Finally, Dunleavy gets called on his lies about 2020 Permanent Fund growth

The Alaska Permanent Fund, which has replaced oil as the foundation of state finances, is so important to Alaska that we can’t afford to have politicians lie about it. When they do, they need to be called on it.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been lying to Alaskans about the Permanent Fund and its growth in 2020. He has invented different numbers for the amount of growth, saying at times the fund grew by $11 billion and at others, that it was $10 billion.

The truth is that the fund grew by $4.8 billion in 2020, making this a lie of from $5.2 billion to $6.2 billion—which would put Dunleavy in first place as the author of the biggest lie in Alaska history.

Dunleavy has also lied about the scale of his proposal to spend $6.3 billion from the fund this year—with about half of that going to government and half to dividends worth $5,000 per person.

Dunleavy has lied by saying the $6.3 billion represents a few months of growth and the state can surely afford to give up a few months of growth and give every Alaskan $5,000. Almost every newspaper in the state printed a press release column from Dunleavy, written by his communications experts, propagating the multibillion-dollar lie.

This is all part of the ongoing Dunleavy fiscal fantasy tour, which is his fiscal plan. Another element in the fantasy tour is the $1.2 billion pile of magic beans that Dunleavy says will appear on July 22, 2022.

On Sunday, the Anchorage Daily News had a great editorial about the Dunleavy raid on the Permanent Fund. The long-term cost of the Dunleavy raid in terms of reduced future earnings is about $160 million a year, every year.

“This year, Gov. Dunleavy is arguing for a massive $5,000 payment to each PFD recipient by - for the first time ever—removing $3.2 billion from the Permanent Fund itself on top of the amount allowed by law. We can afford it, he has said, because of the Fund’s strong earnings last year, which he claims total $11 billion. This number is false, and the governor knows it. The Permanent Fund started 2020 at a value of nearly $67 billion, and ended the year at $71.7 billion—a gain of a little less than $5 billion. The governor’s plan would have us spend more savings than the fund’s entire earnings in 2020, a path that would not only diminish the overall size of the Fund but also its ability to be a money well—to generate funds for the state and Alaskans in perpetuity.”

The news coverage in Alaska about Dunleavy’s lies about the Permanent Fund has yet to catch up with the substance of that editorial.

Every newspaper in the state that ran the Dunleavy press release column in December about the bogus Dunleavy billions should reprint the ADN editorial to set the record straight.

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