The managers of the Alaska Permanent Fund and most of the trustees have long recognized the importance of operating the fund under a structure that limits annual withdrawals.

That’s good because failing to show discipline will destroy the Permanent Fund. If the state ignores the 5 percent withdrawal rule just once, it will no longer be a rule.

Enter Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his plan to ignore the rule. He wants to withdraw an extra $3 billion from the fund to try and hide a deficit as he heads into his 2022 reelection campaign. Just this once, he says.

While Dunleavy insists that no one would ever again ask the state to ignore the withdrawal rule, there is no reason to believe that is true.

Angela Rodell, fired Thursday by the political appointees who serve as trustees of the Permanent Fund, is a big believer in the value of limiting the amount that can spent from the account, now the largest source of state revenue.

It is the key rule that will determine whether the $83 billion fund will be permanent or temporary.

The fund gained about $30 billion during Rodell’s 6-year tenure and she earned high marks from legislators over the years, but the trustees refused say anything about why they showed her the door.

Because of this secrecy, there is a lot of speculation that it was a behind-the-scenes political attack led by Dunleavy and his allies on the trustees.

Dunleavy’s main allies are former Attorney General Craig Richards, now a Dunleavy supporter who worked on stopping the Dunleavy recall in court, and two Dunleavy employees, Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney and Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige. Richards, Mahoney and Feige were among those who cohosted a Dunleavy campaign kickoff fundraiser a couple of months ago.

We don’t know if the firing was political, personal or something else. That Bill Moran objected to the firing lends credence to the notion that this was not a clearcut matter. The vote was 5-1 with Ethan Schutt and Steve Rieger joining the majority.

We do know that Rodell, to her credit, was not a cheerleader for the Dunleavy plan to withdraw an extra $3 billion from the fund to hide the state deficit.

At a legislative hearing June 4, Rodell gave a concise comment regarding whether the state should withdraw money from the Permanent Fund based upon how much the state wants.

“The trustees are uniform and adamant in the recommendation that there be no unstructured draws on the fund, period, no matter what the size or what the reason,” Rodell said.

“And I think part of the concern is that is . . . every year if there’s unstructured draws, then the POMV (percent of market value) completely loses all of its effectiveness. And so we would encourage you to not go down the path of unstructured draws.”

The percent of market value is the amount that can be withdrawn on a sustainable basis.

This was not the first time that Rodell said that following the rules on withdrawals is essential.

On the other hand, one of the five people who voted to fire her, Revenue Commissioner Mahoney, believes that taking more money from the fund is OK.

In this case as in others, Mahoney has proven herself to be a cheerleader for whatever Dunleavy wants.

Five days after Rodell’s testimony in June, Mahoney went to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce to hype the $3 billion plan to overdraw the Permanent Fund.

“In order for that plan to work, there needs to be a one-time draw from the permanent fund itself of $3 billion,” Mahoney promised.

“And this would be above what the normal 5 percent that the permanent fund currently uses. And so there is a recognition that this is unstructured. But the governor is focusing on this being a one-time-only draw that will enable the state to get on footing and become much more sustainable.”

There is absolutely no reason to believe that political and financial discipline will triumph after the $3 billion is gone.

If a policy disagreement over this crucial question is part of the reason that Rodell was fired, Dunleavy and the trustees have just weakened the foundation of the Permanent Fund.

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