Should an honest mistake cost you $1,100?
What if that mistake is in your application for Alaska's Permanent Fund dividend, the annual oil wealth checks set to be deposited in residents' bank accounts starting Thursday?
Those are questions facing Alaskans like Carla McConnell, an East Anchorage resident who accidentally checked the wrong box on her online PFD application when she was in Georgia on a business trip.
The form asked McConnell, 53, whether she was physically present in Alaska while she was filing. That's not a requirement to receive a PFD, though the information is used by state officials to vet applications.
The form also warned McConnell that entering untrue information in her PFD application is a crime — though technically that's only the case if the untrue statement is intentional.
McConnell, who said she was "kind of on autopilot," checked "yes," even though she should have checked no.
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The PFD Division, which administers the dividend program for the state, detected that McConnell had filed her application from Outside and flagged it for an audit. The division gave her an opportunity to prove that she'd applied from inside Alaska — an argument McConnell wasn't making — before ultimately denying her payment.
McConnell is now appealing, a step that's successful about two-thirds of the time, according to division data. But division staff wouldn't guarantee that a person in a situation like McConnell's would ultimately get paid.
"Each case is decided independently," said Sara Race, the PFD Division director. She added: "The intent is not necessarily to point fingers. It's about, how do we look at the big picture and really make sure that we are identifying individuals that shouldn't be eligible to receive the dividend."
In responses to an Alaska Dispatch News post on Facebook, more than a dozen people wrote emails describing similar experiences to McConnell's, saying that they're now trying to negotiate the appeal process after making a similar error.
McConnell said she knows that she did something wrong and that the state has an obligation to block fraudulent applicants. But, she added, she's frustrated that there's not a simpler way for her to fix her mistake.
"I sit on the community council. I run the farmers market. If I didn't live in the state I would have to fly up here every other day," she said.
"I don't particularly need the money," McConnell added. "But on the other hand, there's got to be something more than this one-size-fits-all denial process for checking that one box."
Dan DeBartolo, a senior official at the Department of Revenue, which oversees the PFD Division, wrote his own response to ADN's Facebook post, starting with a question: "Is it important to you that the PFD Division audits applications so that those who don't deserve one don't get one?"
"If your application is legitimate, then the due-diligence of the division should return a positive result. It also should give you peace of mind they're doing their jobs," he added.
The state audited more than 4,500 applications last year, with more than 3,700 of those flagged after the PFD Division detected a possible inconsistency tied to the location of the computer used to file the form.
Race said the division works with third-party vendors to examine computers' IP addresses — unique numbers that can be used to pinpoint the location of a device.
The division has used the technology for more than a decade to tell when someone says they're filing from an Alaska computer but they're actually out of state — although it also sometimes flags applications filed by in-state computers tied into out-of-state networks.
In one strange case, an Anchorage woman, Robbie Graham, said her application was rejected this year when she applied from an Alaska Airlines jet headed south from Anchorage to Seattle, even though she submitted it before leaving state airspace.
"I don't think it was past Ketchikan," Graham said.
The state's technique might seem like a trap: Why ask an applicant if they're filing from inside Alaska if the PFD Division can get its answer without any help? But Race said the question allows the state to ask applicants filing from out-of-state for more information about their absences.
She argued that the rigorous review of PFD applications is justified, given the size of the check paid to each Alaskan.
"I don't know how many other things you could apply for and get over $1,000 for answering seven main questions," she said.
Her division, Race added, has to sort through more than 600,000 PFD applications each year. And each applicant who's denied also has the right to appeal, she said.
State Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, who helps oversee the budget and work of the Department of Revenue, said she hadn't heard specific complaints about dividends that were delayed or denied because applicants checked the wrong box.
The state, MacKinnon said, tries to review applicants with "equity and fairness."
"We don't want to deny anybody who qualifies for their PFD. That is just not a goal of what the department is doing," she said.