Governor calls for back payments on Permanent Fund Dividends

Gov. Mike Dunleavy cleared up any mystery as to whether he will seek payments for prior-year underfunded Permanent Fund dividends Wednesday. In a press conference in Juneau the governor said he will propose paying what would have been paid in“fully-funded” PFDs in 2016, 2017 and 2018 in addition to fully-funded dividends in 2019 and onward.

The money would come in staggered payments over three years beginning this year, Dunleavy proposed.

Fully-funded refers to a statute that guides how the PFD is calculated. It is essentially half of the Permanent Fund’s realized, or cash, income for a year averaged over five previous years. However, the decision on what to really pay is up to the Legislature, which has the constitutional power of appropriation.

The proposal is to combine what would have been paid in the 2016 dividend, the year Gov. Bill Walker vetoed part of the PFD funds because of the state’s financial emergency, with the PFD that will be paid out this year, in 2019.

Read more: https://www.frontiersman.com/news/governor-calls-for-back-payments-on-pfd/article_a721faca-19ef-11e9-a72c-83ce82fb619b.html