Rep. Bryce Edmgon, who chairs the House Rules Committee, has dug in his heels: He won’t move anything out of his Rules Committee that would guarantee the people of Alaska a Permanent Fund dividend through a constitutional amendment the people themselves would vote on.
That means the work done by the bicameral working group in July was all for nothing, because nothing reaches the floor of the House without going through Edgmon’s Rules Committee.
Now, HB 3003, a big appropriation bill that has the Permanent Fund dividend, education funding, and other operating funds in it, is getting the Christmas tree treatment in Juneau — lots and lots of amendments to add more spending and an as-of-yet unknown dividend.
That bill is poised to move Tuesday out of the House Finance Committee, where it was the subject of public testimony that focused greatly on the Permanent Fund dividend.
House Speaker Louise Stutes is said to want the bill on the House floor in Wednesday for its second reading. But word is Stutes has a full-scale mutiny on her hands from both wings. It appears to be setting up for the ultimate showdown.
Meanwhile, in Senate Finance, toward the end of the hearing, Sen. Lyman Hoffman was muzzled by Sen. Bert Stedman. Hoffman was trying to explain that legislators can’t ignore the people, and the PFD needs to be a constitutional amendment so the people can vote.
Stedman could not shut Hoffman up fast enough and called the meeting to a close.
Pressure is building in the Legislature on leadership to do whatever they can do to get out of town. The longer they stay, the harder is to keep their caucuses together. The clock is not in either Stedman’s or Edgmon’s favor.
Public testimony is starting to pivot for a Constitutional Convention, which will be on the ballot next November. This is what Hoffman was referring to his his comments, telling his fellow senators that if the PFD isn’t put to a vote of the people, it will end up being part of a Constitutional Convention.
The governor called the Legislature back for its third special session this year because it has not come up with an acceptable Permanent Fund dividend. The House and Senate majorities passed a $525 dividend, which the governor vetoed, calling it an insult to Alaskans.
(This story is dynamic and may have a short shelf life in the sense that the Legislature is in state of instability.)
Amazing.
Do you feel ruled yet?
Do you realize how hopeless Dunleavy is yet?
A dead, blind man could have seen this coming. Dumbleavy somehow didn’t. There was no way Brice was gonna let the people vote on anything that actually effects them.
Dumbleavy gave them two extra weeks to piss on all of us. With zero public pressure, no barnstorming, no threats to send them to Chicken if they didn’t budge. Once again the Cowardly Lion didn’t roar.
We’re gonna be lucky if we don’t end up with an income tax at the end of this debacle.
I too have often criticized our governor for his lack of using the bully pulpit and standing up for the platform he ran for office on. However, much like our national crisis, we can’t sit back and expect any one person to fix the situation we find ourselves in. While it is easy to blame our woes on Governor Dunleavy in the end the responsibility to correct the situation falls on we the people. If everyone who voted for our governor would get actively involved in restoring our rights (through peaceful methods) I think the situation would be corrected rather quickly.
It becomes very difficult when one side has a built in election advantage of 20-30 (or even higher) points through unions and political payoffs, and the other side continually beats itself up until we face deep voter apathy. Throw in dishonest RCV and Walker has a good chance to complete his mission of destroying the economy for all but the elites.
It’s even more difficult when one is too scared to try. We’ll never know since Dunleavy pissed himself at the first conflict.
Hiding behind Ben Stevens is not fighting. Failure to red pen the budget is not fighting.
The man is a colossal failure on his own lack of merit and spine.
Fire them all! I’ll sacrifice the PFD for strict lifetime term limits and prohibition of ever participating in government again! And no pay for any time past the regular session!
I agree KE. This is amateur hour in Juneau and an embarrassment. I hate beating a dead horse, but I attribute most of this chaos and total disregard for the will of the people is because it all happens in Juneau.
Anywhere on the road system would make these clowns more accountable. I’d sacrifice my PFD forever and I bet you a dollar to a donut, I could get friends, family, colleagues to get onboard with this .
We can thank all the Rino republicans who joined the democrats to form a majority. May you all burn in hell.
Why do we even have representatives anymore. This has been the most unproductive, state damaging group of people in history. The bureaucratic bullying and outright stealing of the people’s money must end. We would be better off picking straws from volunteers in state districts to get things done.
There is no good reason for this at all.
Of course they’re unstable – anyone understanding beer-pong and hair-slinging hissy fits knows that. Stop stealing from the people, legislature – follow the law and do your job!
We are seeing the end of the PFD…..because of Rep. Bryce Edmgon
I urge Bryce Edmgmon’s voters to kindly give him the musical heave ho for the time being same thing with the fella from saud east! Refusing to give the statutory PFD. They’ll have to sit out the next season. They are too expensive. Donny Olsen can stay. I don’t know about that Girdwood woman she should also be off the people’s team too.
With the PFD dance.
Stedman needs to go. He’s the senator for my area and he won’t get my vote again.
Wow. Who would have thunk it?(sarc) Looks like a reverse sweep will be impossible and so the swept funds in the CBR are being used in an appropriation bill? Or will they leave those funds intact to avoid a 3/4 vote requirement? Are they planning to overdraw the Permanent Fund “just this once”?
Nothing good can happen now I fear. A simple majority vote is all that is needed to raid the Permanent Fund. In theory, the budget balances with the 5% POMV and $525 Dividend. What’s wrong with that?
Because the PFD doesn’t belong to Lynden, GCI, and the Rasmuson’s; it belongs to ALASKANS.
..And the establishment elitists and special interest sellouts are going to figure this out at some point. Alaskans have had enough.
This is a defining moment in our states history, we should all be clear on which side we are on. A government that serves special interests at the expense of the people or as Lincoln said a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Basically, you can tell they are idiots because they are all masked up in spite of taking the big pharma monkey juice & now they are just waiting for their liberal leader Bill Walker to return so they can finish off the PFD once & for all and work to make vaccine passports mandatory for working Alaskans.
You would never know that the PF is at 80 billion & the state gov got another 1 billion from the feds.
Something really stinks in Juneau these days & it is starting to spread across the state like in Oregon.
These people should not be paid for anything beyond the end of the regular session
The PFD was set up as a way for the citizens to directly benefit from our oil income. It was done this way because the legislature spent every penny of the original leisce sale, 900,000,000 dollars, like drunken sailors.
Nothing has changed
The Permanent Fund was set up to keep these exact people from doing exactly what they are doing, the Dividend was supposed to keep the people interested in keeping these exact people from doing exactly what they are doing. It was a grand experiment that lasted almost 40 years, now those who would spend every last dime are in charge of pulling some of the strings.
What a crock!
The PFD was created by slick politicians and has had a horrible impact on our state. End it asap.
So just let the state government steal all the revenue from oil and obscure the numbers as they role it into the state GDP and lie to the people about the revenue is the answer?
There was a “Black Swan Event” today that almost nobody took notice of, that amounts to the final nail in the coffin of the Bretton Woods PetroDollar scheme. By this time next year the anything valued in US Dollars like the Permanent Fund will be essentially useless as the 89 billion may be needed just to buy a loaf of bread.
Bert, why the hasty muzzlling of your pal Hoffman? BTW, I remember when Sitka sent valuable members to the House and Senate. Now it’s PFD grabbing Bert and that Hyphenated named lefty who wanted to tax Grandma’s pain pills to fund another Government program. ?
Call another Special Session to be held in Anchorage…..time for Juneau to let go of our shadow government!
We won’t be able to fix it either since the LT Gov, decided that there is nothing wrong with the Dominion Voting Machines! We are screwed!
I blame Dunleavyfor this
He with the power has stupidly chosen to not use it and the void is being taken by power hungry punks
We have a winner
So Edgmon and Stedman are our next targets for political annihilation.
Bryce Edgemon is the biggest thief on the house side of the Legislature. He has the Governor’s 50/50 PFD/PCE PLAN locked up in his Rules Committee, where it can’t even come up for discussion at the House Finance Committee, which voted to move only$1100 forward for consideration to the full House.
YET THE FULL PFD IS OVER$3800.00‼️
Yesterday’s public call in for testimony was close to 100% in favor of a FULL PFD OR THE 50/50 CONSTITUTIONAL PLAN.
Every time the Legislative Committees ignore the public testimony. They Vote opposite of of what they hear from Alaskans. They violate the laws whenever they want, they’ve moved over $8Billion to the ERA which is our money that the PFD should of been paid out of. Even the QUEEN OF GREED, Senator Natasha Imhoff admits there’s $7 Billion left to pay a NEW KIND OF PFD.
YET EDGEMON WILL NOT ALLOW ANY KIND OF BILL OUT OF HIS COMMITTEE THAT WOULD PUT AN END TO HIS ABILITY TO STEAL YOUR PFD.
The Governor is looking at the Majority of the Legislature like a State Trooper would look at a bank robber. The Trooper is faced with a bank robber that only has 3/4of the vault money in the bag, but has hostages (state programs), under the point of a gun. What’s the Trooper (Governor) do? Let the robber ( Legislature) go, so he can chase him next year, which is exactly what the robber (Legislature) wants, or does the Trooper cock his pistol and hold them at bay, until the swat team gets there??
The Governor’s cocked pistol, is the VETO PEN‼️ The question is, are we going to see it again, or is he going to let the LEGISLATORS STEAL 3/4 OF YOUR PFD????
Here is a message to the elected representatives in the House and the Senate:
I know you will read this.
You work for us, not the special interest.
Do you understand that?
Every one of you is replaceable.
It is time for you to take the side of the Constituency that has given you title.
The time has come for Alaskans to take control of Alaska.
Every Department will be audited, end of discussion.
The Permanent Fund is not to be used in place of you being too Lazy to do the job We The People have given you!
It’s time for Gov Dunleavy to use the red pen for the line item vote.
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