By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka’s Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins says there’s more work left in the third legislative special session but Tuesday’s vote in the House setting the Permanent Fund Dividend payout at $1,100 was “significant.”
“It’s significant in that prior to today there wasn’t a dividend,” he said Tuesday following the vote. “Now we’ve voted to appropriate a dividend.”
The House bill goes now to the Senate for consideration, then will need approval from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has spoken in favor of an even larger dividend.
Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat and a leader in the bipartisan majority in the House, cast one of the 24 votes in favor of House Bill 3003 on Monday. (Dunleavy vetoed a bill earlier this summer that included a $525 payout.)
The 16 against were members of the Republican minority. Kreiss-Tomkins was not really surprised by the outcome although he was interested to see one of the Anchorage Republicans switch to the “yea” side after previously aligning with the Matanuska-Susitna minority position.
Although the bill setting the dividend at $1,100 passed, “it was a pretty bruising floor debate and exhausting,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. The day on the floor didn’t end until 11 p.m.
Dunleavy and a number of minority members have spoken in favor of a dividend of $2,300, which would require drawing on the earnings reserve of the permanent fund not constitutionally protected.
Kreiss-Tomkins said he doesn’t know how the discussion will go in the Senate or whether Dunleavy will sign off on the final amount.
“It’s still veto-able,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “It’s possible. The Senate – that’s a question mark. I don’t know what the Senate is going to do... Any changes are possible. I’m glad to have that (the House bill) done, and people are glad to be through this part.”
Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman earlier this week said the Legislature previously voted in favor of a $1,100 dividend, but lacked the super majority needed to fund it at more than the fallback $525. He said as he arrived in Juneau on Monday that he didn’t know who would be available for voting on the issues, since attendance has fallen off in the special sessions that have extended far beyond the 120-day limit for a regular session.
In a news release from the House majority just after the vote, Speaker Louise Stutes commented: “Today’s outcome provides certainty to Alaskans after the dividend was vetoed earlier this summer that much-needed cash will land in their bank accounts this fall. The dividend that found consensus is the most the state can afford to pay until Alaska’s structural budget deficit is resolved, a task we remain committed to taking on in the months ahead.”
Kreiss-Tomkins is part of the bipartisan Fiscal Policy Working Group that met 35 times between July 7 and August 15. He was one of two House majority representatives, joined by two each from the Senate majority and minority, and House minority.
The group’s purpose was aimed at developing policy recommendations to provide fiscal certainty into the future “through means of achieving a balanced budget and resolving the annual dispute over the permanent fund dividend.”
The report with recommendations from the group came out on August 16 and was referenced some 60 to 70 times on the floor, Kreiss-Tomkins said.
“We did good work, period, and there’s a lot of recognition for that,” he said. “It was not a fluff thing or a process that ended up as a nothing burger. It produced a real outcome.”
The debate over the dividend this year and in previous years illustrates some of the issues that need to be addressed, as well as the “political and fiscal dysfunction that exists,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
He said with the PFD discussion for the year over, he looks forward to addressing the structural challenges.
Independent Rep. Calvin Schrage, of Anchorage, another member of the working group, added in the news release: “The job isn’t finished, but today was a step in the right direction that we took care of our most pressing concern – that Alaskans will receive a healthy dividend after it was vetoed earlier this summer. I look forward to the work we have ahead of us to resolve the recommendations of the Fiscal Policy Working Group.”
Kreiss-Tomkins this afternoon was in a House Judiciary Committee hearing and in various conversations with legislators, working on possible compromises for a large fiscal package.
