With this year's legislative session more than a week from kicking off, legislators have introduced a flurry of bills. Some, if passed, would save a portion of the huge surplus the oil-fueled Alaska treasury expects to receive.
Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, wants to use current savings and a portion of Alaska's budget surplus to expand the Permanent Fund by $2 billion. His proposed bill would likely keep that money out of lawmakers' hands while eventually boosting Permanent Fund Dividend checks a small amount.
"It's time we took some of that savings off the table by putting it somewhere elected officials can't try to spend it," he said in a press release issued on Friday.
In a separate bill, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, is seeking a constitutional amendment that would cap spending at $6 billion, in today's dollars. Extra income would go into the Constitutional Budget Reserve, according to the Juneau Empire. Wielechowski's bill will be a tough sell. Amending the constitution requires a vote of two-thirds of the Legislature and approval from Alaska voters.
Those are two of just 30 bills that have been filed ahead of the legislative session scheduled to start on Jan. 17. More bills will likely be pre-filed next week.
Ellis' bill also faces an uphill battle for passage. Just ask Rep. Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage. A bill Doogan proposed a few years ago would move the $10 billion that's in the Constitutional Budget Reserve into the Permanent Fund Dividend.
He introduced the bill to keep that savings away from legislators who want it for all kinds of huge – some might say and dubious -- projects. But Doogan's bill has been left to rot in the House Finance Committee.
Lawmakers have been putting money into the reserve, which was created by voters in 1990. According to Ellis, the state saved more than $11 billion in the last five years. About $10 billion of that went into the reserve.
So, aren't legislators already saving money? Getting money out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve requires a big vote: three-quarters of the Legislature must agree to make it happen. And, money taken out of that reserve must be be repaid.
Putting $2 billion of that into the Permanent Fund principal would make it harder to access because it cannot be spent without approval from Alaska voters.
The fund stood at $39 billion as of Thursday. Adding $2 billion would help it generate more income, resulting in slightly higher annual dividend checks in coming years.
Ellis' bill would also use $2 billion in savings to seed a new fund, which he hopes to create with a companion bill, that would begin addressing Alaska's underfunded pension liability to retired state workers. "Now is the time to start paying down Alaska's pension debt," Senator Ellis said in the release. The fund, pooled with the assets of Alaska's other retirement systems, would be managed by the Alaska Retirement Management Board, Ellis said.
Contact Alex DeMarban at alex(at)alaskadispatch.com
(Correction: An earlier version of this article accidentally called Mike Doogan a Republican. He's a Democrat.)