Senate President Peter Micciche held a District O Town Hall Meeting from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Chambers Monday night. He spoke to his constituents on a number of topics including the budget and the Permanent Fund Dividend.
Micciche provided a model for Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s amended budget before the PFD payment saying, “With the governor’s budget with about $200 million in additional cuts it looks pretty good if you don’t pay a Permanent Fund Dividend. Don’t panic and don’t start throwing things. I’m just giving you an example of what it looks like, right? So you’re repaying the CBR overtime. You’ve got an increasing permanent fund and things look pretty good. So, this just demonstrates how difficult the overall budget is.”
With respect to the budget, the Senator proposed the question of “kicking the can down the road or if it’s time for sustainability? “Your earnings reserve was not supposed to be the reserve account. It continues to grow the permanent fund. It continues to grow the permanent fund dividend. If you see the top right, on the top right of that chart on the one on the right, the top one is a full PFD which would be in the $3,000 range. The bottom one is a 50/50 which is closer to $2,000. It’d grow overtime. It would preserve the PFD and if it’s managed the way it’s required by such a plan, it would grow overtime and would be available in perpetuity to our kids and our grandkids. If we don’t get a hold of it, it’s going to go away.”
Micciche asked if his constituents would support a balanced ‘all in’ budget would include a stricter functional spending limit, cuts similar to the Governor’s 2022 budget, a tax contribution from industry, a statewide low and broad seasonable sales tax (2% winter and 4% summer) and a 50/50 PFD (either before or after education is funded).