On June 29, we witnessed something unheard of in Alaska. For the first time in state history, a sitting governor asserted the power to unilaterally determine the value of the Permanent Fund Dividend, or whether he would even permit there to be a PFD at all. If he can get away with it, it is an absolute stroke of political brilliance.
For those who say, “but wait, he is only changing the PFD from $2,200 to $1,000”, just think about this a moment. If the governor will now have the power to reduce the PFD to $1,000, why not $100, why not 50 cents, why not $0? Politically speaking, the power that the governor has now asserted represents a monumental shift.
The next time the governor doesn’t get his way, or doesn’t feel like the people are sufficiently supportive of his policies (wanna buy a gasline anyone?), all he has to do is ask us if we want a PFD this year. That alone should be more than sufficient to get a flurry of calls to the Legislature in support of whatever proposal of his is bogged down in the Legislature. And many of those calls would be from those who can least afford to have their PFD slashed or taken away; from those on fixed incomes, from the villages, from those who are barely able to make ends meet as it is. Ah, but the governor would never actually do that, would he?
I think the question is whether he would even have to. In times past, we spoke of having the oil companies over a barrel. Now it would be our turn. The thing about political power is that it rarely goes unused. Even without public threats or visible demonstrations, that power is still felt and will have a profound effect on political discourse going forward. And even if one governor decides not to use the full extent of his power, that says nothing about what will happen once a governor is elected (or re-elected) when that power is already on the books.
But I have reason to believe that we will not need to wait long to see how this plays out. Just yesterday, I and every other legislator and candidate, noted the formal press release from the governor, in which he threatened to bring voters against any candidate who does not support “The Governor’s New Alaska Plan” or his “Permanent Fund Restructure Plan”. He will accept no answer but support for his plan(s), and he will use every bit of his power as governor to get it, even when doing so earns him ethics complaints for threatening legislative candidates on official stationery, paid for by the taxpayers.
If you are like my family, your PFD is included in the family budget. And when you have debts to pay, as many Alaskans and small businesses do, not having the money to pay them can lead to terrible consequences.
And where is our Legislature in all this? Have they followed the example of America’s founders and opposed “with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people?” No? According to the news, the question this week is whether they will even take a vote on whether to oppose the governor’s raid on the PFD. And why is that?
I believe it is because those who have been in the Legislature for the last decade or more (and specifically the Republican Majority Caucus) know that they are on record voting for each and every unsustainable budget that brought us to the place in which we find ourselves today.
There is only one way to protect the PFD from attack today. That is to hold our governor accountable for his actions, and to hold our legislators accountable for theirs. And if you vote to send them back to Juneau for another term, do so knowing that past behavior is often an excellent predictor of future behavior — only next time we won’t just be talking about a $1,000 PFD. Before too long, that discussion will shift to the permanent fund itself.
• David Eastman is a Wasilla firefighter, former military police officer on JBER and resident of Southcentral Alaska since graduating from West Point and being assigned to Fort Richardson in 2003. He is currently a candidate for the Alaska State House (District 10).
