JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy was scheduled Monday afternoon to announce whether he will accept a smaller payout to residents from Alaska’s oil-wealth fund than the amount he’s long pushed for.
The Republican governor will release a video with his decision instead of holding a news conference.
“Given the significance of this issue and the attention it has received, Gov. Dunleavy wanted to make this announcement in a formal address to Alaskans,” Dunleavy spokesman Matt Shuckerow said in a statement.
Dunleavy campaigned on a Permanent Fund dividend for residents paid in line with a longstanding calculation that has not been followed since 2016 as the state has grappled with a budget deficit. Such a dividend would equate to checks of about $3,000 this year.
Lawmakers instead asked Dunleavy to consider dividends of about $1,600 this year. Last year’s capped payout amounted to $1,600 checks.
Many lawmakers see the calculation as unsustainable and at odds with a law passed last year seeking to limit withdrawals from permanent fund earnings for dividends and government expenses.
Traditionally, dividends have been paid using fund earnings according to a formula based on an average of fund income over five years. In 2016, then-Gov. Bill Walker reduced the amount available for checks, an action ultimately upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that, absent a constitutional amendment, the dividend program must compete for annual funding like other programs.
Last year, lawmakers also began using earnings to help pay for government costs, causing tension with the dividend program that overshadowed lawmakers’ work this year and contributed to drawn-out regular and special sessions.
The dividend is included in a budget bill passed last month that seeks to restore much of the money vetoed by Dunleavy in June. Lawmakers were unsuccessful in securing the necessary votes to override the vetoes but the legislation they passed last month required a lower threshold of support.
In his initial veto announcement, Dunleavy defended his actions as difficult but necessary to respond to a deficit that has persisted amid low-to-middling oil prices.
Ahead of Monday’s announcement, Dunleavy said he would accept restored funding for certain early childhood learning, legal service and senior citizen programs. He also moderated his position on University of Alaska system budget cuts, saying he would accept a $25 million cut this year — and $70 million in operating cuts over three years — rather than a one year, $135-million cut he had endorsed earlier.
At a news conference announcing the university decision last week, Dunleavy said that action was not related to an effort to recall him from office.
He has credited his vetoes with getting residents to talk about what they valued and said he was listening to feedback he had received.
Dunleavy told reporters last week his intention was not to cause angst or turmoil. He said people saw with his initial budget proposal and his first round of vetoes that he was serious about tackling the state’s fiscal problems.
Dunleavy was a state senator for five years before being elected governor last fall and was a member of the Senate’s budget-writing committee.
