is it true that you recieve a check from the state of alaska for only being a resident?

Answer 1

No one got it right, but Snow B came close. His only error was that it comes from a separate fund that originated and is continually increased by ROYALITIES on oil pumped through the oil pipeline, not on profits. It varies each year because it is a running average of 1/2 the investment earnings of the fund (currently about $25 billion).

It was not the result of treaty (Native Alaskans got lots of goodies in ANILCA, but that wasn't a treaty either). It isn't 1,000/month nor 1,000s/year. Recently it has been around $1,000/year per person.

You have to be a resident for a calender year (or be born in AK the previous year) to get the check the next October. You have to send in an application each spring, attesting you were in the state (or have a good reason why not like sickness or military service) and that you plan to remain in the state. Kids get it. Whites get it. Natives get it. Military memebrs and families get it. Even dead people get it, IF they survived past the middle of the last year.

One poster mentioned a friend who defrauds the fund each year. That can and is prosecutated by the state when they find out and is a sure way to lose future PFD checks. Like cheating on your taxes you should never piss off someone to whom you bragged about it.

But yes, we give people money for just taking up space. Not surprisingly, some people do just that.

Answer 2

Well, it's not quite that simple. Alaska residents get a certain sum from the government as part of a treaty and lease that was agreed to when the U.S. wanted to drill for oil in the north and build that awful pipeline....

I believe there are strict residential requirements and don't believe new residents who relocate there recieve it for a number of years, if at all.

It isn't a lot anyway....here is an article that will give you a brief rundown:

How Alaska Profits from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

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The state of Alaska announced in January 2006 that it had amassed 33 billion dollars in mineral royalties -- most of it oil revenue -- in something called the Alaska Permanent Fund.

"The Permanent Fund was an attempt to ensure that history of Alaskan resource exploitation did not repeat itself. It was an effort to reverse the tide of Alaska economic history. To try and keep more resources here and reduce the amount that flows outside."

-- Terrence Cole, historian, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Savings Account for Future Generations
Almost all Alaskan oil production is on state-owned land, so the state receives revenue from four different sources: production tax, property tax, royalties and corporate tax. In 2006 alone, the state will get $3.4 billion from oil and gas. Those revenues go directly into a general fund to be used for roads, health care facilities, schools and other social services. However, at least 25 percent of all mineral royalties is deposited into the Alaska Permanent Fund, a kind of savings account for future generations of Alaskans. In 2006, the fund will increase by $600 million. Former governor Jay Hammond, who oversaw the fund's establishment, wanted to make sure the state didn't commit the same errors it had when it received money from land leases to the oil companies.

Terrence Cole: "Jay Hammond often said that Alaskans had 900 million reasons to vote for creating the Permanent Fund: he meant the $900 million the state had received from its first big oil lease sale in 1969. Within a few years it was all gone, and Alaskans did not want that to happen again."

Managing a Windfall
In 1976, shortly before the completion of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, Alaska's politicians contemplated what to do with the expected windfall it would bring. That same year, voters approved an amendment to the constitution to include the Alaska Permanent Fund.

Terrence Cole: "It would force the legislators to have to save the money and they could never spend the principal; all they could spend were the earnings. It was wildly successful. I mean, I voted for it, everyone did. It made sense. Because they figured we were going to come into a whole bunch of money. Why not save something."

A Billion Dollars in Revenue
When the money started rolling in, the permanent fund began accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars. And then by 1980, it had already surpassed the one billion mark. The Alaska State Legislature decided that everyone should get a piece of the pie.

Paying Out Dividends
In 1980 politicians proposed a program called the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. Under this proposal, each resident would receive $50 for each year they lived in Alaska. The U.S. Supreme Court found the proposal unconstitutional. But the legislators had a backup plan. Each person would get the same amount. In 1982, the first dividend checks were sent out in the amount of $1000.00. The dividend payments are based on a five-year average of the Permanent Fund's earnings, which helps stabilize the dividends as the stock and oil markets fluctuate from year to year. In 2005, some 600,000 Alaskans received $854.76. To date, the Permanent Fund Dividend Division has paid out nearly $14 billion.

Terrence Cole: "What has happened is that the dividend has become extraordinarily popular. The dividend has become the biggest single expense of state government. We decided to create a savings account, but the only thing we've agreed to do with it is to pay annual dividends. Since spending the earnings in any other way would reduce the dividend, there has been no support to do anything else with the fund. So that's the issue -- the dividend has become the tail that wags the dog."

Thirty-three billion dollars remain in the Alaska Permanent Fund. That money is invested in stocks, bonds, money market accounts and real estate. It's Alaska's way of saving for a rainy day.

Answer 3

It is called the Alaska Permanent Fund and it is an annual check from the invested profits of the oil industry (average of the last 5 years growth). It goes to every eligilble man, woman, and child. http://www.apfc.org/
It started in 1982 for $1000.00. The smallest check was in 1984 of $331.29. Last year (2006) was $1106.96. In theory, every recipiant should be a full-time Alaska resident. There is a wonderful college fund program for parents who want to invest their PFD (adults or children) in so that when the child needs the funds, there will be quite a nice amount to pay for college. Our PFD program is being suggested as a business model to Iraq.

Answer 4

I don't know exactly how it works but I know a girl who lives in Texas but will not give up here Alaskan residency because she does receive a check.

Answer 5

Yes. The link below is to an article on CNN about the program. One of my day's employees gets such a check.

Answer 6

Yes its true...a few thousand a year. But when you have to pay 10 bucks for a cheeseburger, you need all the help you can get.

Answer 7

yes its true! you actually get paid about 1 grand a month or something like that.

http://www.finance-weblog.com/50226711/why_you_should_live_in_alaska_low_taxes_and_free_money.php