Alaska
Permanent Fund leaders again call to restructure fund as spendable cash dwindles
There’s a nearly 50-50 chance that the Alaska Permanent Fund won’t have enough spendable money to pay dividends and the state’s bills at least once over the next decade — unless lawmakers change the structure of the fund to function more like a university endowment.
That’s the message Permanent Fund leaders and the Legislature’s chief budget analyst delivered to lawmakers on Tuesday.
The head of the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget analysis agency, Alexei Painter, presented lawmakers with a financial model showing a 46% chance that the fund’s spendable account would not have enough money to provide a payment to the state’s general fund that makes up the second-largest overall source of state revenue — second only to the federal government.
Permanent Fund Corporation Executive Director and CEO Deven Mitchell and Board of Trustees Chair Jason Brune told the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee that the issue is not with the $80-plus billion Permanent Fund itself, but with the fund’s two-account structure.
“We want to ensure that there’s an ability to provide a payment to the state of Alaska each and every year,” Mitchell said. “We don’t want to have a 46% probability of failure. We don’t want to have any probability of failure for this revenue stream at this point.”
The Permanent Fund is separated into two accounts. The $60 billion principal can’t be spent without a vote of the people.
The earnings reserve account, which has about $9 billion in spendable money, is more flexible. Legislators could spend every last dollar of the account — and possibly more in unrealized gains — by a simple majority vote.
Lawmakers have drawn 5% of the fund’s value every year to fund dividends and state services since 2018 after oil prices crashed in the mid-2010s. Today, the Permanent Fund provides more than half of the state’s general-purpose revenue.
This year, lawmakers are considering amending the Alaska Constitution to combine the two accounts into one.
That would solve the problem, Painter said.
“The [earnings reserve account] balance would no longer be something that would stop us from continuing to draw,” he said. “That would reduce the risk to zero. There’d be no risk at all.”
Lawmakers in the largely Democratic majority caucuses in the House and Senate have introduced amendments that would combine the accounts. Minority Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, has introduced a similar proposal.
The amendments would also place a constitutional cap on the annual draw. The current 5% cap is set in statute, but lawmakers could vote to ignore the law by a simple majority.
A pair of similar proposals sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee and Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, would constitutionalize the current 5% maximum draw rate.
Kaufman’s proposal would cap it at 5.5% to provide what called “headroom,” though he said at a news conference Tuesday that he was open to changing the maximum figure. It would also require the state to pay a dividend set by a formula set in law, though the proposal is silent on what the formula should be. Kaufman is a cosponsor of a bipartisan bill that would set the dividend at 25% of the state’s annual draw from the Permanent Fund.
Brune, the Permanent Fund board chair, said combining the two accounts and capping the draw would provide “predictability and sustainability” for the fund going forward.
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said limiting the draw with a constitutional amendment would prevent lawmakers from raiding the fund when facing a deficit. Lawmakers are currently looking for ways to fill a more than half-billion dollar hole in the state’s budget.
“The little piggies in the trough are getting hungry in this building,” he said.
Stedman, a co-chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has suggested on more than one occasion that the 5% draw rate may be too high to be sustainable.
Combining the accounts and capping the draw is broadly popular among senators in both the largely Democratic majority and the all-Republican minority. The Permanent Fund’s board has been pushing to combine the accounts for decades. Last year, they published a rare analysis paper illustrating the importance of the concept.
Lawmakers could place a constitutional amendment on the ballot for the next election with a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate. The governor would not be able to veto it.
(Juneau, AK) – On Friday, February 20, 2026, Juneau Superior Court Judge Amy Mead sentenced 41-year-old Erica Totland to 14 years with 7 years suspended for Manslaughter, Assault in the Third Degree, and Driving Under the Influence. Totland will be on probation for 5 years upon her release from incarceration.
In 2025 Totland pled guilty to Manslaughter, three counts of Assault in the Third Degree, and one count of Driving Under the Influence. The convictions stem from the April 30, 2022 death of 26-year-old Anton Eriksson and injuries sustained by three passengers in Yakutat. During pre-trial litigation, Judge Mead suppressed toxicology results after finding the seizure of Totland’s blood by Yakutat Police Department without a warrant violated Totland’s rights.
At sentencing, Judge Mead rejected Totland’s request that the court find the Manslaughter was a least serious offense deserving of a lower sentence. Four Eriksson family members testified at the sentencing and discussed the impact that Totland’s actions had on their family.
Assistant Attorney General Daniel K. Shorey of the Office of Special Prosecutions prosecuted the case along with Paralegal Marley Hettinger of the Juneau District Attorney’s Office.
CONTACT: Assistant Attorney General Daniel K. Shorey, at (907) 269-6250 or daniel.shorey@alaska.gov.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A musician with Alaska Native roots recorded an hour-long live set in Interior Alaska beneath the aurora.
Chastity Ashley, a drummer, vocalist and DJ who performs under the name Neon Pony, celebrated a year since she traveled to Nenana to record a live music set beneath the northern lights for her series Beats and Hidden Retreats.
Ashley, who has Indigenous roots in New Mexico, said she was drawn to Alaska in part because of the role drums play in Alaska Native culture. A handmade Alaskan hand drum, brought to her by a man from just outside Anchorage, was incorporated into the performance in February 2025.
Recording in the cold
The team spent eight days in Nenana waiting for the aurora to appear. Ashley said the lights did not come out until around 4 a.m., and she performed a continuous, uninterrupted hour-long set in 17-degree weather without gloves.
“It was freezing. I couldn’t wear gloves because I’m actually playing, yeah, hand drums and holding drumsticks. And there was ice underneath my feet,” Ashley said.
“So, I had to really utilize my balance and my willpower and my ability to just really immerse in the music and let go and make it about the celebration of what I was doing as opposed to worrying about all the other elements or what could go wrong.”
She said she performed in a leotard to allow full range of motion while drumming, DJing and singing.
Filming on Nenana tribal land
Ashley said she did not initially know the filming location was on indigenous land. After local authorities told her the decision was not theirs to make, she contacted the Nenana tribe directly for permission.
“I went into it kind of starting to tell them who I was and that I too was a part of a native background,” Ashley said. “And they just did not even care. They’re like, listen, we’re about to have a party for one of our friends here. Go and do what you like.”
Ashley said the tribe gave her full permission to film on the reservation, and that the aurora footage seen in the episode was captured there.
Seeing the aurora for the first time
Ashley said the Nenana performance marked her first time seeing the northern lights in person.
“It felt as if I were awake in a dream,” she said. “It really doesn’t seem real.”
She said she felt humbled and blessed to perform beneath the aurora and to celebrate its beauty and grandeur through her music.
“I feel incredibly humbled and blessed that not only did I get to take part in seeing something like that, but to play underneath it and celebrate its beauty and its grandeur.”
The Alaska episode is the second installment of Beats and Hidden Retreats, which is available on YouTube at @NeonPony. Ashley said two additional episodes are in production and she hopes to make it back up to Alaska in the future.
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Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.
Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.
A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.
As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.
In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.
Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.
Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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