The Latest PFD Steal: Part II
Contributed by Cindy Calzada
Last month I told you about the latest idea by the State Senate Finance Committee to get their hands on more of the PFD. 75% of our PFD checks to be exact…the 75/25 steal of the PFD. They get 75% of our dividends and give us 25%. Last month it was just a bill going through the Senate and I explained to you that it still needed to pass the House. The House had wanted a 50/50 split of the PFD but apparently since my last article, the House didn’t have enough votes to get a 50/50 PFD and in Day 1 of the special legislative session the House also passed the budget with the 75/25 steal of the PFD included in it.
The things that go on in the Legislature each year can be very complicated and it’s hard to keep up with what our individual legislators are doing to help or hurt us. I personally think the steal of the PFD is hurtful to Alaskans and I researched how our legislators voted on this issue. I told you how the Senate voted in last month’s issue of the People’s Paper and now I’d like to make sure you know how the House ended up voting on the 75/25 steal of the PFD. Hopefully, you know who your legislators are and will call their offices to tell them how you feel about their votes to take 75% of our PFD’s.
There are 40 Representatives in the House. Legislators voting Yes concurring with the Senate’splan to steal 75 percent of the PFD from Alaskans were: Jennie Armstrong, Ashley Carrick, Mike Cronk, Maxine Dibert, Bryce Edgmon, Zack Fields, Alyse Galvin, Andrew Gray, Cliff Groh, Sara Hannan, Rebecca Himschoot, Craig Johnson, Delena Johnson, Andy Josephson, Kevin McCabe, C J McCormick, Tom McKay, Donna Mears, Genevieve Mina, Dan Ortiz, Josiah Patkotak, Calvin Schrage, Will Stapp, Andi Story, Louise Stutes, and Jesse Sumner. It’s because of these legislators, along with the Senators that I told you about last month, that you are losing 75% of your PFD this year.
No Votes – those House members that refused to concur with the Senate’s plan to steal 75 per cent of the PFD were: Jamie Allard, Ben Carpenter, Julie Coulombe, David Eastman, Neal Foster, Mike Prax, George Rauscher, Justin Ruffridge, Dan Saddler, Laddie Shaw, Cathy Tilton, Frank Tomaszewski, Sarah Vance and Stanley Wright. Thanks to these legislators who stood by Alaskans in the fight against this 75/25 steal of the PFD.
The bill now goes to Governor Dunleavey to sign. Will he sign it? He’s always said he’s for giving the people their full PFD’s. Will he now allow the legislature to take 75% of our dividends? A budget needs to be signed by the fiscal year end, June 30th. I’m not sure what choices he has now but I hope he comes up with some way to stop what I’m calling the steal of the PFD.
It appears there are many legislators that no longer respect the original purpose of the PFD,which was set aside as the people’s share of our oil wealth starting in 1976. It was never meant to be used for government services. A few times it was put up for a vote whether the people of Alaska wanted to let legislators use the PFD for government services and each time the vote was a resounding “NO”. However, we voted legislators into office who decided to ignore the will of the people and do it anyway. So now you have the names of the legislators who “took” the PFD from you and those who fought on the side of “Not” taking it from you. If you care, like I do, it’s your responsibility to make changes in the legislature next time you go to the polls to vote. My suggestion is if they voted to take 75% of your PFD, vote them out of office.
If you think I’m harsh, that these poor legislators had no choice but to use our PFD, think again. You don’t know the whole story. The PFD should have been the last place they went to pay for government. It was clearly their choice to take the PFD from us and not from a fairer tax or by correcting the oil tax credit system that has been taking billions of dollars from the State of Alaska every year and giving it to the wealthy oil giants: Exxon, Conoco Phillips and Hillcorp. They are robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. As I mentioned in last month’s article “The Latest PFD Steal”, there was a bill in the Senate, SB114, which would have corrected the corrupt tax system that has taken billions of dollars from Alaska and caused us to be in the situation we are in now - not having enough money to pay our bills. Instead of passing this bill, they left it on the table and pushed for taking more of the PFD instead. Bert Steadman and others had the nerve to say they left us with a reasonable dividend. It was not reasonable. It was theft of the majority of our PFD’s and I don’t think they’ll stop till they get it all. You better start watching more closely what’s going on with these legislators. We need to start putting more legislators in office that are on the side of the people and get rid of those who aren’t.