At this point in the legislative session, committee hearing schedules become less predictable despite the Alaska Legislative Uniform Rule 23 requirement that they are to be published 7 days in advance of the hearing. When big bills, like the operating budget bill, hit the floor and undergo furious debate, legislative committees become like train cars that get bumped and jolted unexpectedly by an engine they have no control over.
84 amendments to the operating budget have been floated over the past ten days, most of them doomed grandstanding by the Republican minority. Shape-shifting into champions of small, starved state government, not so many years back these same folks voted to pass historically corpulent state budgets. One constant to their rhetoric, the oil industry remains, and always will be a threadbare Atlas toiling in humble resolve to bear the known world aloft.
The question of whether a full Permanent Fund Dividend check is to be paid to Alaskans, or is to be used in part to fund state government in the absence of a statewide fiscal plan precipitated a close bipartisan vote (see tally below). The Yeas have it! You get a big fat whopping dividend! Just kidding! This amendment is bold, fiscally irresponsible, and politically smart but it has a long uncertain path in the Senate.
Yeas: Eastman (R), Edgmon (D), Foster (D), Johnson (R), Kawasaki (D), LeDoux (R),
Lincoln (D), Millett (R), Neuman (R), Parish (D), Rauscher (R), Reinbold (R), Saddler (R),
Spohnholz (D), Sullivan-Leonard (R), Talerico (R), Tarr (D), Tilton (R), Tuck (D), Wilson (R),
Zulkosky (D)
Nays: Birch (R), Chenault (R), Claman (D), Drummond (D), Gara (D), Grenn (I),
Guttenberg (D), Johnston (R), Josephson (D), Kito (D), Knopp (R), Kopp (R),
Kreiss-Tomkins (D), Ortiz (I), Pruitt (R), Seaton (R), Stutes (R), Thompson (R), Wool (D)
The “full dividend amendment” in the House reflects the schizoid state of the state. Many of those who voted for full dividends want the money to go to the people and don’t want the government to have more money. Many of those who voted for full dividends want dividend recipients not to be the only ones paying a de facto statewide tax – which results when dividend checks are cut in half to help fund government. Many of those who voted for full dividends did so because who wants to vote against a big PFD check.
Some of those who voted against the full dividend amendment were the architects of the House fiscal plan, and want the state to save money in the near term so a dividend can actually be paid out in the future.
One thing is fairly clear: If the State Senate will not pass a reasonable statewide revenue generating fiscal plan the dividend program will ultimately be goners, dead meat, with the ever diminishing earnings reserve account used by future legislatures to fund state government as best it is able.
– Louie Flora, Government Affairs Director
Hearings to watch this week
Monday, April 2
1:00 p.m. House Resources
HB 27 HIGH-RISK CHEMICALS FOR CHILD EXPOSURE
— Testimony —
Tuesday, April 3
10:00 a.m. House Finance
HB 277 BROADBAND INTERNET: NEUTRALITY/REGULATION
— Public Testimony —
10:00 a.m. House Fisheries
HB 199 FISH/WILDLIFE HABITAT PROTECTION; PERMITS
Introduction of Committee Substitute
1:30 p.m. House Finance
HB 284 APPROP: CAPITAL BUDGET
3:30 p.m. Senate Community and Regional Affairs
HCR 19 GOVERNOR: AK NATIVE LANGUAGES EMERGENCY
Wednesday, April 4
9:00 a.m. Senate Resources
World Energy Outlook: Mr. Mark Finley, General Manager Global Energy Markets & U.S. Economics, BP
1:00 p.m. House Judiciary
HB 367 NATIVE CORP. LIABILITY FOR CONTAMINATION
1:00 p.m. House Resources
Presentation: BP World Energy Outlook 2018 by Mr. Mark J. Finley, General Manager, Global
Markets & U.S. Economics, BP America
HB 397 SURCHARGE ON CRUDE OIL;ARCTIC TRANS. FUND
1:30 p.m. House Finance
HB 277 BROADBAND INTERNET: NEUTRALITY/REGULATION
— Public Testimony —
Friday, April 6
3:30 p.m. Senate Resources
Overview: The University of Alaska’s Land Grant Status & Land Use Update
— Testimony —
Saturday, April 7
10:00 a.m. House Fisheries
HB 199 FISH/WILDLIFE HABITAT PROTECTION; PERMITS
— Public Testimony —
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