The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation claims it must keep $200 million worth of in-state investments secret, though the money belongs to the public, because of a line inserted into state law 41 years ago. It’s a dubious claim.
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NorthLink chose to announce the investment, but not the dollar amount, most likely so it can claim that the project is endorsed by the state and the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation claims that it does not have to reveal the names of any businesses that receive state money. Secrecy increases the risk of political favoritism.
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What’s missing from the documents created by McKinley Capital Management and Barings are the names and amounts of specific Alaska businesses that have received public money, an amount that will soon reach $200 million.
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At least $124 million of the “initial allocation” of $200 million in public funds has been invested in Alaska, but the Permanent Fund Corporation won’t say which Alaska businesses and projects have been on the receiving end.
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The Permanent Fund management and trustees get away with this because the Legislature is not paying attention. And Alaska’s major news organizations are not paying attention.
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No doubt there are people who lie about meeting the PFD requirements and lie about the retiree COLA requirements. The state could stand to be more diligent in policing both of these programs. But to write a letter to retirees that comes off like an internet scam shows terrible judgment.
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A month ago the Dunleavy administration announced that state finances had taken a miraculous turn for the better. The state had a new oil price guess that would generate more than $2.2 billion by July 2023, just in time for Dunleavy’s reelection campaign.
Guess what happened next?
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Is the Permanent Fund investing in the Ambler mining project? What about the Pebble project? Or the Donlin Gold Mine? Or oil projects on the North Slope?
I don’t think so, but under the current secrecy policies of Dunleavy and the Permanent Fund corporation, a wide range of investments can be hidden from the public. Political payoffs can be hidden from the public.
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Let’s start by introducing Alaskans to the specifics, which means abandoning the generalities that keep the scourge hidden in the shadows and out of the daylight.
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Alaska news organizations have paid little attention to the financial secrecy of Hilcorp, the privately owned Texas company that purchased BP’s 49 percent share of the trans-Alaska pipeline and its other Alaska holdings.
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