-"Welfare by any other name" - Actually it was originally both a strategic, politically "do-able" income equalization plan, to share oil wealth COMING FROM TRADITIONAL ALASKA NATIVE LANDS with all Alaskans, instead of "pissing it away", & seeing ALL of it go to the politically connected for whatever they wanted - and it has worked fairly well.. But the oil boom is over - - We need to reconfigure what & how we do services as a State:
  ***We need to maximize Permanent Fund earnings & help fund government with earnings interest;  ***We must wisely control budgets for outcome effectiveness, & avoid "iffy" capital spending; ***We must once again begin taxing ourselves with a 1.5% of gross income tax, and cut PFD cash payments & *** We must gradually move toward eliminating them as we reconfigure government services for residents - Our own "sovereign wealth" approach to providing resident services - similar to that being taken by Norway & Saudi Arabia. This is a time of opportunity!