What do you want PFD to mean? Should it stand for “Permanent Fund dividend,” as former Gov. Jay Hammond intended, or for “personal flotation device,” as current Gov. Mike Dunleavy intends? Dunleavy insists that dismantling our state in order to provide a $3,000 PFD will benefit us. It won’t. As individuals, we cannot replace the programs he has cut with $3,000.
Additionally, in order to pay a $3,000 PFD, money needs to be taken from the base of the PFD, which will cause it to become smaller and smaller and finally no longer permanent at all. The goal of Dunleavy and his Koch-brother buddies is to destroy the government services citizens need and have us all clinging to our personal flotation devices in a battle for survival of the fittest. $3,000 won’t last long in that scenario.
Alaskans, we are not as selfish and small-minded as Dunleavy believes us to be. Some of Dunleavy’s most damaging cuts can be restored with just a small reduction in the PFD amount. For $17.34 per person, we can restore homeless funding. For $10.78, we can restore Head Start funds. Public broadcasting, just $4.24, and the State Council on the Arts, $4.32. Even the big cuts to the university would just costs $203. Reducing our PFD to an amount that allows us to live in a vibrant, humane community is honoring the purpose of the PFD. Gov. Hammond did not intend the PFD to be used as a wedge to separate Alaskans, and certainly wouldn’t have thrown us into the ocean with a $3,000 personal flotation device and expected us to fend for ourselves.
— Lisa Sparrow
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.