Letter to the Editor
Alaskans’ share
Published Monday, June 23, 2008
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To the editor:
Alaskans deserve a share of the oil revenue the state is receiving.
Article 8, sections 1 and 2 clearly state our natural resources are to be “utilized” in a manner consistent with the public’s interest.
The people have overwhelmingly expressed it would be of maximum benefit from our oil by giving relief in the form of a stipend from the massive oil revenue to offset the high cost of heating their homes — and they are entitled to it, pursuant to Article 8 of our Alaska Constitution.
The governor has the right idea. The people do deserve some of the proceeds from this oil wealth.
It should not be doled out to just businesses for various services and upgrading. The working class will never receive any of it.
Dumping some of the revenue into programs, like weatherization, is not the answer.
There are a lot of Alaskans who are too poor to even have a home to weatherize or do not qualify for some reason or another (their trailer house still has axles under it).
My brother lives in a trailer and does not qualify for weatherization, although he most definitely would qualify financially. This is ridiculous! All Alaskans are entitled to receive relief from the high cost of energy from oil revenue the state is receiving. It is our constitutional right.
Community Discussion
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I have to agree. While I detest Govt. handouts, in this case, that could not be further from what it is. This is Alaska's wealth. As Alaskans, we ARE the State!! There is NO reason any Alaskan should hurt this winter with the "State" making record revenues. Gov Palin, we love what you are doing, but you need to distribute some of the wealth that is pouring into OUR coffers.
Since the constitution says resources belong to the people of the state, and the permanent fund confirms this, I think it is better to look at the present windfalls as a large deposit in our collective bank account. It makes sense then in this context to consider it a withdrawal rather than a disbursement...its not 'welfare', its just 'giving it back'.
You can complain all you want, but our state government is set up so well, we should consider ourselves lucky we have an opportunity to offset these costs. Not doing so congers the classic image of a miser, freezing by a candle while counting all his coins.
Well said DenaliGuy!!
I'm not clear on the part of the proposal that covers people with five months' residency. It would seem that this would cover summer workers---doesn't make alot of sense. Am I missing something?
Yep .. we should spend every last penny and drop of oil right now. To heck with tomorrow, we can worry about that later.
You're all such wonderful dullards. This government subsidy of fuel is exactly what's going on in China and Venezuela. It's a feature of communism. It's also acting to keep fuel prices high. The logic is simple. If the government helps cover your energy costs, you don't act to conserve. When you don't act to conserve you freely waste energy that you don't actually need. When large groups of people do this, supply is diminished and demand is increased. That leads to higher cost.
Our oil is all but gone. We have nothing online to take its place. 80% of our state budget is funded directly by oil. You do the math.
That so-called "surplus" should stay with the oil companies. Its a return on many billions of dollars invested in this state. Maybe when you go to sell your house, if you can sell it at all when there are no jobs left, we'll take 70 or 80% of your profit and just give it to the people. But surely you wouldn't mind sharing with your comrades?
"You're all such wonderful dullards. This government subsidy of fuel is exactly what's going on in China and Venezuela. It's a feature of communism. It's also acting to keep fuel prices high. The logic is simple. If the government helps cover your energy costs, you don't act to conserve"
These statements were obviously made by someone who doesn't heat their house with $4.50 + a gallon heating oil..! I think the biggest dilemna in understanding whats going on is that not all of Alaska is feeling the panic that the interior and villages is. The biggest city, Anchorage, doesn't even understand the panic that interior folks are feeling. Must be nice to have just over $1 lb natural gas, pretty sure the 75,000+ interior residents wouldn't be stressing the onset of winter in 100 days if that were the case. Sure would like to hear how you'd like folks to conserve though, thats a little easier said than done.
allhaileris - quite frankly, most people were already conserving last winter, I know my family certainly did. But without the ability to sink thousands of dollars into weatherizing our house on the POSSIBILITY of an AHFC rebate, there is really not much more we will be able to do this winter to conserve. We used 1107 gallons of heating fuel last year to keep our house warm (2100 square foot house). For a house that was built in the '70s I think that is pretty good. With gas prices up over a dollar a gallon since last winter, if the state were to provide a $1200 gas relief card as one of the proposals suggested, we would pay approximately the same as we did last year. Last winter was already a hardship for us, I am very concerned with how we are going to heat our home this winter.
While I am not a big fan of government hand outs, I would like to see the state approach the issue with a multi-pronged focuse, helping people stay warm in their homes, while investigating alternative energy sources, bringing existing energy sources into under-served markets and developing untapped reserves.
In 1976 Alaskans voted to establish the Alaska Permanent Fund. It was designed to share the moneys made from natural resources with the people of Alaska. Alaskans are considered shareholders. How is it the politicians are now labeling us as if we were poor and in need of emergency energy assistance checks. The capital gains from windfall oil profits should have been placed in the fund or a bonus shareholder check issued to each stock holder. To degrade Alaskans by labeling us as people in need is ridiculous, We are shareholders who's company in which we have invested has made windfall profits and the company has decided to issue a bonus check..
allhaileris doesn't have much of an idea concerning the realities of Alaska, nor does he very much of an idea about communism, international politices, or world economic realities.
Prices are aleady slyrocketing and no one's been given a handout by the state. Our oil is not all but gone. We've passed Peak Oil that's for sure, but in many places in Alaska, people's lives are on the line. I've never run into a government hand out yet that actually covered the cost of anything to the full extent. The people who get these handouts in many, many cases will still be pinching pennies and wearing extra clothes through out the winter.
The real dullards here are those who swallow Big Oil's lies.
James and Allhaleris, keep on smoking what ever it is you are smoking. Take your fear tactics and back them up with facts. Don't be afraid to find your way to the Governor's page on the My Alaska Web site. Below is the web link for her latest proposal.
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/pdf/fueltaxbi...
If you read the bill and the notes from the Governor's office on the proposed bill, it makes sense. All public programs are fully funded. The state budget reserve is funded. The PFD still gets it's 25% of the state income off the top. We have billions left over and accumulating daily in the State bank. The PFD is set up so that there is no way it can go bankrupt because the payment to individuals is based on the average profit above a base investment level for the previous five years divided by the number of applications for that year. So if we put all our surplus in the PFD it would not affect this year's checks.
Many of the State programs are being looked at so the government can spend more money. There are people looking for good ideas to fix the energy problem on a long term basis. In the mean time, our children's children's children's future in Alaska is more secure than it was a year ago. I would like to see a permanent fund set up for the State Government's Budget and once it is fully funded a long term plan to return more of the resource profits to the people.
woodman,
You are right on the mark. The legislators and coorporate enterprise wants to siphon off the tank before it gets back to the share holders. I don't care if it ammounts to a penny or a billion pennies, the excess, surplus, unpredicted profits, all belong to each Alaskan. If the legislature does anything to block the Governor's proposed bill it is nothing short of robbery. They should write in a monetary policy standard for issuing the bonus share holder checks and explain the justification for the ammount based on fiscal policy.
The bonus check ammount needs to be based on the ammount of excess and how that excess is determined is vague. All I have seen proposed is $1200 per resident, but that carried over from the now extinct fuel debit card idea which also was a number pulled out of thin air. The bonus should be based on a roughly one millionth share of the excess. So, 1.2 billion is all the state is returning out of the over 5.8 billion in the reserve and growing daily as oil prices rise. Keep your eyes on the bank accounts.
I read all the comments here and for the life of me I can't figure how the residents of Alaska can claim the PFD belongs to them. How many residents came from the other 50 states? One year in Alaska and you're a new person. Last time I checked, Alaska is still part of the United States of America. It truly is a shame that heating oil should cost so much. In what used to be the richest nation in the world, The USA has seen a major change take place.
I live in Kansas, by choice. Kansas grows a lot of wheat and like everything else, the price of wheat is up, but I have yet to see one copper penny from the production of this plentiful grain. Why is that? Could it be because I'm not a wheat farmer? How many residents of Alaska actually have anything to do with oil production and yet they receive a check each year from the PFD. Life is hard everywhere. I've lived in nine different states, Alaska being one of them, and if I don't like where I live, I simply move. Works for me. I know how brutal Fairbanks can be in the winter. I lived out off of Farmers Loop on Foxtail for a few years. House burnt to the ground one cold winter night, so I moved.
Point is people, be thankful for what you got, it can change in an instant. I truly hope you stay warm this winter.
Well, flatLander you are right. It's our choice that we all are here in Fairbanks. All the whining probably won't heat our homes any cheaper or warmer. Of course not everyone can pack up and leave. Believe me, I've tried many times. My situation requires that I remain in Fairbanks. That said, I simply would like to not feel so "overlooked", when it comes to securing heating oil and gasoline.
You must admit that my and other's residing in Fairbanks does in many minute factors contribute to the overall support of the oil development and production in Alaska. All these oil workers need food and shelter, medicine, accommodations, transportation, the basics of life, which as a community we support and provide.
So, yes, I think we deserve whatever financial kickback we can get.
Flatlander ... it's good thing you moved. With that attitude about the Permanent Dividend Fund, there would be many asking you for your check come October. Myself included. I live in Tok by choice, and I am not complaining. I know how cold it can get. Last winter we had unofficial temps in the -70s for a week! My furnace was on constantly. I was wondering then what would have been the damage to my wallet had the cost of fuel oil been any higher. It now looks like I'll soon know the answer. I sure wish you still lived here.
yeah, we are all fairly well aware of how folk feel Outside about Alaska the PFD, and frankly, we don't care what you think.
support the AIP!
Right on, polarmark.
Ksflatlander, ... who ever said your opinions matters? You lived here for a blink of an eye, and now you're the expert on the pfd and our struggles? Time to let go, just let go of it, man. You lived here, you don't now. Your posts are clogging up cyberspace, be gone I say!
I'm amused at the wheat/oil analogy. But I'm usually amused by our KS friend.
I think the AK constitution makes it pretty clear to whom the profits from natural resources belong. If KS is so peeved that his state doesn't hand out profits for natural resources I'd suggest he A. notice that wheat isn't a "natural resource" and B. petition his state government for a constitutional overhaul.
I'd like to know if KS gave back (or even didn't apply for) the money for which he was eligible when he did live here.
What do you suppose will happen when our oil customers in the lower 48 find out that a good portion of the $4.50/gal they are paying for gas is being turned into free money for the arabs of the north? Remember, most of the oil in Alaska (including offshore) is on federal land- will we be allowed any royalty oil from federal leases in the future? Unlike some writing in this thread, I think it matters what folks outside think of us in the long run.
The state needs to find a way to ensure that any energy pay outs are spent as intended, or it will cost us dearly in the future.
I can't believe the mind-numbing dumbness that seems to infect so much of the off-the-cuff opinionating about Alaska oil and the PFD.
Let me give you a history lesson: Alaska has always been far richer than any state in the Union. Many times richer. Oil. Fish. Timber. Gold. Hundreds of years' supply of coal. Even our peat moss is worth more than all the wheat in Kansas, for God's sake. So the powers that be took all that wealth when Alaska was admitted to the Union (you can't own sub-surface rights to minerals even if you buy a piece of property - unlike any other state). Then the powers that be, through a socialistic, communistic constitution, gave that wealth back to be shared equally by all Alaskans. Much like an Indian reservation. That's the reality. Deal with it.
Polar--I'm thinking of sending you a fruit cake for Christmas. The U.S. is one country, like it or not, you're in that country. Unless Alaska has a bubble over it, and who is this, "we", that doesnt't care what other people think? You must have a mouse in your pocket.
Lemming--My opinion belongs to me, just as your's belongs to you or I wouldn't seperate my replies. How long is a blink of the eye? Where did your family migrate from? Don't worry, cyberspace has plenty of room.
Uticone--I'm happy you find my comments amusing. I never said I was peeved about the PFD, Are you also an Alaska Native? My analogy of wheat and oil was just that, an anlogy. I don't ever expect to get something for nothing and No I never got any of "Your" money.
Joe--Dumbness, Opinionating, and you're going to give me a history lesson. Did you even finish grade school? With all of Alaska's riches, who's going to pay your heating bill come next winter? When the company that delivers your heating oil says, money up front, just tell him to charge it to "YOUR PFD". I'm sure you'll have no problem, since that account belongs to all Alaskans. Wake up and smell the coffee, Nothing is Permanant, so Deal with that when the Eagle starts to swoop.
Politely speaking KSFlatlander, if you're in Kansas and don't care about Fairbanks, why are you here everyday? Do we tell you how to manage your corn or wheat?
Dove--As politely as I can, you don't have to live some place to care or have an opinion about it. I'm not trying to tell you or anyone else how to manage your vast riches. I do know a little about Alsaka and Fairbanks in particular, since I did live there from the mid-70s until the early-80s. Winter will be here again before you know it and I do worry about how everyone up there is going to make it. By the way, it's not my wheat or corn, the farmers just happen to grow it here. No disrespect intended.
As far as residency requirements that define who is an Alaskan and entitled to the dividend from the fund, the courts did that. Read the legislation that established the APF. It is like a trust fund and the beneficiary are the residents of Alaska. I wonder how many of those who protest it, actually return the money to the fund? Talk is cheap.
LOL
KS - I'm an Irish-Italian girl from NY but thanks for yet another chuckle.
You all may not like the message but FLander, James et al are correct. How you folks have spun the AK Constitution into meaning more handouts to current residents is a headscratcher. We already do share the wealth, it's the PFD. The remainder of the windfall doesn't belong solely to those currently alive. It belongs to our kids and grandkids. There's going to be lotsa future needs and the oil will be gone. This $$ should be saved for future Alaskans who have just as much right to good schools, roads etc as those currently alive.
The children and their children's children are better taken care of for all of the future TODAY than they were last week, month, year..etc. The Permanent Fund is being well managed and will be a fountain of wealth of generations if politicians are not allowed to get their hands on it! Where do you think the profits from natural gas are going to go?? I am sure most of this current windfall will also go into it. One does not have to be a genius or attorney to read the Constitution and how the Framers intended to see the State ran. They were good, decent, common folk that did an extraordinar