Monthly Archives: April 2017

Earlier this week the Alaska Senate Majority started running a social media ad featuring a video of Senate President Pete Kelly advocating for the Senate’s proposed fiscal plan.  The Senate’s plan relies solely on PFD cuts to raise “new revenue.”

The purpose of the ad is to compare the Senate’s plan against the House plan, which relies on a combination of PFD cuts and an income tax to raise “new revenue.”  The ad focuses on the income tax portion and argues both that it is unnecessary and adversely affects “working Alaskans.”  The Senate’s ad is available here.

As readers of these pages will know, we oppose PFD cuts as part of a proposed “fiscal solution.”  Based on various analyses published last year and this by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, we have come to believe that cutting the PFD is the worst step to take from the perspective of the overall Alaska economy and working Alaska families.  It reduces overall Alaska income more than any other fiscal option, reduces both income and jobs more than any other “new revenue” option, increases poverty levels and income disparity more than any other fiscal option and as ISER concluded in an additonal analysis earlier this year:

A cut in PFDs would be by far the costliest measure for Alaska families.

As a result, after thinking about the Senate Majority’s ad, we put together our response.  Readers can play it at the video above, or on YouTube, here.

This is the third piece in our a radio and social media campaign focused on urging legislators to retain the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend as it currently is. The first two are here and here.

This piece is introduced in our social media campaign this way:

Economists tell us depositing the PFD directly into the pockets of Alaskans produces more Alaska income than if redirected to and spent by government. Simply put, we Alaskans produce more income — generate more money in the economy — if WE spend the money rather than government.

Alaska already is in a recession, if you agree with us that taking even more money out of the Alaska economy during these uncertain times through a PFD cut is the wrong step for Alaska, contact your legislator by email, text, by posting on Facebook or Twitter with one simple message — tell them you want them to KEEP THE PFD AS IT IS (a sample email and contact information for members of the legislature is available here: https://goo.gl/BT2BAz). Then, repost this video so that your friends do the same. For continuing updates and commentary on Alaska’s fiscal situation, like, follow and engage with us at Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets. #KeepThePFD

As we have discussed often on these pages, we believe retaining the PFD as it is, is an important part of developing a long term, sustainable Alaska budget and overall economy.  If you agree, please support the effort in the ways we describe in our social media post above.

Publisher’s Note:  As readers of these pages may recall Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets also maintains a separate blog providing news & commentary on Alaska fiscal and economic policy on national website Medium.  The following piece appeared first on that website.  ______________________________

Yesterday in response to a question during the Fairbanks presentation of the Alaska Senate Majority’s Fiscal Plan Senator Click Bishop said that he had started talking to colleagues about developing an “economic stimulus plan” of various capital projects. The question and response begins at about 54:00 of the following video. Fortunately, I was sitting out of the frame, so my resulting facepalm is not recorded for posterity.

In many ways, Sen. Bishop’s response tells you all you ever need to know about why the Alaska economy is in the shape it is, and why it will become worse if either the current Alaska Senate Majority or Alaska House Majority Coalition fiscal plans are enacted.

Alaska already has what many economists view as an outstanding and long term “economic stimulus plan.” It’s the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). According to a March 2016 analysis by the University of Alaska-Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), each $1 distributed as a PFD in Alaska produces about $1.40 in income in the overall Alaska economy. As “stimulus” packages go that’s an extremely good bang for the buck.

As significantly, according to the March 2016 and subsequent ISER studies the PFD also materially reduces state poverty levels and helps reduce income disparity, both also very important economic objectives.

But that program is troublesome to some because it puts the dollars — and economic decisions — in the hands of individual Alaskans, rather than government. So, rather than do whatever it takes to maintain the program during an increasingly serious economic recession, the majority caucuses in both bodies are currently proposing to curtail it severely and move roughly half of the dollars — and resulting control over how those dollars are spent — over to government, substituting instead things like Senator Bishop’s “economic stimulus plan” to help drive the economy. Continue reading →