Gov. Mike Dunleavy responded to a threat from former President Donald Trump by secretly promising the former president that he will not endorse the reelection campaign of Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
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My twin was a father of three children, or six children, depending upon how you look at it—Henry, Connor, Desmond, Aileen, Anne and Elizabeth. He regarded my three kids as his own and never failed to tell them what to do or what they were doing wrong. They paid as much attention to him as they did to me.
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“When you use public money there’s strings attached to it, mainly on disclosure, where these funds are going and to who and for what purpose,” said Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Permanent Fund has so far failed to get the message.
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Senate President Peter Micciche has given all state employees—including Sen. Lora Reinbold and others who seek to stifle critics— a good lesson in how to deal with comments on social media—stop blocking people just because they disagree with you.
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The state is spending about half of the $1 billion in direct disaster aid this fiscal year, while Dunleavy proposes using nearly all the rest in FY 23. This warps the state financial situation enough to make the surplus claim a lie.
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The imaginary Dunleavy surplus is largely a product of using more than a half-billion dollars in one-time-only federal disaster funds to underwrite regular agency operations for the fiscal year that starts next July. There is no surplus.
On Tuesday, Dunleavy held a press conference to promote several programs, including putting more millions into the foster care system, without admitting that he vetoed money for improving foster care five months ago.
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Dunleavy began his administration with a campaign to get rid of the $1 billion Power Cost Equalization endowment and force the program to compete with all others for state funds each year, which would make it unlikely to survive. He wants AFN and everyone in rural Alaska to forget about what he said and did in 2019.
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While we have various lawmakers saying they plan to ask the trustees of the Permanent Fund to answer questions about the firing of Angela Rodell, they need to realize that this is not enough: The Legislature needs to begin monitoring the APFC and other state corporations as part of the checks and balances required by state law.
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Legislators left in the dark on this matter should take it as a reminder that they are not performing oversight of the Permanent Fund. It’s about time they started.
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If a policy disagreement over this crucial question is part of the reason that Angela Rodell was fired, Dunleavy and the trustees have just weakened the foundation of the Permanent Fund.
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The Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees owe Alaskans an explanation for why they fired Angela Rodell as CEO of the corporation Thursday with no public discussion.
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The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation claims it must keep $200 million worth of in-state investments secret, though the money belongs to the public, because of a line inserted into state law 41 years ago. It’s a dubious claim.
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NorthLink chose to announce the investment, but not the dollar amount, most likely so it can claim that the project is endorsed by the state and the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation claims that it does not have to reveal the names of any businesses that receive state money. Secrecy increases the risk of political favoritism.
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What’s missing from the documents created by McKinley Capital Management and Barings are the names and amounts of specific Alaska businesses that have received public money, an amount that will soon reach $200 million.
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At least $124 million of the “initial allocation” of $200 million in public funds has been invested in Alaska, but the Permanent Fund Corporation won’t say which Alaska businesses and projects have been on the receiving end.
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The Permanent Fund management and trustees get away with this because the Legislature is not paying attention. And Alaska’s major news organizations are not paying attention.
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No doubt there are people who lie about meeting the PFD requirements and lie about the retiree COLA requirements. The state could stand to be more diligent in policing both of these programs. But to write a letter to retirees that comes off like an internet scam shows terrible judgment.
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A month ago the Dunleavy administration announced that state finances had taken a miraculous turn for the better. The state had a new oil price guess that would generate more than $2.2 billion by July 2023, just in time for Dunleavy’s reelection campaign.
Guess what happened next?
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Is the Permanent Fund investing in the Ambler mining project? What about the Pebble project? Or the Donlin Gold Mine? Or oil projects on the North Slope?
I don’t think so, but under the current secrecy policies of Dunleavy and the Permanent Fund corporation, a wide range of investments can be hidden from the public. Political payoffs can be hidden from the public.
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