Lawmakers hope to write PFD into Alaska's Constitution

January 05, 2010

Rep. Harry Crawford and Sen. Hollis French want the Permanent Fund Dividend to be written into the state Constitution. (Jonathan Hartford/KTUU-DT)

by Ted Land
Tuesday, January 05, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Some lawmakers say they want to make sure tax breaks for oil companies don't mean a smaller check for Alaskans next October.

As it stands, the PFD is written in a statute, which means it's subject to change, although it's remained virtually untouched for 20-plus years.

Now, two lawmakers say they want the PFD written into the constitution, making it off limits.

At a press conference Tuesday morning, Rep. Harry Crawford and Sen. Hollis French made clear that they want hands off the PFD.

"The big conversation here is about big givebacks for the oil companies," Crawford said.

The two lawmakers are concerned about potential rollbacks to the state's oil tax structure called ACES.

They say they think the legislature might try to dip into the PFD in order to make up any lost revenue.

"We talk about giving big tax breaks to the oil companies, the unspoken corollary is where are we going to get the money from? The Permanent Fund," Crawford said.

Crawford is running for Congress, French for governor.

Also running for governor is Rep. John Harris, who says he's all for preserving the PFD, but he thinks the money should be available for state services when needed.

"When you can't either tax the public enough or you can't tax industry enough or whatever and you don't have any other way of raising revenue to conduct the services that general government is supposed to do, then you look at the Permanent Fund," Harris said by phone.

"The dividend has been such a part of the Alaskan way of life for so long, a lot of citizens believe that it is protected but it's not," French said.

The question now: How much protection is too much?

Any change to the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, and would then head to the voters for ratification.

If the dividend were written into the Constitution, the calculations and distribution would still be the same, but the whole process would just be under a different umbrella of protection.

What it would promise is that if there are funds available, a dividend would be paid out.

Contact Ted Land at tland@ktuu.com

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