One teacher says lawmakers’ focus on dividends is “maddening” when schools have been denied increases to the per-student spending formula for nearly a decade.
“Knowing that the cost of living is going to spike upwards substantially for Alaskans, I think the discussion of an energy relief package for this year is completely warranted,” said Dillingham independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon, part of the House majority leadership.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, another majority member who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said that her caucus’ $1,300 energy relief check — which she stressed is “not a dividend” — “pencils out in the budget.” But the recent price spike has reversed that trend, and oil is once again expected to generate the majority of Alaska’s unrestricted revenue this year and next., Dunleavy’s administration is projecting $4.4 billion in unrestricted oil revenue in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
In a follow-up phone interview, Dunleavy said he singled out dividends, and not education, because dividends have been reduced in recent years from the size they would have been had lawmakers stuck to a historical legal formula linked to the Permanent Fund’s investment returns. Some lawmakers, meanwhile, say they’re acutely aware of the challenges facing Alaska schools and will be keeping them in mind as they draft next year’s budget.