Senate addresses PFD, education equity in operating budget [Video]

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Senate Finance Committee is starting to put its touch on the more than $12 billion operating budget it received from the house last week, as the two bodies traded budgets.

As previously reported, the committee plans to reduce the size of the Permanent Fund Dividend that the House is proposing, and the committee is taking on the lingering maintenance of equity issue the state is tangled up with the federal government.

Due to the federal government telling the state in March that state funding was not adequate for Alaska’s highest-needs schools — and in violation of the maintenance of equity provision — the Senate Finance Committee plans to set aside $11.9 million to comply with the 2022 maintenance of equity requirement.

Of that money, $6.4 million would go to the Anchorage School District, and $5.5 million would go to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

However, more …