Former Alaska governor Jay Hammond dies at 83

Who was Jay Hammond and why does this matter? I'm willing to bet that is what you are asking.

"Hammond, a Republican governor from 1974 to 1982, championed the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state investment account created with oil royalties, and the annual dividends paid from it to nearly all state residents.

Last year's dividend check was $919.84."

I first heard of Jay Hammond when he was invited to talk about the Alaska Permanent Fund at a US BIG conference I attended in 2004. With respect to the Basic Income Guarantee, there was a lot of high falootin jibber jabber by intellectual Green-type folks that waxed philisophical about how to implement the BIG in the US. Like most expansive groups of people they couldn't agree on what the best way to do it was or even if guaranteed income was the answer. Some favored a Basic Jobs Guarantee and of course looked to the Federal government to fund such a program.

After a few days of haughy taughty talk I was relieved to hear such a down to earth fellow address this issue with clarity and in a language that could be easily understood. Using oil as the base, Gov. Hammond implemented something akin to the BIG and after some tweaking it became one of the best things to happen to Alaska. This policy was groundbreaking and should have been followed up on by every state in the union. Instead, years later we got "Welfare to Work," and we're no closer to reducing the poverty gap than we were 30 years ago.

I'm sad to learn of his passing. I'm even sadder that his Alaska Permanent Fund has been summarily ignored in the rest of the US and the debate over how to end poverty still straddles between the total socialists and the Darwinian corporatists.

RIP Jay Hammond.