Constitutional Amendment to Protect Your PFD

State Senator Hollis French and Representative Harry Crawford introduced a plan to protect the Permanent Fund Dividend through a constitutional amendment. Crawford and French believe that drawing money from the dividend should be ‘dead last’ on the list for how to balance the state budget.

John Havelock, former Alaska Attorney General, applauded their effort, saying “putting the Permanent Fund dividend in the state constitution is a good idea.”

“That’s the most regressive tax we could come up with, to take money from the PFD, because it hits people at the bottom so much harder than it hits the people at the top… There are thousands of Alaskans that are going to be cold and hungry if we were to take away the PFD.” - Rep. Harry Crawford

Alaskans have a long history of ensuring that Juneau doesn’t use the Permanent Fund to pay for state government. In a 1999 advisory vote, more than 83 percent of Alaskans rejected a state budget plan that would have capped the dividend and used earnings of the fund for state services.