Alaska in free fall: Hoarders hoard

Alaska and Alaskans are in economic free fall:

Forty thousand newly unemployed....

Oil prices crashing and new work coming to a standstill...

Tourism season just about wiped out....

Stay at home orders, businesses shuttered, government declares a health emergency on a scale never experienced by any living Alaskan under 100 years old....disaster.

There are those trying to help: The President, Governor Dunleavy, Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer, US Senators Murkowski and Sullivan, and Congressman Young....

And then there are the majorities in the Alaska State Senate and State House.

They guaranteed automatic pay increases for state employees, increased the state budget by $300 million, and cut the PFD by $1,300 this Spring and $2,000 in October.

They were forced by minority members to begrudgingly allow 1/3 of the 2020 PFD ($1,000 in October).

They did this while sitting on a giant pile of money. Ten to fifteen billion dollars in the Earnings Reserve Account of the Permanent Fund. The fund used to pay PFDs since 1981. Recently, the last three years, the fund 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 some 40,000 Alaskans out of work. Many ordered not to work.

The Governor has called for a full PFD for all the years the Legislative majority failed to approve a transfer of a full PFD. $5,044 is owed to every man, woman and child.

He 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 — which 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.

The law directs them to transfer a PFD of a 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 resources in short supply. 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.

Through a constitutional amendment we 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.

The hoarders refuse.

The hoarders are stuffing the vaults with billions for them to spend later.

Hoarding billions while the economy crashes, 40,000 Alaskans lose their jobs and the economy disintegrates.

Former Governor Parnell and former US Senator Mark Begich together recently urged the Legislature to act now to get more PFD out to the people.

The hoarders response: lock the vaults.

Only you can stop the hoarders.

It is time we all knew just who these hoarders are.

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 $ going directly you (and owed to you under existing law!)

Argue about who is most pure another time.

Right now we need to know who the real hoarders are.

The Hoarders (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 just better for your PFD:

(Those to varying degrees in favor of just following the law or getting more PFD money going 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

Those are your allies fellow Alaskans, to one degree or another, just following the law or getting a bit more for your PFD or a100 percent of our PFD. Anything is better than having the hoarders in charge.

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 — just terribly, painfully, wrong.

This Fall, Alaskans will determine the political price the hoarders will pay.

Tuckerman Babcock has been an Alaskan since January 1966. He worked for five different legislators, two Governors, ten years with Matanuska Electric Association, 3 and ½ years as a Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, homemaker and former volunteer Chair, Alaska Republican Party. Most recently Chair of Governor-Elect Mike Dunleavy transition team and first Chief of Staff (retired August 2019). He lives in Soldotna with his wife and family.