The Alaska House agreed Monday to pay a full dividend this year in an amendment to the 2019 budget that split both majority and minority caucuses.

The amendment was proposed by the majority leader, Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, and it passed 21-19. Afterward, Tuck said it wasn't his intent to split his own caucus or the Republican minority caucus — he said he just wanted to see the state pay a full dividend.

The actual payment will be calculated and announced in the months ahead, but legislators said it would be about $2,700 for every Alaskan. The most recent dividend, deposited in bank accounts in October, was $1,100, about half of what it would have been had the traditional formula been followed. The extra money was saved, not spent on government — legislators said the 2019 budget will be the first that uses Permanent Fund earnings to pay for state operations.

The 2019 budget remained on the House floor after Tuck’s amendment, pending since Friday, passed the chamber. House Speaker Bryce Edgmon declared the session would be in recess subject to his call. The budget is days late getting out of the House, according to earlier schedules, and the Legislature is looking increasingly likely to miss its 90-day adjournment target.

Monday was Day 70 of the session.

In a news conference Monday morning, Senate leaders said they were awaiting the House decision.

“We had originally anticipated that they would send the budget over on the 10th. That was 16 days ago,” said Senate President Pete Kelly, a Republican from Fairbanks. When he was in the House, Kelly said, the budget was handled in a round-the-clock session so it wouldn’t take the time that it’s taking now.

“Point was, we knew there was going to a big, big bump in the road on a certain day and we were just committed to go through, no matter what,” Kelly said. But he also acknowledged that the House has a different style now, and even with days off, he said he’s concerned about legislator well-being.

“I’m beginning to worry about people’s health,” Kelly said. “This has been two or three years of these marathon sessions out on the House floor — they’re working very hard, and it’s starting to show.”

In speaking for his amendment, Tuck said that cutting dividends would amount to a regressive income tax in which low-income Alaskans would be hit harder than the rich.

“That’s one of the most unfair income taxes that you can impose,” Tuck said. “I fall in that camp that it’s unfair for my 2½-year-old daughter to pay the same tax as my multimillionaire friend as my fixed income senior mother.”

Other speakers said the state could ill afford paying such a big dividend now. They said that 2019 revenues were projected to be less than expenses by some $2.3 billion, and Permanent Fund earnings were the only big pool of money that could be used to balance the budget.

“I think this proposal is spending money we don’t have, and we’ve done it too long,” said Rep. Chris Birch, R-Anchorage.

The budget is still a long ways from passage. Besides finishing its path through the House, it needs to go through the Senate Finance Committee and then the full Senate. At each stop, it can be amended again.

With the spending bill still in the House, the Senate Finance Committee cancelled public hearings that had been scheduled for Tuesday. And Monday afternoon, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon cancelled an additional floor session Monday.

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Methodology:

Information is sourced from the Alaska State Legislature – the House voted on March 26, 2018.