15 COMMENTS

    • Because of the communist, anti-Americans who run the unions……Democrats. They live off the backs of their members….and they live well.

  1. I appreciate your article. I agree with you on preserving the PFD Fund. Safe guarding it is essential to its survival, and our responsibility to the future.

    I think the limiting of the payout to the Alaska citizens is unjust. That needs to be corrected to payout the full amount as it was intended when the fund was created. I also think that dividends paid out from the fund to Alaska citizens should be tax exempt. I absolutely agree that limiting the Alaska Legislatures ability to drain the fund is an absolute must. 5% max drawdowns is critical to the funds survival.

    Even if there’s 85 Billion, the Legislator shouldn’t plan to spend every penny of the 5% that’s up for grabs. They should only spend these funds if they clearly benefit all Alaskans. Not just a hand full of special interest groups. Or some Democrat political boon doggle like TDI or Trans crap. The Legislator hasn’t seen a pile of money they haven’t wanted to spend. Some mandatory fiscal restraint is needed to keep the fund’s targeted goals in mind, and not drain the fund just because they’re there.

    Some times you have to look ahead, to the future and what we are going to leave our future Alaskans. We need to do the right thing. Because history will judge what we do.

  2. Time for a divorce from these crooked politicians. Bastards have already stolen the dividend. Cash it all out to every eligible person. Then let the state have all the royalties from now on.

  3. Man. Our politicians are like dogs, drooling over some scrap of food! Where are the principled, ethical leaders that built our state, these days? Now, our ‘leaders’ constant focus is scheming ways to take ever more of our income, then blow it on nonsense.

  4. This is an attack on the fund. But the other thing causing the fund the perform poorly is the fact that Alaska gives away its oil for among the lowest rates in the world. The billions we are losing in revenue from the sale of our oil (a finite resource) puts massive pressure on using the fund to fund state government. Right now the single biggest source of funding for government is the Alaska Permanent Fund.

    An Alaska family of four has now lost over $70,000.00 due to SB-21 and the statutory formula not being followed.

    Big Oil laughs all the way to the bank.

  5. They will never cash the citizens out. They know to do so would mean their tax base would exit the state in mass exodus.

  6. Four (4) percent maximum draw on the Permanent Fund – not five (5) percent which is shown to be not sustainable. Unless you fire all the board members and then all the fund advisors, financial “advisors/firms” that are charging the State of ALaska for their services. Then re-invest the PF in passive index funds (S&P 500, Dow Jones, NASDAQ and bond funds @ 25% each) and let it ride.

    Have accountants (state paid accountants-crunching numbers is not rocket science) calculate the prior year’s rate of return annually, 50% of any earnings go into the PF and 50% goes to SOA and citizens eligible for the PF divided equally (i.e. 25% each). Easy peasy. Well, not so easy since legislators would not pass a bill to implement this scenario. Oh well, a man can dream.

  7. I’m in favor of combining the 2 parts of the Permanent Fund, because that’s how other giant POMV wealth funds do it.
    The above article says (regarding the Permanent Fund structure as it exists now):
    “This design has worked for decades. It locks the nest egg while still allowing sustainable draws through the Percent of Market Value (POMV) formula about 5 percent each year.”
    .
    From the above statement, it seems like the article is in favor of the POMV system (which was established by the legislature in 2018). I think the POMV system is good, because by averaging the last 5 years of the entire fund’s value, and then taking 5% of that average, the annual harvest is much more stable and predictable, than by taking a percentage of volatile up and down earnings.

    The article’s main point seems to be that it does not want the harvest to dip into the principal, thinking that that would be the start of a gradual long-term slide into diminishing the fund. But what if most of the Earnings Reserve Account has been plowed back into the principal so as to maximize the earnings? What if one year there is accidently not quite enough in the ERA to provide for that year’s annual 5% draw? That would cause a big problem with the legislature’s budgeting process and the paying out of PFDs. It is sensible to be able to draw from the entire fund, to prevent disruptions and unpredictability.
    The important thing is to establish a maximum percent annual draw rate in our constitution, and never exceed it. And if some think that 5% is a little too much, then it is OK to establish the annual maximum draw at 4-1/2% or whatever is proper and prudent.

  8. Biggest chumps in all of this?
    Village residents who send Dems to Juno, who then reduce ALL the PFD checks being sent to village families.
    Juno/Dems do this to have more money to give to teachers (& other state “servants”) in those villages, while the teachers are the richest people in town.
    Why do village residents vote this way? How brain washed are them by the Democratic Party?
    Except for schools, almost all costs (housing, health care, H Start, water/sewer, airstrip, SNAP etc…..) are covered by the Federal Gov.
    Rural AK could use the PF money more then most of us, yet they vote to reduce the checks?

  9. Senator Myers was born in 1982, all he has known is no State income tax and school tax and the PFD. That says it all, never in the real world, just hand out times.

  10. Senator Myers was born in 1982, the times of no State income tax and school tax and the PFD. That says it all, living in the hand out times.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.