Author’s note: This is an entirely imaginary discussion between Clem Tillion and Jay Hammond, arguably the most ardent supporters of the Permanent Fund Dividend in Alaska history. I took it from some ADN editorials that Clem wrote, and from the KTOO “Pioneers” series on Jay Hammond. I thought it would be entertaining to see how they would react to the state of the PFD today. This is total fiction – only loosely based on these two great Alaskan pioneers. The words are almost entirely my own unless there are quotes around them.
Clem Tillion: Jay, you old son of a gun. Suppose you could see this mess today. Fund’s sittin’ at nearly 90 billion dollars! Ninety! We saved 25 cents on the dollar, and it grew like a king crab. But they’re still handin’ out a measly thousand bucks for 2025 and arguin’ over whether folks get $500 or $1,400 this fall. Politicians are treatin’ your dividend like it’s their personal slush fund again.
Jay Hammond: Clem, you old halibut pirate. I told you this would happen. Remember when I said the dividend was the only real bulletproof vest on that fund? “Give every Alaskan a direct, discernible equity stake,” I said. “Make ’em owners of Alaska, Inc.” Without that skin in the game, who’s gonna’ care when the legislature reaches in and helps itself? Bull feathers on this “PFD is separate” nonsense they’re spoutin’ in Juneau right now. It ain’t separate, it’s the whole damn point!
If your dividend goes down while they’re blowin’ the money on pet projects,” I said, “the public will rise up in outrage.” Where’s the outrage, Clem?
Tillion: You convinced me back then. I was one of the skeptics, but you said as long as every man, woman and child gets an uncapped share straight from the earnings, the voters would protect the corpus forever. Well, they’ve decoupled it, just like I warned in my 2018 piece. They shorted folks thousands of dollars, called it “budget balancing,” and now they’re actin’ like the dividend is optional charity. It’s the people’s money, Jay. We only let ’em play with three-quarters of the oil revenue and they blew that. This last quarter was supposed to be sacred.
Hammond: Sacred? Hell, they’re treatin’ the earnings like it’s the rainy-day account I never once mentioned. I said bull feathers on that even back in ’04. We put the principal in the constitution, so they’d need a vote of the people to touch a nickel of it. But the earnings? I figured the dividend would keep ’em honest. “If your dividend goes down while they’re blowin’ the money on pet projects,” I said, “the public will rise up in outrage.” Where’s the outrage, Clem? They’re still doin’ it – $89 billion in the bank and folks gettin’ crumbs while the legislature fights over how much to keep for themselves.
Tillion: Exactly. I wrote it plain in 2020: without the dividend, the Permanent Fund won’t be permanent. It’s not welfare. It’s not a government piggy bank. It’s the firewall. Every time they cap it or zero it out in a budget draft, they’re stealin’ from every widow in Emmonak and every millionaire in Anchorage the same; $1,400 here, $1,400 there. That’s the most regressive tax you can invent, and they dress it up as “fiscal responsibility.” I told ’em back in ’17 we’d shove it back down their throats with a 2-by-4 if they tried. Well, they tried, and they’re still tryin’. Where’s my 2-by-4?
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Hammond: Damn right. I signed that income-tax repeal in ’82 against my better judgment – thought it was downright stupid, but the recall mob had me over a barrel. Severed the link between what the public pays and what the politicians spend. Spending went to the stratosphere, just like I warned. Now here we are, fund bigger than we ever dreamed, and they’re usin’ the earnings to plug the hole instead of cuttin’ the fat or taxin’ transients fair and square like I wanted. The dividend was supposed to be the people’s direct ownership stake. Make it constitutional, Clem. Lock the original formula in the constitution, or at least a protected 50-50 split so they can’t keep playin’ games every session.
Tillion: I’ve been hollerin’ for that since 2018! Full constitutional protection for the PFD, just like the principal. Put it beyond the graspin’ hands of special interests and spendthrift legislators. You and me and Hugh Malone and Oral Freeman – we built this thing so future generations would get a piece of the oil wealth we inherited. Not so politicians could treat it like their bonus pool. Alaskans still believe in it, Jay. They know it’s their share. We just gotta remind ’em it’s time to rise up again.
Hammond: Well, partner, if I were still kickin’ I’d be right beside you, stumpin’ from Ketchikan to Barrow: “This is Alaska, Inc. – not Juneau, Inc.!” Tell the young ones the truth. The fund’s proof that we did one thing right. The dividend is proof that we almost did it perfectly. Now they just gotta finish the job we started and nail that protection in the constitution before the next bunch decides the people’s money looks better in their budget.
Tillion: Amen to that, Governor. From Halibut Cove to the hereafter… we’re still fightin’ for the same damn thing.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
8 Comments
“…….Economist Bob Richards of Alaska Pacific Bank was equally critical about the dangers of runaway spending fueled by the idea that the oil industry would provide Alaskans with so much wealth that no one in the state would ever have to pay for anything themselves ever again. Even before the state general budget ballooned to its all time record of $4 billion plus in the early 1980s, Richards sounded the alarm in a stark 1979 study sponsored by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The study charged that state expenditures were increasing much too rapidly, and relying far too heavily on taxes, lease payments and royalties paid by the oil and gas industry.
Echoing the complaints of the salmon canning industry in the 1930s, Richards argued that it was inherently unwise to shift all of the state’s tax burdens onto a single industry, no matter how profitable it was………” https://iseralaska.org/static/legacy_publication_links/blindedbyriches.pdf
As the old say goes, “You can never trust a politician”. We have Governor Walker and the State Supreme Court to thank for raiding the Peoples Permanent Fund. I think was have one of the crooked State Supreme Court I’ve ever heard or read about. We witnessed in the their re-writing of our Constitutional Grand Jury jurisdiction.
Bull feathers? I’m using that!
Maccabe, the contrast between you and them is like the difference between communism and freedom! They are arguing for things promised, things that give people the opportunity to flourish, honesty, etc! Unlike you joined at the UN hip! Carbon what the hell? Km you don’t look good next to statesmen!
Great analogy! But the today scenario is the “fox in the henhouse” with the new bill, SB274 through the Senate Finance Committee. Go take a read and you will find its the exact duplicate of \what Rick Stedman, Co-Chair of the committee today, created the last year of Dunleavy’s first term in office. The last year was a full PFD to get Dunleavy elected and every year after his election would be a percentage of what the state resident applicants were to receive through this year. The new bill of SB274 applies into law percentages of the PFD to the residents and the rest of what was for the residents to be used for state projects. The SB274 needs to be killed, completely. Rick Stedman from Ketchikan District, has been covertly killing every chance of a full PFD under the law by these bill methods and the public blames lesser amounts on various persons in the committee or court cases. Stedman is also the main person, villain, in the firing of the PFD Administrator so Dunleavy could put Lying, Mealy-Mouthed Adam Crum into the PFD Board slot to do even more dirt to the residents of Alaska. SB274 is now created percentages into many years ahead which removes the full PFD from the resident applicants iunder the law and changes the future for further profit to the state budget. All the Senate Finance Committee members are a part of the deception to the public. So, the bill needs to be killed and Dunleavy should be charged as the main culprit with Stedman coming in a close second. All the investigation of the firing should be revisited and criminal charges brought against Dunleavy, Stedman and others in the finance committee lying about the facts. We don’t have a governor or elected persons in that committee that really work for the state. Repeal the garbage put in place by Parnell, Walker and Dunleavy to revert the PFD laws to prior Parnell and we will once again have what we look for by law at the end of the fiscal year challenge and we may also have a budget to live within parameters to work with.
McCabe, you have no clue about either one of the men you are talking about here. I voted for Hammond and use to read about Tillion’s testimony on the advisory council for fish and game matters from Board of Fish and Game. Your view of the two and individually is convoluted at best.. No to the inuendo of placing the PFD in the State Constitution.
Well thank. I met them both and found it fascinating to talk to them. It was a sort of fanciful piece that I ttotally took libertie with…. and I said that right up front.
Actually we have $91 billion invested with a sleazy left wing management company. They have a death grip on our cash and don’t want you to have 1 cent of it. They also don’t want you to have any control over where it’s invested. The head sleaze sent his now X wife to Alaska to be one of us so she could wiggle her way into grabbing control of it. And like the fools we are off our money went. Never to be seen again. End of story. If it was up to me I would dissolve the dividend give the people 3/4 of it and put the rest in the state coffers.