On Feb, 6th Representative Les Gara presented a constitutional amendment to “enshrine” the Permanent Fund Dividend program in the Alaska Constitution to the House State Affairs Committee.
House Joint Resolution 17 (HJR 17) is a proposed constitutional amendment that would place the current statutory dividend program into the state constitution whereas currently there is no language in the constitution to establish or calculate a dividend.
We asked Rep. Gara what evidence has led him to this concern.
Rep. Gara: “You know the states own projections of oil production, even under this new oil giveaway, will fall from over 500,000 barrels a day today to ten years from now less than 300,000 barrels a day so we’re losing money, we’re losing oil, the oil tax giveaway that they wrote which lets the oil companies spend money that we give them outside the state doesn’t work, its time for us to fix that.”
The constitution also contains no language to protect funds from the Permanent Fund eligible for dividend distribution from being spent by the legislature for other purposes.
Today During KSRM’s Soundoff, Rep. Mike Chenault Responded to Gara’s presenting of this amendment.
Rep. Chenault: “He has his own ideas and it seems like sometimes those ideas change year to year. He’s concerned that we’re going to spend the permanent fund and I think that’s the farthest thing from the truth right now, we’re trying to extend Alaskan’s benefit through oil resource development, that’s our biggest concern right now is to keep us from ever getting to that point.”
You can find more information on HJR 17 here.