As the Alaska Legislature considers multiple bills to use the Permanent Fund to partially finance state operations, the resolution to enshrine the annual PFD in the constitution moved forward.
The Senate State Affairs Committee passed Senate Joint Resolution 1 Tuesday, which if passed would ask Alaskan voters if the annual PFD check program should be enshrined in the state Constitution.
The legislation’s sponsor Senator Bill Wielechowski said in a release, “There’s a lot of focus on the legislature’s budget process right now, but for Alaskan families, the PFD is a huge part of the budgets being worked out on their own kitchen tables, and has serious impact on their financial situation. It’s time we allowed the people to decide whether the dividend should be protected, and if future generations should also benefit from the state’s oil wealth.”
SJR1 would also allow the legislature to use other earnings, but require that that Alaskans’ annual checks be calculated approximately the same way the amounts are now.