JUNEAU -- The Alaska House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled identical rewrites of Gov. Bill Walker's deficit-reduction plan to restructure the Permanent Fund, and they look a lot like a separate proposal from Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage.
Walker's two bills to help cover the state's $4 billion budget deficit, Senate Bill 128 and House Bill 245, would have withdrawn a fixed $3.3 billion from the $52 billion fund each year to help pay for government services.
Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, kept Walker's name and bill number on the Senate version of the legislation. But she switched its contents to look more like McGuire's bill, Senate Bill 114.
Four hours later, House Finance Committee Co-Chair Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks, introduced a replacement for HB 245 with identical language to the bill unveiled by MacKinnon earlier in the day.
The two measures make 5.25 percent of the fund's value available annually for government spending. That's much like McGuire's proposal, which used the same model but took less money each year -- 4.5 percent of the fund's value.
The new House and Senate legislation also guarantees dividends of $1,000 for Alaskans for each of the next three years, with payouts projected to stay close to that number into the future.
MacKinnon introduced the Senate's replacement bill at an afternoon hearing of the finance committee, where an audience of legislative staffers, lobbyists and reporters packed the benches to see what kind of changes she would propose.
A restructuring of the Permanent Fund is considered the key piece of a financial plan that could ultimately balance the state budget, though the legislation offered by MacKinnon and Thompson on Tuesday would still leave the state with a deficit of more than $2 billion.
"This is the Senate's best proposal at this time to close the budget gap and to not impact individual Alaskans with taxes," MacKinnon said at the hearing.
McGuire, in a text message, said she was "ecstatic for Alaska."
Walker is pushing lawmakers to adopt a comprehensive financial plan that includes budget cuts and a broad-based tax in addition to restructuring the Permanent Fund. Lawmakers, especially in the Senate, have resisted new taxes.
Walker's revenue commissioner, Randy Hoffbeck, said after Tuesday's Senate hearing: "We're excited to have a plan that we can work with."
As for a full financial plan, Hoffbeck said, "there's a lot of pieces that are still in play."
"It all depends on how the math works when the total package is put together," he added.