Permanent Fund Dividend applications at the PFD office in downtown Anchorage in March 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans will begin receiving $1,200 in Permanent Fund dividends and energy relief payments next month, the Department of Revenue said Friday.
The state will begin distributing the payments to nearly 600,000 Alaskans deemed eligible on Oct. 1, the department said. A second round of payments is expected to be issued on Oct. 22.
Alaska lawmakers approved a $1,000 dividend per eligible Alaskan, along with a one-time $200 energy relief payment, when passing the state budget in May.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who asked lawmakers to use a formula that would have resulted in a $3,650 payment per eligible person in December, signed the budget in June. Dunleavy’s proposed budget would have resulted in $1.8 billion in deficit spending from state savings.
The Legislature has not followed the statutory formula to calculate the dividend since 2016 and has increasingly relied on Permanent Fund revenue to pay for state services amid dwindling oil revenue.
The yearly payment from earnings of the nearly $88 billion Alaska Permanent Fund has been subject to annual debate in the Legislature about how much of the fund’s revenue should be given directly to Alaskans and how much should be used to fund government services.
To qualify for the dividend, a person must have resided in Alaska during the entire previous calendar year; must not have been convicted of or incarcerated for a felony; and must not have been out of the state for more than 180 days, except for certain allowable reasons.
The revenue department said Alaskans can check the status of their PFD application online.
