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The Alaska Permanent Fund, established using revenues paid to the state by oil and natural gas producers, provides Alaska residents with an annual cash dividend, which is unique among natural resource permanent funds in the United States. In 2014, the annual dividend was $1,884 per resident, more than double the 2013 dividend and the highest since 2008. All Alaska residents receive an annual cash dividend from the permanent fund. The fund was established by voters in 1976, as the extent of Alaska's oil and natural gas resources began to emerge, and retains at least 25% of the royalties that oil...

Most Alaska residents will soon be getting a check for $1,174 simply because they live there. Each person's share of the state's vast oil wealth was announced with much fanfare in Anchorage Tuesday, with Gov. Sean Parnell ripping open a gold-colored envelope to reveal the number. This day is so widely anticipated in Alaska that the announcement of the Permanent Fund Dividend amount was carried live on television statewide, and dozens tuned in to watch a live webcast by the governor's office.

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 day after the Alaska Permanent Fund lost $630 million - in what may have been the largest one-day loss in the fund's history - members of its board met in Juneau to discuss taking even more risk with fund investments. Done right, the alternative investments to the usual bonds and company stocks could actually reduce losses like Tuesday's, fund managers say. "This area is in great contrast to conventional stocks and bonds," said Allan Bufferd, advisor to the board. The Alaska Permanent Fund, created by voters in 1976 to save oil profits for the state's future, has grown steadily....

Department of Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus has announced the amount of the 2005 Permanent Fund Dividend. This year's check will be for $845.76. That's down from last year's total of $919.84. Direct deposits will be made on October 12, and paper checks will be mailed on October 26.

JUNEAU--Alaskans living outside the state would have to return before they could continue receiving dividends from the Alaska Permanent Fund, under new legislation introduced in the state House. If Alaskans return to live for at least a year, the state would then pay them all their missed checks, under House Bill 547. The state would save about $20 million by cutting off military personnel, congressional staffers, college students and others who might never return to live in Alaska. Roughly 17,000 people live outside the state but qualify as Alaska residents under the dividend program. Proponents of the bill say it...