The Alaska House of Representatives passed House Bill 3003 by a vote of 24-16. The proposed PFD amount would be set at $1,100 per person. HB 3003, also, did not receive the votes necessary for the CBR, which requires a three-quarters supermajority vote. On Monday, A full statutory PFD vote failed, as did a 50/50 PFD.
In a follow-up to the floor vote, Rep. Sarah Vance spoke on where the amount would be pulled from:
“So the bill read to be $1,100 PFD that was funded out of the general fund and our savings account. Now we have a couple of savings accounts and this was funded from the statutory budget reserve, which is the SBR. What is interesting about is that there’s been a lot of questions if there’s money available in that fund to be able to bridge that gap.”
Vance said the House’s proposed PFD amount would actually be $619:
“We did get a memo from Cori Mills, who is the Deputy Attorney General from the Department of Law that said there’s no additional money currently in the SBR. She says the bottom line is the sweep ability of the SBR is not impacted by the recent memorandum or by the Governor’s directive to the office of management and budget. It clarifies that the proposal in the bill that was just passed by the House that includes an $1,100 PFD because they used money from the SBR that they thought was there, will only amount to about a $619 dividend. So it is not $1,100. I’d like to note I voted against this because it’s an arbitrary number. It is not based upon calculation and it is essentially leftovers. It’s less than 30% of the traditional formula. I’ve also said on the floor that we need to work towards our long-term fiscal plan.”
Below is the video from Rep. Sarah Vance’s Facebook Page:
The House adjourned on Tuesday until Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. Also, the bill still needs approval from the state Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
