State cannot afford better schools and also big PFDs
No matter what any crowd-pleasing elected official says, Alaska cannot afford a long-deserved increase in state funding for schools and a large Permanent Fund dividend. There just isn’t enough money in the state checkbook to do both this year — not unless Alaskans want to start paying an income tax or a state sales tax, which are both even less popular than a middle seat in the last row of a six-hour flight.
More than 90% of the spendable dollars in the state budget comes from two sources: An annual draw on Permanent Fund investment earnings, and oil taxes and royalties. The Permanent Fund wit...
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