your last pfd check

One candidate for governor wants to end your PFD and cut you a check for ten thousand dollars first.

Former Governor Bill Walker is back in the race, running as an independent, and he just put the boldest proposal of the seventeen candidates on the table. He wants to give every eligible Alaskan a one-time payment of ten thousand dollars and then shut the dividend program down for good.

His running mate is Randy Hoffbeck, Alaska's former revenue commissioner. Together they're calling the annual PFD fight the six hundred pound gorilla that's consumed every budget session for years without a real solution.

The ten thousand dollar number is calculated from what's sitting in the Permanent Fund's earnings reserve right now. With more than six hundred thousand Alaskans applying for last year's dividend, the total cost lands around six point two billion dollars.

The eighty-nine billion dollar Permanent Fund itself stays untouched and keeps funding state government. It's only the annual check that goes away. Walker says he'd survey Alaskans on the twenty-twenty-seven PFD application, and if the response is overwhelmingly yes, he takes it to the legislature for a vote.

This year's PFD was twelve hundred dollars. Last year it was a thousand. Walker and Hoffbeck argue the formula that was supposed to set the full dividend hasn't been financially realistic for years, and the annual standoff over the number is costing Alaska its ability to focus on anything else.

Other candidates are already pushing back. Democrat Tom Begich called the plan fiscally irresponsible. Walker says the key difference is this is a one-time exit, not another promise that keeps getting made without ever getting delivered.