An engaged Alaskan democracy

Cliff John Groh

Groh is a lifelong Alaskan and a writer who has studied for four decades how the State of Alaska collects, saves, and pays out money (also called the “fiscal system”).

Groh was the legislative assistant who worked more than any other on the legislation in 1982 creating the Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today.  While serving as Special Assistant to the Alaska Commissioner of Revenue in 1987-1990, Groh was heavily involved in a successful effort to pass legislation that raised oil taxes on net.   He was an invited participant to the Walker-Mallott administration’s forum on Alaska’s future in 2015 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.  He has taught a course he created at the University of Alaska Anchorage entitled “Navigating Alaska’s Fiscal and Economic Challenges.”  He ran for the Alaska Legislature in 2018, and again in 2022 when he won State House seat in District 18.

Groh authored or co-authored four chapters in academic books about the Permanent Fund Dividend and Alaska fiscal policy.   The University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) published in 2018 his paper on the unfunded liabilities of the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).

In addition to his service with the Alaska Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue, Groh has worked as a municipal attorney, a petroleum taxation lawyer, a prosecutor, and a criminal defense attorney.