Oil Fund Pays Each Alaskan $873.16

In the year of the nation’s largest oil spill, Alaskans will receive their second-fattest annual checks from the state’s oil wealth savings account.

This year’s “dividend” from the $10.5-billion Alaska Permanent Fund will total $873.16, state officials announced. That’s more than $46 over what was paid last year.

Checks will be mailed beginning Oct. 9, more than six months after the Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Prince William Sound and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil.

A family of four will receive $3,492.64.

Voters created the trust fund in 1976 to save part of the state’s oil revenues. The idea was to ensure that the state benefits from its oil wealth long after the oil is gone.

Since 1982, part of the fund’s earnings has been given each year to every Alaska resident who meets the residency requirements, regardless of age or income. A person must live in the state from October of the previous year through March to qualify.

Alaska, with no state sales or income taxes, is the only state that pays its residents for being residents.

The largest check--$1,000 per person--was given out the first year. The amount was a flat rate set by the Legislature after the program was delayed several years by court battles. The amount being given out this year is the largest since then.

“For many families, the annual dividend distribution is anticipated as a welcome and necessary part of their annual income,” state Revenue Commissioner Hugh Malone said in announcing the 1989 dividend.

The state estimated 517,693 eligible applicants this year. The fund’s earnings in the year ended June 30 totaled $868 million, up from $789 million in the prior fiscal year. Of that, $452 million was made available for dividends.