"Long story short, the money IS ours, not the state's, because Alaskans (not Alaska) own the mineral rights that made the principle for the PFD. We are getting the interest from our share of the states minerals, that's all."  

 Yeah, the money in the Permanent Fund is ours,  but you know what, the state is also ours, it belongs to us,  just like the Oil belongs to us, and the Permanent Fund belongs to us.  And because the state belongs to us,  *we* have to figure out a way to pay for all the things that *we* are spending money on through *our* state.  One possible way (but not the only way) to do that is to use *our* money in the Permanent Fund to pay for *our* state spending.    The State of Alaska is not some other entity, separate from us and someone else's responsibility. The State of Alaska  *is* us and it's *our* responsibility to make the spending match the revenues.