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| Courtesy of Ron Niebrugge |
With Friday’s ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court granting full discretion to the Governor and the Legislature as to how much, if any, of the permanent fund is distributed to Alaskans in an annual dividend – some say that income taxes and sales taxes are going to be thrown off the table should Governor Bill Walker call the legislature back into a Special Session in October, and discussions will instead center around using the earnings from the fund to keep Alaska’s budget in the black.
Senator Bill Wielechowski (D D-H) “The governor is potentially going to call us back in October, and this will be a point of discussion – the PFD.”
In an interview with KSRM News, Wielechowski’s fellow Senator Donald Olson of Nome expressed his belief that the PFD will stay around a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, and any additional earnings past funding dividends would be considered for revenue enhancement.
Senator Donald Olson (D D-T): “There are a fair number of people that are in the majority that are trying to make sure that we did not have anything like an income tax. In order to do that, in order to fund government, you would have to be taking money from the permanent fund earning reserve, and then could have an effect on the permanent fund dividend – the size of it.”
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| Senator Donny Olson |
House Majority Member Scott Kawasaki of Fairbanks says having legislators running for office will make it difficult to get any new revenue generating taxes passed, as members will not be wanting to tell potential voters that their pocketbooks are going to be lighter next year.
Representative Scott Kawasaki (D D1): “It starts to get legislators to do what they think they should do. I suspect there won’t be any action, at least until late next summer.”
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| Representative Chris Tuck |
The House Majority Leader Chris Tuck of Anchorage strongly feels that the House will look further than the permanent fund for revenue.
House Majority Leader Representative Chris Tuck (D D-23): “The House isn’t going to just do a permanent fund only plan, because that is unfair to rural Alaskans, that is actually unfair to low income Alaskans as well, and it doesn’t do anything in capturing out-of-state workers who are benefiting tremendously with the high paying jobs here in Alaska.”
Story as ran on KSRM News:
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