#permanent fund

Zuckerberg promo for Alaska sends wrong message

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, fillets a salmon in Homer, Alaska. (Photo from his Facebook page.)

WE WADE INTO FACEBOOK FOUNDER’S ‘BASIC INCOME’ CLAIMS

Alaska, the richest state to ever go broke, may not have any money to promote tourism these days, what with our budget crisis and all.

But with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the state over the weekend, that may be all the promotion…

Dividend applicant numbers hold steady

Some 670,407 individuals applied for the 2017 Permanent Fund dividend, according to the Alaska Permanent Fund Division. The number of applicants this year is down slightly from 2016’s applicant pool  of 670,599, a difference of 192.

All eligible Alaskans who applied by the March 31 deadline will receive a dividend in October from the Permanent Fund’s investments.

In 2016, the check amount was…

Dunleavy’s bold statement: Quits caucus over spending

Sen. Mike Dunleavy speaks to the press after leaving the Republican-led caucus this evening over a difference in the budget. (Photo from Senate Democrats’ social media.)

Sen. Mike Dunleavy stood tall on the Senate floor this afternoon and spoke with respect. With Dunleavy, standing tall is the only way. And respect comes naturally to him.

Knowing the consequences to come, the District E…

Commentary: Spending cap is key to solving budget crisis

By JEREMY PRICE

Jeremy Price

Once again, irresponsible spending by state lawmakers has left us with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. This latest crisis underscores the need to tighten the state’s “spending cap” on annual expenditures, and a bill recently passed in the Alaska Senate is a good start.

Senate Bill 26 imposes a statutory spending cap of $4.1 billion in general fund…

And the author of the governor’s income tax is…Dr. Richard Pomp

Dr. Richard Pomp

A University of Connecticut School of Law professor of tax law is the apparent author of the newest version of Governor Bill Walker’s income tax, HB 115, according to sources in the Department of Revenue.

Notable in the proposed income tax is how closely the tax structure that Dr. Richard Pomp has provided to the Department of Revenue mirrors the complex state tax brackets of…

Senate Bill 26 — to stabilize economy — heads to floor vote

Senate President Pete Kelly explains the three principles of the Senate Majority’s plan for fiscal stability.

Two different visions are emerging in the House and Senate, as the Alaska Legislature heads into the second half of this session.

House Democrats, firmly in charge with a budget-bloating 22-vote bloc, say that to avoid an economic crisis, the State is going to need more State spending,…

House Democrats raid savings account sacred to them two years ago

Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, speaks on the floor of the House on March 1 about concerns she has over a $4 billion raid of the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve that occurred in House Finance on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled House Finance committee made a budgetary end run to use a portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve as a patch for the State’s budget hole. And…