Bernadette Wilson and PFD gibberish

I wrote here the other day about Dave Bronson’s reckless idea that a state fiscal plan can be based on the notion that the earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund can be doubled to a target of 12 percent to 14 percent.

Bronson and his running mate, Josh Church, are trying to excuse their lack of a fiscal plan by making up numbers about future earnings.

Bronson said recently that the candidates for governor who say the state can cut government spending enough to pay $2.4 billion in Permanent Fund Dividends either don’t know what they are talking about or they are lying. A $1.5 billion cut would be needed.

(He made this admission even while also giving a waffling comment to Nat Herz about how he would propose that the Legislature spend $2.4 billion on dividends in a Bronson administration, knowing in advance that he would have to settle for a lower number with the Legislature because $1.5 billion can’t be cut.)

Among the leading candidates who are uninformed or lying about the PFD and cuts is Republican Bernadette Wilson, who claims the state can afford to pay $2.4 billion right now. The $2.4 billion plan would create a $1.5 billion deficit.

Wilson can’t produce a list of budget cuts. Or what taking half of the Constitutional Buedge Reserve would do to state finances. Cutting $1.5 billion would mean eliminating most state agencies.

She can’t talk about the deficit or the numbers or provide a coherent plan.

Even Gov. Mike Dunleavy now admits the state can’t pay $2.4 billion in dividends without some taxes. Wilson said she would veto a sales tax like the one proposed by Dunleavy. We don’t need any new taxes, she says.

Her claim that she will get the Legislature to approve a $1.5 billion deficit to pay for the dividend by vetoing “everything out of that damn budget until they figure out how they’re going to pay out your Permanent Fund Dividend,” shows that she doesn’t know the first thing about the Legislature or the budget.

Her standard spiel on the PFD is to throw out lots of extraneous questions and pure gibberish, never pausing, never stopping, never getting to the point and always dancing around the topic with random talking points.

Here’s an example from Facebook of her confused claims:

“Who knows better how to spend money? Is it the individual or is it government? Additionally there’s the conversation about who do the rights to those resources belong to? Do those royalties in those resources belong to government? Or do they belong to you as the individual? The belief that they belong to you as the individual is foundational to our state Constitution. And when you concede the fight on the Permanent Fund Dividend, it’s not just conceding over an amount of a check. You are conceding on the very foundational core conservative value that we believe that the individual knows better how to spend money than government. And if for no other reason than that, I am going to fight like crazy to push and encourage and use everything in my power to get those legislators to follow a formula. And if the money isn’t there then the formula will absolutely dictate that it is indeed a smaller Permanent Fund. But until then it is not up to legislators or anybody else to dictate that they know better how to spend your money than you do, that government knows how to spend money. And nobody should be saying that the money isn’t there. Follow the formula then.”

Wilson does not know what she is talking about.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.\

Write me at dermotmcole@gmail.com