Cities dip hands into PFD pockets

PALMER — If your Permanent Fund Dividend payout seemed a little lighter than promised this year, it might be because you have an unpaid parking ticket in Palmer, where this year the city requested $448,000 in PFD garnishments.

That number is substantially greater than the garnishment request last year, which totaled out in the neighborhood of $45,000, according to the city’s Administrative Director Dean Baugh, most of which the city was able to recover.

But this year’s total, a 10-fold increase, dropped a few jaws at city hall.

“We even called the courthouse saying, ‘Did you give us Anchorage’s tickets or something?’ because the number was so different,” Baugh said.

The city can ask for money to make up for unpaid parking tickets and other citations and monies owed for the five years prior to each year’s request. Last year was the first in which the city participated and a computer glitch at the Palmer Courthouse kept them from getting a full accounting. The number was artificially low.

This year, the glitch was cleared up and the city was able to ask for the full amount.

But the number, though large, seems about on par with what other municipalities are seeing.

The City of Wasilla, for instance, has been participating in the program for a number of years. Though they can still ask for garnishments going back five years, most of those have been taken care of already; it’s a scenario Baugh said is likely to play out in Palmer as well.

Wasilla Controller Troy Tankersley said this year’s request was somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000.

“Last year we did fairly well. We hope to absolutely do as good or better this year,” Tankersley said.

Both Baugh and Tankersley said this year’s request applies both to the $2,068 dividend check and to the $1,200 in state energy relief funding the legislature tacked on to this year’s payout.

But just because they’re asking for it doesn’t mean they’ll get it.

Palmer Police Department Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney, the point man at the department when it went for the money last year, said that federal taxes, child support and other overdue payments take precedence over the municipalities’ requests.

Tankersley backed up Turney’s assessment.

“We are further down the line so we just kind of hope that there’s enough to go around,” he said.

Still, he said, “We’re happy to get anything.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.