The new Anchorage office of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, located just across from the Memorial Park Cemetery on Cordova Street, should be shut down to save about $170,000, according to draft budget language moving through the Legislature.
The proposed intent language from lawmakers is aimed directly at the trustees of the fund:
“It is the intent of the Legislature that the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation will not establish or maintain new office locations without corresponding budget increments for that purpose. It is further the intent of the Legislature that the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation shall provide a report to the finance committee co-chairs and the Legislative Finance Division by December 2024 that details any actual expenditures to date related to the Anchorage office.”
The closure of the six-employee office would save about $160,000 or $170,000 in rent, travel, furniture, etc., according to the House budget subcommittee that proposed the reductions.
This is not about the money. It’s about the power of the Legislature to write the budget.
It’s about political interference. It’s about the trustees micromanaging and losing sight of what’s really important in overseeing Alaska’s most important financial institution.
And it’s about the trustees of the fund taking official action in violation of the open meetings act.
Here is a detailed account I wrote about this situation September 5.
Here is a followup post from September 26.
The Anchorage office, which has only six employees, was the result of a political power play last summer by the trustees, who wasted time and money that should have been spent elsewhere.
The fund trustees, led largely by Craig Richards, Gabrielle Rubenstein, Jason Brune and Adam Crum, have been obsessed with the idea of opening an Anchorage office. They made exaggerated claims about how great this would be for recruiting new employees and keeping old ones.
www.dermotcole.com/reportingfromalaska/2024/3/9/kfwzqaa9vow1o58zcsy0ugubw42ayg