Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin signed legislation into law Monday to pay each qualified Alaska resident a $1,200 "resource rebate," or personal share of the state's multibillion-dollar oil revenue surplus.

Legislators passed the payment during a special session that finished up Aug. 7.

Palin signed the rebate bill and a related appropriations bill to fund the payment, which will be tacked onto Permanent Fund dividends.

Direct deposits of dividends are scheduled for Sept. 12, with checks going into the mail on Sept. 30.

The governor and her aides staged the bill signing at the East Anchorage home of Carol Geczy, a retiree who signed up for a state grant program to increase her home's energy efficiency.

The appropriations bill the governor signed includes $60 million to continue the popular home weatherization program, run through the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.

Palin in June had proposed the $1,200 rebate, suggesting Alaskans could use the money to help relieve the surging costs of fuel and heating.

People in the Bush are facing an especially tough winter, possibly having to choose between food and heat, Palin said Monday.

To critics who say some affluent people who don't need the extra cash will get rebates, Palin said: "If you don't need that check, send it to somebody who does."

Aside from the rebate and the money for the home weatherization program, the signed legislation suspends the state's motor fuel tax for a year beginning next Monday. That eliminates the 8-cent tax on highway gasoline, the 5-cent tax on marine fuel, as well as taxes on aviation fuel.

The legislation also includes $23 million to expand the state's Power Cost Equalization program, which helps rural residents defray electric power costs that typically are much higher than in urban centers such as Anchorage.

About 620,000 Alaska residents are expected to receive a Permanent Fund dividend plus the $1,200 resource rebate.

The exact dividend amount won't be announced until early next month, said Bill McAllister, a Palin spokesman.

But the dividend is expected to be close to $2,100 -- a record high. Coupled with the resource rebate, that could bring Permanent Fund dividend checks to about $3,300.

Find Wesley Loy online at adn.com/contact/wloy or call 257-4590.

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