The Alaska Senate continued to withhold the state’s operating budget from the House on Monday, creating a situation where the House is unable to negotiate in a conference committee, the process that allows differences to be ironed out.
This unprecedented move by the Senate has led to growing complaints from House members who feel they are being treated as an advisory panel rather than an equal legislative body.
The biggest issue causing the budgetary stalemate is the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, the annual royalty payment made to all eligible Alaskans from the state’s oil wealth savings account. Disagreement over the size and source of this dividend has been a recurring point of contention since 2017, the year after Gov. Bill Walker’s veto altered the PFD’s relationship with the people into “just another appropriation.”
The Democrat-dominated Senate is proposing a $1,300 dividend, known as the 75-25 split, which allocates the majority of the dividend to the government.
The Republican-led House, on the other hand, is advocating for a $2,700 dividend under the 50-50 plan. This larger dividend would be financed from the Constitutional Budget Reserve, which necessitates a two-thirds vote from both legislative bodies.
The House had passed the operating budget to the Senate last month. However, the Senate leadership has been actively circumventing the traditional conference committee process, a tactic that will most likely result in a special session. Instead, Senate leaders have been using media outlets in the building to bolster their position, a strategy that has been met with skepticism from Democrat-friendly reporters.
With Wednesday marking the final day of the legislative session, time has run out and it’s almost certain special session will be called by the governor.
Just curious- What would it have been before Walker changed the process and made this an issue?
Roughly $4200
Thanks
For a family of 5, that’s one big $21,000 boatload of $ocialism. Disneyland, the “Happiest Place on Earth” and where all your $21,000 dreams can come true.
More smoke n mirrors. Svengali lives.
How about using the statutory formula for a FULL dividend & stop trying to reinvent the wheel in order to legitimize your blatant corruption!
That’s what these old senators do every year. Totally predictable and not news anymore. What IS news is that people are sick of them. The full, statutory PFD is the People’s Money. Any other explanation is just an argumentive word game. Governor Dunleavy and the House conservatives need to call them what they are:
A bunch of over the hill, embedded dinosaurs, who as a collective body……..the People can’t stand. They all look sick in their photos.
LOL…….the whole damn bunch of them look like Diane Feinstein in wheelchairs, being pushed to their little Senate Finance committees. Miserly old men and women with no souls, only the rubber stamp of growing government even more. Pathetic dogs!
And yet the people keep voting these thieves back into office.
Judge them because they’re not good legislators, not because they’re “dinosaurs”. That’s stupid, and not the problem. Unless you’d prefer AOC or Mary Peltola – they’re young.
This is just like racism (or reverse racism). Judge people based on their abilities and character, not on these parameters that are irrelevant.
It doesn’t make you look very discerning.
dan (yup, real name, because I’m not embarressed of my opinions)
Who is the pol (that needs to go) in the pic?
I’m sick and tired of this.
“Good faith” misleadership…
The so called nonprofits have perverted the budget process because in reality there is no such thing as a nonprofit as the profits are hidden in salaries. Bleeding heart democrats know it but don’t want you to know it.
Then there are the special interests that need to be cut down to size, unions and runaway state holidays too.
Rules aren’t for Democrats. They do as they wish. We serfs must obey and suffer.
If you thieving legislatures continually want to take everybody’s PFD, then there should be no state fees for any Alaska. We shouldn’t have to pay for fishing hunting, car, registration, school, tax gas tax any fee the state charges of citizens should be free. You are lawbreaking legislatures need to be held accountable for stealing, what is not yours. If you’re insistent on stealing our PFD, then you owe us to have no state fees.
So gosh – It’s that difficult to choose between a balanced budget and an $800 million deficit budget?
I wonder what the House would do to balance the budget? All this Kabuki Theater to maximize the Dividend at the expense of everything else – including the core financial stability of Our State.
The Dividend has become the equivalent of Government Crack. To continue feeding our addiction the House wants Sales Taxes, Income Taxes, Oil Taxes, and raids on the Permanent Fund and the Budget Reserve Fund.
The Dividend is like a poison that we take to kill the other guy.
Some people just love feeding the already overbloated government.
You conveniently ignore the government is wildly bloated and spends millions at has no business spending.
How about cutting, say, 500-800 million from the budget and privatizing what was cut if it’s that important.
What, exactly, is in it for the average citizen to abandon the legally owed PFD?
-The left of center legislature will not stop growing the government.
-The left will still look under everything rock to find excuses to tax us.
-Our cost of living, especially energy and essentials will not go down.
-Our basic rights will continue to be eroded.
So, again, what’s in it for us, average Alaska citizen, to surrender the one and only tangible benefit (legally owed) we get from a predatory and adversarial state government?
“How about cutting, say, 500-800 million from the budget and privatizing what was cut if it’s that important.”
Have at it bud – How do you propose to accomplish something that the Legislature is unable to do?
“What, exactly, is in it for the average citizen to abandon the legally owed PFD?”
I would prefer to eliminate it completely – however getting $1300 for staying alive and sucking the government teat seems more than fair. There a multitude of options for the Earnings of the Permanent Fund: Reinvest into the corpus leading to higher future earnings, Capital Projects, lower taxes, etc. just to name the capitalist alternatives. I’ll leave the socialist alternatives to the rest of you free money from the government socialists.
Your PFD obsession is long documented. And sad.
It’s less the legislature is unable to do cut anything than they don’t bother to try. But instead of focusing on that you cry on about money legally and duly owed citizens of Alaska.
Keeping our money to feed the state, as you suggest, is the epitome of socialism.
I fail to understand your inability to comprehend the concept of dividend. The only thing that makes sense is you just don’t want to. It conflicts with your desire to give ever cent possible to an out of control state. Again, socialism. Just on your terms.
Giving other peoples legally owned money to the state do the state can grow its coffers is again, classic socialism. You seem quite fond of socialism.
Capitalism is paying us money we are contractually owed and letting us decide how best to use it.
For all your bravado, your solutions always cons back to basic socialism.
Makes one wonder.
You’re a joke. Much of what you say is false. If you really believe that stuff you are nuts. You seem to be the biggest troll here at MRAK.
Have a great time!
Thank you Mr. Nyman.
Our corrupt public education system in Alaska is a more apt example of a crack head!
The State Senate is a disgrace to representative Government.
They should avoid eye-contact with every citizen.
It’s always fun reading the comments about the Political Fun Drug payout every year from the Alaskan Republican $ocialist$.
Okay, I’ll bite. I’ll take a one time payout of the whole permanent fund and end it, we can do a state sales tax to pay for our government, and I get the mineral rights to MY property.
If you could get your delusional xmas wish, the state would forever forward need a hefty sales AND income tax. $weet dream$.
What percentage of Alaska revenues comes from federal grants? Has anyone commited this to memory?
If these legislators (past and present) had a spouse was a single mother (never married, lowincome) i’m just sayin’ their paradigms of the pfd (and thegovernent bloat) be changed, if they
knew how hard some mothers work. My pfd, child tax credits make appreciated bonus. I can get the 5000$ in credits cause i refuse snap and citc, some mothers lose because
they recieve assistance. I’d appreciate small
government and a full pfd
.
The repub led statehouse came up with no budget cuts nor revenue increases.
The repub led statesenate did the same.
Ya get what ya voted for
The same GOP who surrendered power to the Democrats?
I agree the GOP is useless in Alaska, but put blame where it belongs. On all of them.
Business as usual in Juneau, wait until the last minute so they get paid more money in a special session.
Same goes for changing rank choice voting, they have done nothing and we will be stuck with it in 2024 elections.
Just so you know? I think everybody is pretty much off their rocker. What’s wrong with people? They are all nuts.
What a pack of lying thieves. Everyone but you, right A.G.? Must be lonely as hell up there.
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