A Primer on the Alaska Permanent Fund

Conservatives 4 Palin ^ | March 13, 2009 | Sinistar

[Immerito]

Outside of getting asked, "Do you live in an igloo?" and "Is it really dark there year round?", the most common question about Alaska seems to be, "So, I heard the state pays you to live there. Is that true?"

Well, to tell the tale of the Alaska Permanent Fund and the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend it is beneficial to hear a bit about the history of things.

In 1968, oil was discovered near Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope of Alaska. The next year the State of Alaska received a relatively large amount of money (approximately $900 million) from the sale of oil leases on 164 tracts of state-owned land in the Prudhoe Bay area. To put things in perspective, the 1968 state budget for Alaska was only $112 million. As governments are often wont to do, the State of Alaska with the support of a majority of the citizens blew the windfall in short order on roads, schools, sewer, water, social services, etc.

Realizing the "here today, gone tomorrow" nature of non-renewable resources and thinking about how that $900 million had been quickly spent, there began a debate on how the money from oil leases and the like should be handled in the future, especially for future generations. As has been mentioned in other posts on C4P, the Alaska Constitution states:

[Slyfox]

How soon will it be before the progressive machine in DC decides that they need the money from the fund more than the people of Alaska?

[Immerito]

Don’t give them any ideas....

[billhilly]

Harvard University alone has as much money in its endowment fund as the State of Alaska has in the permanent fund. Regretably, it also wields much more power in national affairs than the state of Alaska.