The Permanent Fund and PFD

So many Alaskans depend on their PFD just to get by that it is a moral imperative. However, if we follow the old formula, the Permanent Fund will be temporary and gone within a lifetime.

It is time to end the annual ritual of spending most of the legislative session each spring haggling over PFD amounts that don't comply with existing law anyway. Let's update the law to codify the PFD at about current levels each year, adjusting for inflation as we go.

Growing the Fund faster is essential and possible. Norway saw what Alaska was doing and started their own "Oil Fund" in 1990. They focused on growth so structured it differently. Their fund is invested entirely in international financial markets, doesn't have a PFD, didn't draw until 2016, and draws below 3%.

The result? As of Q2/2026, it was the world's largest sovereign fund, worth just over $2.2 trillion. That's 25 times the Permanent Fund for a population about 7.6 times that of Alaska. Currently, 20-30% of Norway's budget is funded by draws that are used for infrastructure, education, and health care.

We can find a middle path between Norway's approach and ours.

The Fund is currently valued at just under $88B. We can double the fund's value in 10-15 years and have a reliably solvent budget with straightforward changes: Get maximum value for extracted resources, then in 3-5 years modestly reduce our budgetary draw to 4 - 4.5% (from current 5% POMV) and legislate a stable PFD at about current levels with inflation adjustment built in.