OT I'll tell you a story.
In the 1970's when the billions in oil money was coming into Alaska, My clan and our gang the :" Ad Hoc Democrats" took over the Democratic party and won the House. And it is a blood red state. We out campaigned them, but knew we wouldn't be there long, so concentrated on the structure.
We were just kids, most of us barely 30, a bunch of hippies really-lol.
I was not a legislator, but I ran with them, and worked on their campaigns, as did my clan. My ex's husband was a legislator and speaker of the house, or majority leader, don't remember.
Anyway, the Republicans wanted to spend all the money, and hating big government like they do did not want to set up a savings account for the kids, but we said we were going to save 50% of it for the kids, and we had a blood in the streets fight with them.
And as they were in cahoots with the oil companies they were tough!
But we controlled the money, the House, and we were fearless kids, and played hard ball with them.
It was a sovereign Wealth Fund and we called it the Permanent fund.
We didn't get 50%, but we got 25% and we used Alberta's sovereign wealth fund experience for both ideas and what not to do-lol, like investing in state.
We set it up so it takes 75% of the vote, of both houses, to touch the principle, and inflation proofed it each year based on the CPI, and no investing in state.
Plus we set up a "permanent fund" dividend check, with yearly checks for every resident right before the winter, which allowed them to buy fuel and presents for Christmas. Usually the checks are between $1,000 and $2,000.
It now has about 85 billion and pays for all state expenses i.e. no state tax.
The internet has some stories about us.
We were just kids and fearless-lol!
Subsequently a dozen Republican congressmen were indicted for bribery, but not one Democrat. |
