Discussing the Hammond 50/50 plan on The Dave Stieren Show

Wednesday afternoon I joined guest hosts Rebecca Logan and Renee Limoge Reeve on The Dave Stieren Show on AM 750 KFQD to discuss Governor Jay Hammond’s original “50/50 plan” for the use of earnings from the Permanent Fund.

Here was Governor Hammond’s original vision as he described it in his final book, Diapering the Devil:

“I wanted to transform oil wells pumping oil for a finite period into money wells pumping money for infinity. …[Once the “money wells” were pumping] each year one-half of the account’s earnings would be dispersed among Alaska residents …. The other half of the earnings could be used for essential government services.”

By comparison, Governor Walker’s FY 2018 budget proposal only disperses 28% of the account’s earnings among Alaska residents, with the remaining 72% going to government.  By FY 2027 the share going to Alaska residents is down to 26%, with the government’s share at 74%.

As we discussed on the show and detail further in the slidedeck below, Walker’s proposed change hurts the overall Alaska economy, increases poverty among Alaskans and increases income disparity, all of which are bad for Alaska and Alaskans, even more so with the economy already in a recession.

Compared to that, we believe that using Governor Hammond’s original plan — which has never been fully implemented — is capable of fully addressing the state government’s current so-called fiscal crisis in a way that avoids the adverse baggage added by Governor Walker’s modification.

Here is the podcast of my discussion with Rebecca and Renee.  Below that is the slide deck to which the three of us continually referred during the segment.