UPDATED: $1,600 IS LATEST DIVIDEND AMOUNT TO PASS
A number of procedural actions took place today, and the ultimate result was a $1,600 Permanent Fund dividend for 2018 was adopted by the House on a vote of 20 to 14, with six members excused.
EARLIER STORY
And just like that, the $2,700 Permanent Fund dividend was history.
Beyond that, they still need to officially pass a new amount, which appears to be $1,600.
There are amendments flying between at-eases and calls on the House, but it looks like the House majority is trying to dig itself out of the chaos it created on Monday when it passed the full $2,700 dividend.
A yes vote was to rescind the $2,700 dividend, and a no vote was to retain it:
The House is now considering a new Amendment No. 1 to Amendment No. 1, which would put in place the $1,600 dividend, and create a “Percent of Market Value” calculation for the Earnings Reserve Account, which would allow a 5.25 percent draw on the account.
For now, however, it looks like the work is going on behind the scenes.
EARLIER IN THE DAY…
From the Must Read Alaska News Flash that reached 11,000 Alaskans at noon on Friday…
The liberal House majority can’t seem to get an operating budget over to the Senate, even though the majority has 22 members. Bryce Edgmon blamed the “Minority 18” for what the “Majority 22” were unable to do.
But ever since the vote to increase the Permanent Fund dividend to $2,700, which added millions more to the too-big budget, a schism formed in the “nonbonding” majority caucus. Thus, the chaos in the House today.
They’re now looking at Amendment #1 to Amendment #1:
Besides Rep. Paul Seaton, the always mixed-up Finance Chair, two members are emerging as problems for the majority: Rep. Chris Tuck and Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux.
LeDoux has walked her district in Muldoon She knows she is toast unless she reverses herself on SB 91 and the Permanent Fund Dividend. And she has no political home. She betrayed the Republicans and now she is betraying the Democrats.
Tuck, down in District 23, knows a poll was done and that his vote to fully fund the dividend is a matter of political survival. He faces a difficult re-election, which explains his flip-flopping.
Flipped from for to against $2,700 PFD were: Bryce Edgmon, Scott Kawasaki, John Lincoln, Ivy Spohnholz, Tiffany Zulkosky and Justin Parish.
Now it’s told to Must Read Alaskathat the majority is trying to co-opt members of the minority, since the majority doesn’t have enough votes for the budget.
But which Republican minority member would help the Democrats grow government at such a time? None whom we know.
Time to vote these joker’s out of office. Move the Capitol. They don’t get it . It’s our money not theirs.
We may not have to wait for the expanding cost of Medicaid to collapse State government; the Permanent Fund Dividend may do the job much sooner.
Very poor now we can see why our States in such poor shape, Legislators don’t bother
running again We will have a new (GOV) soon you all should be Embarrassed as our
State (REPRESENTATIVE)
Go ahead and take it all you pig f***s. Keep expanding your budget and fillling alaskans with lies.
While you drag out your perdiem start looking for jobs at your local grocery stores.
So..what sacrifices have the wealthy politicans made. Do you realize the per diem payments they get are WAY MORE than the extra PFD we little guys get. Yay for government for the politicians, by the politicians and of the politians. Talk about taxation etc. Without Representation. How do you justify that? Oh well..I am just the poor nobody VOTER who has helped pay for your sitting around figuring how to make money on the poor guy who actually work for a living. Actually I never figured you would give us the amount we were due
Good job you jerks you know you just pissed off Alaska residents we voted you in there and how can you Petraeus like this again. Everybody involved should be charged with criminal charges it’s criminal what you’ve done to us.
Only way is put person’s in there that have never been in politics never had but a JOB wherin they earned less than $200,000, you know some of us poor “schmucks” and fire everyone with family money or industrial or tourists intrests (ownerships) and anyone thats been in middle or upper management in a a corporation with more than $1/2 M annualized business
Maybe we should vote to take half their paychecks?
Ill do everything possible to get you greedy politicians out of my government!! Thieves …
I hope that Alaskens wake up and vote these smucks out of office! That is the only way that we will get our money. We will never see a full PFD again, and you can bet that they are working to take it all!
Recall them all and start over….when they’re in session and your in Juneau trying to rent a car, there’s none available because they’re reserved for the Legislature and you wonder why we’re broke? They’re getting fat off our votes!
I’m taking a list of who voted to take our PFD’s, and carrying it with me for use in the upcoming elections.
I just became a single-issue voter.
I am actively campaigning against and voting against every single lawmaker who’s taken part in this blatant theft.
As long as they’re in office I’ll be reminding everyone what they did and why they need voted out.
If any remain in office after this coming election, I will continue to remind fellow voters in future elections to vote them OUT.
I don’t care who they are or what they’ve done; anyone who steals from the sick, poor, elderly, and even infants, who takes money from those living in poverty to fund a corrupt state government, needs to be replaced with someone who understands that you can put taxes in place if the state is really that broke but you canNOT steal from the people!
Remember all these corrupt politicians at election time from mayor on up to governor and every board member who voted to continue to spend what is yours!!!
“Jay Hammond was also concerned about what we would now today call crony capitalism,” he said.
Hammond worried that oil money would flow through government programs to the well-connected. And he wanted to make sure some of the money made it out to rural Alaska, instead of remaining concentrated in the Rail Belt. But most of all, he believed Alaskans should have a direct share of their collective oil wealth — a concept he called “Alaska, Inc. Rachel Waldholz
”The State Constitution (Article 8) says that our resources must provide the maximum benefit to all Alaskans. But our government leaders are not upholding this right, they are not allowing the people to vote on Fund and dividend changes. In 2016, special interests spent over $5 million on ads, lobbying, and campaign donations to gain their interests with the Fund. The Governor and many Legislators are joining this raid to dismantle the Permanent Fund, cut the PFD, and secure the Fund as a government spending fund. Alaskans have a right and duty to join together to stop this raid.
WHERE AND WHEN: Alaskans must now join forces statewide to stop this attack on the Permanent Fund and PFD. The battle will go on into the 2018 Session and election, every Alaska needs to get informed, donate, volunteer and vote in the 2018 election to stop the raid on the People’s money and preserve the Permanent Fund system. The Permanent Fund Defenders Group
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