To my fellow citizens;
This is for all the uninformed among us. At least, in my eternal optimism, I hope that that is the reason politicians such as Mr. Walker and Mr. Seaton were elected to manage our affairs.
Last year, the governor, aided and abetted by the muskrat coalition (democrats who ran as republicans) and the democrats, pulled off the Great PFD Heist. This is where they stole over $1000 from every child, woman, and man resident of Alaska, successfully. From what I gather from talking to people on the street, most are even unaware that half of their portion of the PFD that was rightfully theirs, was in fact stolen from them.
This year, armed with the knowledge that they got away with this crime, the same gang is doubling down and is in the act of pulling it off again; this year they are aiming much higher. Not only are they stealing a larger portion of your PFD, they have divorced themselves from the traditional formula in which our portion of the PFD was determined, and instead are just going to have a closed-door meeting and decide arbitrarily how much they are going to feed the masses (you and I). Think on that a moment, please. The arrogance and condescension of that is extraordinary. The formula method was the fairest approach in that the amount is determined by performance of the fund. This new method determines how much our PFD is by the whim of politicians who may, or may not have our best interest at heart, or may have a “special interest” that they place above the needs of the people. What could go wrong.
What could be the reason for this continuing heist? Mr. Walker has had a dream of building a gas pipeline from the North Slope to the Gulf for well over 20 years. It is his singular focus. He could not get it done in the private sector so joined with the democrats to win the governor seat and use that position to get ‘er done through state funding. Now there is a reason the private sector wasn’t interested; the project does not pencil out. Budgetary parlance meaning the project is just yet another boondoggle for the state.
The muskrat/democrat coalition on the other hand wish to keep funding our over-bloated government at any cost, even if it means robbing you of your PFD and even implementing an income tax. And do not let anyone fool you into thinking they have cut the waste out of our budget. The legislature tied the budget to the oil revenue while it was climbing up to $120 per barrel. They just never left the budget tied to oil revenue when oil revenue declined.
Every dollar taken out of our economy to fund government hurts our economy. For example, last year’s heist caused an average family of 4 to have a 20% drop in annual income. Last year’s heist took 750 million out of our economy. Meanwhile our elected representatives, who have sworn to manage our affairs for our best interest, have been meeting in Juneau essentially since January because they couldn’t get their job done in a normal session, to figure out a way to take more of your money. Every day they are in session, it is costing us $295 in per diem for each representative. Do the math. Get informed. Vote more wisely. Our future is at stake.
Duane Christensen
