By Ky Holland

Published in the ADN: December 28, 2025

Recent reporting on Alaska’s 2027 fiscal year budget notes the growing reliance on the Permanent Fund’s Percent of Market Value (POMV) draw from the Alaska Permanent Fund to pay for state services, rather than revenue generated by our economy. But what deserves more attention is the mindset that this shift reveals.

POMV is how retirees plan retirement — living off a steady draw from IRAs or 401(k)s once their working years are behind them.

That approach makes sense for retirees. It is less convincing as a strategy for running a state with its future still ahead.

Alaska is taking what has been called a “rainy-day” account and using it to fund everyday basic services — quietly shifting into what looks like a pension economy.

In the name of fiscal prudence and with a scarcity mindset about our future, we are managing the decline of our state rather than investing in our growth.

If we believe that Alaska’s future is full of opportunities for future generations, not just retelling stories of our past, should we be constrained by what we saved in the past?

— Rep. Ky Holland, Alaska House District 9, Anchorage