Alaska residents are set to get $1,000 checks sent to them beginning next week. It all stems from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was created through an amendment to the state’s constitution in 1976.
The amendment makes it so at least 25% of “all mineral lease rentals, royalties, royalty sale proceeds, federal mineral revenue sharing payments and bonuses received by the State” have to be put into a permanent fund. The principal of this fund, per the constitution, can only be used for “income-producing investments specifically designated by law as eligible for permanent fund investment.” Dividends through this fund have been given out since 1982.
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Payments will go out on Oct. 2 to those to those with PFD applications that were filed and in “Eligible-Not Paid” status by Sept. 18. Applications that are in “Eligible-Not Paid” status by Oct. 13 will get checks starting on Oct. 23. Residents can check their status on MyPFD.
Lowest dividend in Alaska history
More than 600,000 residents are expected to get the money this year, The Associated Press reported.
The amount of 2025’s dividend was determined in the state legislature through House Bill 53. The AP wrote that there used to be a formula for calculating how much of a dividend people got which was linked to the fund’s market performance. However, this formula was given up after legislators deemed it unaffordable.
Alaska Public Media noted that the $1,000 payout is the lowest amount they have seen in five years — when adjusted for inflation, it is the smallest in state history. The state sent out $1,700 dividend payments in 2024. Decreased oil revenue, however, caused lawmakers to cut down on state services as well as the dividend, the news outlet said.
While Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in his budget proposal, suggested $3,900 dividends, Alaska Public Media said that would have taken more than half of the money out of the state’s main “rainy-day fund.”
Alaska resident Stephen Spann started a petition to keep using the Permanent Fund Dividend’s initial formula. It has over 29,000 signatures as of Saturday morning.
Spann told KTUU that it is “mind-boggling” to see the petition get so much attention.
“But [this is] to get very important people’s attention [who] can make this change for the people,” he said. “They’re sworn to protect the people.”
House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, supported the petition, telling KTUU that “voters have a right to be mad when Alaskans’ ownership share in our natural resources, in the form of a [dividend], is taken by government to grow government.”
