Despite rejection by Legislature, Permanent Fund pushes plan for Anchorage office

The Alaska Legislature tried to shut down the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation plan to run an Anchorage office for a handful of employees, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the trustees declined to go along.

The trustees are now proposing $35,000 to continue an Anchorage lease that the Legislature officially rejected. The corporation trustees voted 4-2 in June to ignore the Legislature on this, backed up by the governor.

“It is the intent of the Legislature that the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation will not establish or maintain new office locations without corresponding budget increments for that purpose,” the budget bill says.

The law also asks for a report by December 20 on how much was spent on the Anchorage office.

In a meeting September 5, a corporation official said “Our Anchorage office lease did not make it through the legislative process last year, so we do have that increment in here for $35,000 as well, to cover our Anchorage office.”

The Legislature included a budget section to “decommission” the Anchorage office, but Dunleavy vetoed that provision.

The intent of the corporation is to ignore the Legislature on this entire topic.

Picking a fight with legislators over a branch office with a handful of employees is not going to turn out well. Key legislators who will still be on the finance committees next year see the Anchorage office as a decision they should have been involved in. They will see the decision to keep it open without an appropriation as a power grab, an insult or worse.

The dispute is not about the money. It’s a power play about the larger question of the authority of the Legislature to decide on appropriations, and the authority of the executive branch to execute.

The governor and the corporation trustees, all appointed by the governor, say the Legislature is interfering with the corporation and should butt out.

As I’ve noted here before, the Legislature has long ignored its responsibility to monitor and keep track of the Permanent Fund.

There are numerous elements in the proposed APFC budget worthy of public examination. I’ll try to get to some of those in days to come.

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