopp
- Representative Louise Stutes
- Representative Sara Hannan
- Representative Andi Story
- Representative Jonathon Kriess-Tompkins
- Representative Dan Ortiz
- Representative Bryce Edgmon
- Representative Tiffany Zulkovsky
- Representative Neal Foster
- Representative John Lincoln
Those who to varying degrees are in favor of following the law or getting more PFD dollars to Alaskans:
- Senator David Wilson
- Senator Shelley Hughes
- Senator Bill Wielechowski
- Senator Tom Begich
- Senator Donny Olson
- Representative Mike Prax
- Representative Dave Talerico
- Representative Colleen Sullivan-Leonard
- Representative Mark Neuman
- Representative George Rauscher
- Representative David Eastman
- Representative DeLena Johnson
- Representative Cathy Tilton
- Representative Sharon Jackson
- Representative Kelly Merrick
- Representative Gabrielle LeDoux
- Representative Sara Rasmussen
- Representative Mel Gillis
- Representative Laddie Shaw
- Representative Lance Pruitt
- Representative Ben Carpenter
- Representative Sarah Vance
We are not talking toilet paper here, the hoarders are taking real money out of your pockets and your bank accounts.
What the hoarders have done is not illegal, according to the court – just terribly, painfully, wrong. This fall, Alaskans will determine the political price many of the hoarders will pay.
Tuckerman Babcock has been an Alaskan since January 1966. He worked for five legislators, two governors, served 10 years with Matanuska Electric Association, 3 and 1⁄2 years as a commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. He has been a homemaker and former volunteer chair, Alaska Republican Party. Most recently, he chaired Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s transition team and was the first chief of staff (retired August 2019). He lives in Soldotna with his wife and family.
