Stop playing games with politically rich PFD

Uhtred Permanentfundsen, the “defender of the Permanent Fund,” watches over the Senate Finance Committee room at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

The following editorial was published by the Wrangell Sentinel.

Little kids can’t help but play with their food. Gamblers can’t stop playing with a pair of dice or deck of cards. Cats can’t help but play with a ball of yarn. It’s the same with legislators who play around with voter-enticing talk of a fat Permanent Fund dividend.

They just can’t help themselves, particularly in an election year. Like kids, gamblers and cats, it’s in the DNA of too many elected officials.

It’s too much “fun” to talk about a PFD this year of almost four times the size of last year’s dividend.

It’s too much “fun” to recite their pro-dividend pledges and votes when they campaign.

And it’s electioneering “fun” to portray the other political party as anti-PFD, setting them up for blame when the supersize fat dividend goes on a diet during the last weeks of the budget-writing process.

Yet there is nothing funny about being fiscally irresponsible.

Yes, oil prices have climbed far up the price ladder, which means state oil tax and royalty revenues will be much higher than expected. Which means the state can afford more than it could a month ago, before President Donald Trump decided to declare war on Iran, and Iran retaliated by declaring war on the free movement of oil and natural gas out of the Persian Gulf.

There is a long list of needs for those additional oil dollars that will flow into the state treasury, not the least of which is more funding for public schools, housing, public safety — and putting money into savings for the next time oil prices drop and the state is woefully short of cash.

The dividend fixation needs to stop. There’s real work to do if Alaska is going to improve its schools, stop the 13 years of more people leaving the state than moving here, and build a state based on quality of life, education, public services and jobs. Pouring almost every available state dollar into the PFD does nothing to help the collective good.

Legislative votes, such as the one in the House Finance Committee last week, serve little purpose other than to have “fun” with politics. The committee voted 6-5 to include a PFD estimated at $3,800 in the budget. In addition to spending much of this year’s higher oil revenues, the fat dividend would drain half of the state’s budget reserves account.

It’s similar to draining your savings because you’re trying to impress your date. Only for legislators, their dates are the voters later this year.

Better to impress them with responsible behavior than the equivalent of a pair of dice and ball of yarn.