(Alaskans are more worried about fishing and what’s for dinner than about the pfd)
Wanna know why lawmakers voted yesterday to reduce the PFD to $0 in this year’s state operating budget and instead appoint a legislative working group (handpicked by anti-PFD legislators) to take the next few months to resolve “the PFD problem” in a more private setting?
This 30 second video clip is a great place to start.*
If your legislator is one of the few who currently supports distributing a full 2019 Dividend to Alaskans, this video will give you an insight into what an uphill battle that is with the crop of legislators currently in Juneau.
The truth is, most legislators this year have opposed the governor’s proposal to distribute a full 2019 PFD. In all likelihood, one of your legislators is among them.
This isn’t a Republican/Democrat issue. This is a question of whether we will make the people a priority, or whether maintaining our current state bureaucracy will take their place as our state’s number one priority.
This is also a question of the role of the people in making our laws and setting our priorities as a state. Should the legislature wait for a vote of the people of Alaska before permanently changing the way the PFD is calculated? Juneau says “No”.
When Walker opened the door to spending PFD’s instead of distributing them to the people, the lobbyists in Juneau immediately began to salivate. It was the best news Juneau had heard in a decade, and the salivating hasn’t stopped. You see, those in Juneau have plans for spending that money.
Being able to spend some or all of your PFD gives more power to the legislators who get to decide where that money goes, and provides the only way to maintain Alaska’s state bureaucracy that has ballooned far beyond what the people of Alaska can actually afford. *(watch full remarks here, less than 3 minutes).
Which will be our priority? The people? Or our state government?
Here are the legislators who have opposed distributing a full PFD this year:
