Stop the madness. Suspend the dividend.

Before I get accused of being a Republican In Name Only, aka a RINO — let me just ask the question: What exactly is a RINO?

Is it someone who believes in unsustainable state budget deficits year after year?

Is it someone who believes in reducing our Constitutional Budget Reserve fund, aka the CBR, to an irresponsible level?

Is it someone who believes in enormous cuts to basic public services?

Is it someone who believes in universal basic income?

Is it someone who believes in overdrawing from the Permanent Fund?

Is it someone who politically panders to the public, appealing to the human aspect of greed?

Is it someone who is leading us down a path to income and sales taxes?

Since I am none of the above, I would conclude that I am not a RINO, and the Republican folks who support these things are the true RINOs.

Six years ago, the writing was on the wall. Alaska’s oil income had declined to levels that no longer could primarily fund the state budget. Costs would need to be reduced or other sources of income would be necessary. Blame Senate Bill 21 if you want, but the truth is lower oil production and prices were the cause.

The Alaska Legislature began to fund the shortfall by depleting our savings accounts. Once those accounts had been virtually depleted, they turned to the Earnings Reserve Account of the Permanent Fund.

Now even that is not enough, and this year, they used the one-time federal COVID-19 relief funds and stiffed the oil companies that are owed refundable tax credits. At some point they may even raid the CBR again in order to fund projects and boost the Permanent Fund dividend. In effect, the state has been running deficits for the past six years in order to pay what I call “Deficit Dividends.”

In 2017, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Permanent Fund income was no different than any other income — fish taxes, license revenue, etc. — and thus the dividend is subject to legislative appropriation. There is no “right” to a dividend, and it must compete with everything else for funding in the budget. I was hopeful, but later disappointed that this did not stop all the misrepresentations about the purpose of the Permanent Fund and the role of the dividend. Today the Democrats — except Sen. Bill Wielechowski — to their credit, understand this and have ceased their prior efforts to tax us so that we can pay a larger dividend. The Republican electorate, on the other hand, rallied to defeat two of our most responsible senators by spinning falsehoods about the dividend. Sen. Roger Holland recently called the state budget a “dumpster fire,” demonstrating his lack of understanding of the legislative process. He really had to do something, I suppose, to continue the charade that got him elected.

Here is the bottom line about the dividend: A true dividend is something issued to shareholders when income exceeds expenses, and that is exactly what Alaska should be striving for. Cut spending if you can, raise income if you can and pay a dividend with the surplus funds.

The good news is we have sufficient resources to do so. We already are the luckiest state in the union because we have an oil-derived Permanent Fund that can sustainably provide more than $3 billion per year to primarily fund the state budget without imposing an income or sales tax. If we make smart choices now — suspend the dividend, restore our savings accounts and not overdraw from the Permanent Fund — we actually stand a good chance of affording a dividend again.

Chris Nyman is a lifelong Alaskan, Anchorage resident and registered Republican.

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