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Alaska 50-50 Permanent Fund Dividend Initiative (2022)
| Alaska 50-50 Permanent Fund Dividend Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 8, 2022 | |
| Topic State and local government budgets, spending and finance | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The Alaska 50-50 Permanent Fund Dividend Initiative was not on the ballot in Alaska as an indirect initiated state statute on November 8, 2022.
The ballot measure would have required that permanent fund dividends be divided 50-50 between eligible Alaskans as dividend checks and the state's Constitutional Budget Reserve.[1]
Text of measure
Full text
The full text of the ballot initiative is available here.
Path to the ballot
Process in Alaska
In Alaska, the number of signatures required for an indirect initiated state statute is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Alaska also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equal to 7 percent of the vote in the last general election must be collected in each of three-fourths of the 40 state House districts. Petitions are allowed to circulate for 365 days from the date the lieutenant governor issues petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering. Signatures must be submitted 365 days after the lieutenant governor issued petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering or before the legislative session begins, whichever comes first.
The requirements to get an indirectly initiated state statute certified for the 2022 ballot:
- Signatures: 36,140 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was 365 days after the lieutenant governor issued petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering or before the legislative session began on January 18, 2022, whichever comes first.
In Alaska, when enough signatures are verified for an initiative, the initiative is not certified for the ballot until after "a legislative session has convened and adjourned." This gives the Legislature a timeframe to consider the proposal or similar legislation. The initiative is void when “an act of the legislature that is substantially the same as the proposed law was enacted after the petition had been filed, and before the date of the election," according to state law.[2] Otherwise, the initiative is certified to appear on the ballot for the first statewide election 120 days after the legislature's adjournment.
Stages of this initiative
Michael Sheldon, Stephen Wright, and Randy Skeen filed the ballot initiative on July 7, 2021.[1] Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer rejected the proposal on August 13.[3] Proponents refiled the initiative on August 27, but the refiled version was also denied on October 26, 2021.<ref.Alaska Division of Elections, "21RPFD Petition Denied," October 26, 2021</ref>
See also
Footnotes
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State of Alaska Juneau (capital) |
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