Over the past several years I have written extensively on the Permanent Fund Dividend — its origins, the legal and political history, the math, and the choices we face today. The articles below are gathered in one place for anyone who wants to read the case for a full, statutory PFD in my own words.
Substack — Kevin’s Substack
Read at: https://kevinjmccabe.substack.com/
What Does A Vote For The Budget Mean
April 16, 2026
On Hammond and Tillion’s 1980 design, the 2017 Wielechowski ruling, and the 2018 SB 26 shift from ‘transfer’ to ‘appropriation’ — and why voting against a final budget is not the same as voting against the PFD.
The Fight for Your PFD: An Insider’s Perspective
April 11, 2026
The 23–17 House floor vote that killed the full statutory PFD this session, my Amendment #1 for the full $3,800 dividend, and what it tells us about who is paid first — government, or Alaskans.
March 31, 2026
Why every budget fight turns into the same circular argument over cuts, taxes, and the dividend — and what one-resource dependence has cost us.
A Conversation on the PFD with Clem and Jay
March 1, 2026
An imagined dialogue between Clem Tillion and Jay Hammond about the state of the PFD today — and the constitutional protection both fought for.
Don’t Let Them Smear the PFD as Socialism
February 26, 2026
The PFD is not UBI. It is the return on a shared resource owned by Alaskans. Conservatives should defend it, not abandon it.
Legal Plunder and the Fight for Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend
February 15, 2026
Frédéric Bastiat warned about ‘legal plunder’ — when government stops protecting property and starts redistributing it. That is exactly what diversion of the dividend has become.
Geographic Effects of the PFD and Sales Tax
January 28, 2026
House District 30 vs. House District 11. A policy that looks balanced on paper lands very differently depending on where you live and how much of your income goes to basic necessities.
The Permanent Fund Dividend Revisited
September 22, 2025
A career-spanning summary of my record, my votes, and the consistent principle behind them: the dividend is the people’s inheritance, not government largesse.
November 3, 2025
Amendment One robbed Alaskans of $2.3 billion in dividends and unlocked $2.3 billion in new government spending in the same vote. Why the full statutory PFD is a natural spending brake.
kevinjmccabe.com
Read at: https://kevinjmccabe.com/opinion/
How does the PFD belong to you?
February 23, 2026
The constitutional and philosophical foundation of the dividend: every Alaskan has an equal claim to our resource wealth, and the PFD is the accountability mechanism that makes misuse of the Fund politically costly.
Must Read Alaska
Read at: https://mustreadalaska.com/
Kevin McCabe: Alaska’s constitutional mandate and the Legislature’s capital budget shortfall
June 19, 2025
Why the diversion of the PFD into operating costs amounts to constitutional malpractice — and how the same pattern has crippled the capital budget.
Kevin McCabe: Putting Alaska’s students first in 2026
August 17, 2025
Education funding cannot be considered in isolation. Every dollar of new BSA spending comes out of the same pool that funds the PFD.
McCabe: An important update on education funding and what HB 69 would cost over three years
January 26, 2025
The honest math on HB 69: any increase in education funding is directly tied to your PFD. Who pays?
Kevin McCabe: Dividend, now buried in the operating budget, frustrates and fatigues Alaskans
September 2024
Since the Walker veto in 2016 and the subsequent court case, the PFD has been buried inside the operating budget — making it nearly impossible to see who actually voted for it. The ‘militant ring’ Hammond designed needs a legally binding voice.
Rep. Kevin McCabe: Disaster declarations — the cure that’s worse than the ailment
September 2021
On the day after the House Democrat coalition fleeced Alaskans on the PFD yet again, leadership pivoted straight to COVID politics. The two fights are connected.
June 2021
The 2021 ‘defective budget’ and the coercive PFD trick the majority tried to pull — and why the Constitution requires more than a simple majority to make a budget effective on July 1.
Alaska Watchman
Read at: https://alaskawatchman.com/
OPINION: It’s time to ditch lawmakers who fear cutting Alaska’s bloated budget
April 16, 2026
The State House voted to advance a budget that confiscates most of your statutory PFD because the majority is incapable of balancing the state budget without taking your dividend.
OPINION: A Juneau insider’s perspective on the fight for Alaskans’ PFD
April 11, 2026
A straight account of what was done on the House floor this session, and why — the pilfering of your dividend was not confusion. It was a conscious decision to redirect your money to government spending.
OPINION: We must push back when the PFD is smeared as ‘socialism’
February 26, 2026
Some conservatives have been talked into believing the PFD is socialism or UBI. It is neither. It is the people’s share of their own resource wealth — and the firewall protecting the Permanent Fund itself.
OPINION: Fleecing Alaskans’ PFD is politically convenient and profoundly unfair
February 9, 2026
When the legislature redirects the PFD, it extracts wealth from Alaskans the same way inflation does — quietly, without a direct tax vote, while government gains resources to spend.
Rep. McCabe exposes ‘voodoo math’ behind push to restore Alaska’s defined benefits
January 26, 2026
Every claim that reopening defined-benefit pensions will ‘save money’ is a bet against your children’s PFDs, future taxes, or deep cuts to troopers and schools.
OPINION: Restoring old pension plan will bankrupt AK without keeping teachers or troopers on the job
November 24, 2025
A new ISER working paper provides the cleanest natural experiment in the country on whether closing the DB pension caused Alaska’s retention crisis. Spoiler: it did not. The Fund and the PFD remain the real targets.
OPINION: Restoring old pension plan will bankrupt AK without keeping teachers or troopers on the job
OPINION: Restoring the 4 corners of AK’s sovereignty — education, health & welfare, energy, PFD
May 25, 2025
Why the PFD is one of four foundational pillars of Alaska sovereignty — and how decades of bureaucratic expansion and policy drift have weakened all four.
REP. MCCABE: ADN does Alaska a disservice with misleading story on permafrost-related damage
May 15, 2025
Attacks on Alaska’s right to develop its resources are attacks on the revenue base that funds the Fund — and ultimately the dividend.
Rep. McCabe’s rebuttal to Alaska legislators who voted against concurrence on state budget
June 3, 2022
Why a no vote on concurrence in 2022 was not a vote for a bigger PFD — it cost the Mat-Su public safety dollars and cost every Alaskan half the dividend they were owed.
Anchorage Daily News
Opinion: It is your Permanent Fund dividend
March 12, 2026
The Alaska Permanent Fund belongs to the people of this state. It does not belong to politicians, agencies, or special interests. A reminder of why the dividend exists and what it has meant to generations of Alaskans.
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/03/12/opinion-it-is-your-permanent-fund-dividend/
For more, visit kevinjmccabe.com or subscribe at kevinjmccabe.substack.comMy Writing on the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend
Rep. Kevin McCabe — A reading list across Substack, kevinjmccabe.com, Must Read Alaska, and the Alaska Watchman
Over the past several years I have written extensively on the Permanent Fund Dividend — its origins, the legal and political history, the math, and the choices we face today. The articles below are gathered in one place for anyone who wants to read the case for a full, statutory PFD in my own words.
Substack — Kevin’s Substack
Read at: https://kevinjmccabe.substack.com/
What Does A Vote For The Budget Mean
April 16, 2026
On Hammond and Tillion’s 1980 design, the 2017 Wielechowski ruling, and the 2018 SB 26 shift from ‘transfer’ to ‘appropriation’ — and why voting against a final budget is not the same as voting against the PFD.
The Fight for Your PFD: An Insider’s Perspective
April 11, 2026
The 23–17 House floor vote that killed the full statutory PFD this session, my Amendment #1 for the full $3,800 dividend, and what it tells us about who is paid first — government, or Alaskans.
March 31, 2026
Why every budget fight turns into the same circular argument over cuts, taxes, and the dividend — and what one-resource dependence has cost us.
A Conversation on the PFD with Clem and Jay
March 1, 2026
An imagined dialogue between Clem Tillion and Jay Hammond about the state of the PFD today — and the constitutional protection both fought for.
Don’t Let Them Smear the PFD as Socialism
February 26, 2026
The PFD is not UBI. It is the return on a shared resource owned by Alaskans. Conservatives should defend it, not abandon it.
Legal Plunder and the Fight for Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend
February 15, 2026
Frédéric Bastiat warned about ‘legal plunder’ — when government stops protecting property and starts redistributing it. That is exactly what diversion of the dividend has become.
Geographic Effects of the PFD and Sales Tax
January 28, 2026
House District 30 vs. House District 11. A policy that looks balanced on paper lands very differently depending on where you live and how much of your income goes to basic necessities.
The Permanent Fund Dividend Revisited
September 22, 2025
A career-spanning summary of my record, my votes, and the consistent principle behind them: the dividend is the people’s inheritance, not government largesse.
November 3, 2025
Amendment One robbed Alaskans of $2.3 billion in dividends and unlocked $2.3 billion in new government spending in the same vote. Why the full statutory PFD is a natural spending brake.
kevinjmccabe.com
Read at: https://kevinjmccabe.com/opinion/
How does the PFD belong to you?
February 23, 2026
The constitutional and philosophical foundation of the dividend: every Alaskan has an equal claim to our resource wealth, and the PFD is the accountability mechanism that makes misuse of the Fund politically costly.
Must Read Alaska
Read at: https://mustreadalaska.com/
Kevin McCabe: Alaska’s constitutional mandate and the Legislature’s capital budget shortfall
June 19, 2025
Why the diversion of the PFD into operating costs amounts to constitutional malpractice — and how the same pattern has crippled the capital budget.
Kevin McCabe: Putting Alaska’s students first in 2026
August 17, 2025
Education funding cannot be considered in isolation. Every dollar of new BSA spending comes out of the same pool that funds the PFD.
McCabe: An important update on education funding and what HB 69 would cost over three years
January 26, 2025
The honest math on HB 69: any increase in education funding is directly tied to your PFD. Who pays?
Kevin McCabe: Dividend, now buried in the operating budget, frustrates and fatigues Alaskans
September 2024
Since the Walker veto in 2016 and the subsequent court case, the PFD has been buried inside the operating budget — making it nearly impossible to see who actually voted for it. The ‘militant ring’ Hammond designed needs a legally binding voice.
Rep. Kevin McCabe: Disaster declarations — the cure that’s worse than the ailment
September 2021
On the day after the House Democrat coalition fleeced Alaskans on the PFD yet again, leadership pivoted straight to COVID politics. The two fights are connected.
June 2021
The 2021 ‘defective budget’ and the coercive PFD trick the majority tried to pull — and why the Constitution requires more than a simple majority to make a budget effective on July 1.
Alaska Watchman
Read at: https://alaskawatchman.com/
OPINION: It’s time to ditch lawmakers who fear cutting Alaska’s bloated budget
April 16, 2026
The State House voted to advance a budget that confiscates most of your statutory PFD because the majority is incapable of balancing the state budget without taking your dividend.
OPINION: A Juneau insider’s perspective on the fight for Alaskans’ PFD
April 11, 2026
A straight account of what was done on the House floor this session, and why — the pilfering of your dividend was not confusion. It was a conscious decision to redirect your money to government spending.
OPINION: We must push back when the PFD is smeared as ‘socialism’
February 26, 2026
Some conservatives have been talked into believing the PFD is socialism or UBI. It is neither. It is the people’s share of their own resource wealth — and the firewall protecting the Permanent Fund itself.
OPINION: Fleecing Alaskans’ PFD is politically convenient and profoundly unfair
February 9, 2026
When the legislature redirects the PFD, it extracts wealth from Alaskans the same way inflation does — quietly, without a direct tax vote, while government gains resources to spend.
Rep. McCabe exposes ‘voodoo math’ behind push to restore Alaska’s defined benefits
January 26, 2026
Every claim that reopening defined-benefit pensions will ‘save money’ is a bet against your children’s PFDs, future taxes, or deep cuts to troopers and schools.
OPINION: Restoring old pension plan will bankrupt AK without keeping teachers or troopers on the job
November 24, 2025
A new ISER working paper provides the cleanest natural experiment in the country on whether closing the DB pension caused Alaska’s retention crisis. Spoiler: it did not. The Fund and the PFD remain the real targets.
OPINION: Restoring old pension plan will bankrupt AK without keeping teachers or troopers on the job
OPINION: Restoring the 4 corners of AK’s sovereignty — education, health & welfare, energy, PFD
May 25, 2025
Why the PFD is one of four foundational pillars of Alaska sovereignty — and how decades of bureaucratic expansion and policy drift have weakened all four.
REP. MCCABE: ADN does Alaska a disservice with misleading story on permafrost-related damage
May 15, 2025
Attacks on Alaska’s right to develop its resources are attacks on the revenue base that funds the Fund — and ultimately the dividend.
Rep. McCabe’s rebuttal to Alaska legislators who voted against concurrence on state budget
June 3, 2022
Why a no vote on concurrence in 2022 was not a vote for a bigger PFD — it cost the Mat-Su public safety dollars and cost every Alaskan half the dividend they were owed.
Anchorage Daily News
Opinion: It is your Permanent Fund dividend
March 12, 2026
The Alaska Permanent Fund belongs to the people of this state. It does not belong to politicians, agencies, or special interests. A reminder of why the dividend exists and what it has meant to generations of Alaskans.
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/03/12/opinion-it-is-your-permanent-fund-dividend/
For more, visit kevinjmccabe.com or subscribe at kevinjmccabe.substack.com