I’m not sure how the math balances out for Ryan Sheldon’s 40% cash-only or 125% future personal dividend fund individual choice scheme. I do know that the original purpose of the Permanent Fund was not for dividends, but to fund the government when oil reserves depleted.
Old lifelong Alaskans like myself believe the voters promised the proceeds of the fund to future Alaskans who would be assuming the ongoing costs of the big-money largesse days. The best thing for the Fund is for Alaska to start recognizing all the 30- and 40-year horizons of plenty — like Cook Inlet gas, for example — have come and passed.
We are not just dealing with the threat of winter brownouts here and now. It’s time to use the fund on the basis it was voted into existence in the first place. We don’t need a new imagination for further personal enrichment.
— Lyle Anderson
Anchorage
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