(Juneau) - Today, in response to Alaska's 2005 oil revenue windfall and budget surplus, Representative Jim Holm (R - Fairbanks) introduced legislation that would appropriate $600 million to Alaska's Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve.

The legislation, HB 359, would mark the only general fund deposit into the permanent fund since 1985. Representative Holm said, "We have before us an opportunity to revitalize the Permanent Fund and to restore the state's savings account."

The Earnings Reserve Account (ERA) is an account of the permanent fund consisting of all other net income from the Fund that has not been distributed as dividends or transferred to the Fund principal for inflation-proofing. The ERA is managed as part of the Fund but can be appropriated to general revenues by ordinary act of the legislature. Expenditure of the principal (but not the ERA) is prohibited by the state's Constitution.

"I want to take this year's excess revenues off the table. This is not slush fund money that we, the government, should be spending right now, but instead be saving for leaner times to come," said Representative Holm.

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