Funds available...but not available

[PeteySt1]

Hi all,

A few minutes ago, I came back from the book store, having read a travel book that left me with an odd feeling. The book was about Alaska, and how they are overflowing with money. With all the oil that flows out of prudhoe bay, it seems alaska gets about 25 BILLION DOLLARS a year! So they created a thing called the permanent dividend fund. It gives every resident of alaska about 1,000 dollars a year, just for being a resident. Well, I have a question. In looking through all the Alaska FD websites, why doesn't somebody step up to the bat and tell the governor to funnel about half of that to the emergency services? According to the USFA's FD census, there are only about 135 fire departments in the State. So that could replace every piece of old and ill maintained apparatus in the state, supply the departments with NFPA compliant TOG, etc. Sorry for the ramble, but that really ticks me off. I am not a resident, but it ticks me off because there is a viable source of funding, only to be given to the residents, just because they don't know what to do with the money. What are your thoughts on this, Ladies and Gentlemen?

[KEEPBACK200FEET]

The residents would go ape $h!t if the Alaskan government tried to take that money.