Internet Explorer 11 is not supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Stoked Alaska

Those rumors you've always heard about Alaska paying its residents to live there? All true. As true as the love found each month in the ...

Those rumors you've always heard about Alaska paying its residents to live there? All true. As true as the love found each month in the pages of Alaska Men magazine--matching Last Frontier bachelors with Lower 48 ladies since 1987.

But I digress. This year's payout for being an Alaskan is $845.76. Every man, woman and child gets a check for this amount. That's actually the lowest payout since 1989. Boo hoo. ak-dividend.jpg

Why do they get this? Alaska has been socking away its oil wealth for 25 years, in something called the Permanent Fund. A division of the state Department of Revenue administers this kitty, investing the dough mostly in stocks and bonds much as a pension fund would.

The actual amount of the payout depends upon how well the fund does in the markets. It is calculated using a five-year average, which is why, given the stock market's mediocre performance of late, dividends have been declining. In 2000, in the wake of the stock market bubble, everyone got a record $1,963.86.

Debates over whether or not to spend some of this stash are becoming an annual rite in Juneau. After all, the fund is now worth over $31 billion. Touching the fund, though, has become a sort of Third Rail of Alaskan politics. A floundering effort to recall state Senate President Ben Stevens is at least partially rooted in Stevens' proposal to tap the fund to pay for more than $300 million worth of school maintenance and construction projects.   

MORE: Alaska dividend payout to be $845.76 (Anchorage Daily News)

BONUS: Alaska Men 2006 calendar

Christopher Swope was GOVERNING's executive editor.
Special Projects