We know the oil is there and its a vast resource. We know that developing it is not a mom and pop operation, however mom and pop own it. How do we bridge the gap? We need the oil, but is it fair to take the only resource Alaska has from the Alaskans and just give it lock stock and barrel over to a for profit company? This is not about wealth redistribution, for to give up the oil to company and not make that company pay a cost for the oil lease would be to steal all the wealth from mom and pop.
So, for longer than America has been a nation, the system of Royalties came to be. (The name is a clue) It says, hey, I got a gold mine here, you are a gold miner, if you want to lease the land from me and give me a portion of the gold, then we got a deal. The gold miner is happy, because he moves in and builds a mine and makes profits, the owner of the land is happy, because he is getting some of the gold.
In the case of Alaska, the people OWN the mineral rights, not the GOVERNMENT or the OIL COMPANIES. So in the long run, if you do not cut a check to the actual owner there is this little law thing that kicks in about theft of properties without fair compensation. So the PFD has more than one purpose. Fair is decided by the government and means that mom gets a penny, Pop gets a penny, the Governor gets a buck and the oil company gets a buck.
Please do not forget that MOM and POP own the oil. Now you can argue what is fair till the cows come home, but the bottom line is, who owns it and who is getting paid.
This is not a tax for redistribution scheme, this is a royalty payment that is governed by the government. When it is all over, the gas companies make record revenues larger than most third world countries, the government has a multi BILLION dollar budget paid for and Alaskans get 1200 bucks.
Want to be real conservative? Cut the government out of the deal. They are the redistribution part of the tax, not the PFD.
You own a gold mine, the government decides to manage it for you and sells the rights to someone else saying it would be socialist if we gave you money.
They would be right, they would also be Fascist. Somehow I think that is not a step in the right direction.
The long and short of it is that Sarah Palin didn’t DO anything TO the oil companies. She UNDID what the oil companies were doing to the people of Alaska via bribes and corruption...which allowed them to sit on leases without developing them, keeping prices high for everyone.