The Office of the Governor posted a public notice yesterday soliciting a $250,000 media contract for “a public education and information campaign regarding, a proposed constitutional amendment pertaining to the permanent fund, the permanent fund dividend (PFD), and power cost equalization (PCE).” According to the request for information (RFI), interested companies have until August 6 at 12 pm to respond – just three days after the RFI was posted.
The contract calls for and radio and internet advertising in the state. It also states the contract is exempt from the Alaska Procurement Code. AS 36.30.850(b)(34), states the procurement code does not apply to “procurements of contracts with the media for advertising.”
The RFI references a recent Dittman Research poll that showed 67% of respondents were unaware of Governor Mike Dunleavy’s (R – Alaska) 50/50 constitutional amendment that would put the Permanent Fund in the Alaska Constitution. The poll was paid for by the House Majority. This Landmine article provides more information about the poll. This is the part of the poll referenced in the RFI:
You can read the RFI here:
Everyone who cries about how we need to end “bloated” government so we can get more free money, well, there you go. Another quarter of a million down the rabbit hole by Dunleavy. If you look back over his tenure you could find millions and millions more of “bloated” government. And yet, these same people crying foul will vote for him again.
Now its the “PCE/PFD Constitutional Amendment? Ask your neighbor what the “PCE” (Power Cost Equalization) Program has to do with the PFD? So am I not to vote for my legislator because he or she did not want to “memorialize” the PCE in the Constitution? I don’t think that will mean squat in the rail belt where most voters reside. In baseball this kind of waste of state funds is called a “strike”. Now watch for the “ringer” who gets this contract announced on Aug 3 and closed at noon on Aug 6. ..
The PFD and PCE if valuable enough to be memorialized in the Alaska Constitution should be able to STAND ON THEIR OWN mean separate Amendments. If a person wants one they should not be forced to vote for the other. This kind of sausage making works well in the Legislative Committee Process but NOT AT THE PUBLIC BALLOT BOX!
I agree. Perhaps someone much more clever (or naïve) than Dunleavy has hamstrung him again. In any event, I would think that someone with the resources might ask the courts just how many budget appropriation items can you “memorialize” in the Constitution and therefore either force future legislatures to impose taxes or to require endless votes to erode the principal of the Permanent Fund?
A Constitutional Requirement is legally different than “binding a future Legiature”. Example the State of Alaska MUST provide an education, is a Constitutional Requirement. This requires each successive Legiature must budget for education each year. You (or the Legiature with voter approval) can put anything and everything they want into the Constitution. My opinion is that doing so is not good for current or future Alaskan’s. While legal to combine unrelated things like the PFD and thr Power Cost Equalization into one amendment I personally believe doing so is wrong. But then I also believe the PCE program is wrong.… Read more »
Dunleavy was told by the Supreme Court that the amount of the PFD is decided by legislative appropriation each year not some legally insufficient statutory formula. This whole sad and expensive episode is caused by a very hard headed and very vindictive Governor who now also needs cover for his strategic blunder which allowed all that money that might have paid for his PFD promise to pass into the corpus of the permanent fund where I understand he can’t touch it now. As to the PCE don’t forget all the money used to insure a gas supply for Southcentral .