click on the photo for the full story
Gov. Michael Dunleavy has proposed a $3,000 Permanent Fund dividend for all eligible Alaskans, and a budget for State government that is about a 21 percent lower than the one offered by Gov. Bill Walker, which was about $4.8 billion in undesignated general funds. Walker’s budget increased spending over this fiscal year by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dunleavy said the Walker budget didn’t balance, and his lower number has left people all over the state in shock as they realize how much of a shell game the former budget was, and how much communities are going to lose in State services.
But the House Majority’s budget strategy is now beginning to gel and it looks like it will offer the Walker budget, with just a few trims around the ears. Right now, there are no big cuts planned.