Alaska News

Happy Dividend Day, Alaska

Well, it's that time of year again.

The Associated Press reports that on Thursday morning, the state of Alaska began distributing the annual Permanent Fund Dividend payout to qualifying Alaska residents.

This year, most Alaskans will recieve $1,174 simply for living in Alaska. Electronic deposits, the most popular option, will appear in bank accounts immediately, and the rest of the disbursement, in the form of mailed checks, will take a few days.

The Alaska Permanent fund was created in 1976, when voters approved a constitutional amendment aimed at preserving and distributing a portion of the state's oil wealth.

To mark the occasion, The Homer News has posted a timely commentary, excerpted from a new book which the late Jay Hammond, a leader of the effort to create the Permanent Fund while he served as governor, was writing at the time of his death in 2005.

In the excerpt, Hammond laments the fact that of all Alaska's vast natural resources, only its oil has contributed to the Permanent Fund:

The essay closes with Hammond's four-point list of criteria necessary for healthy resource development. Read it here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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