On the Sunday talk shows there was a guy talking about how the Alaskan government redistributes profits from the sale of Alaskan oil to the citizens, to the tune of about $8k per year. Is this true? Any info would be appreciated.
Gracias.
I heard its more like $1800/year.
A recent thread on the same topic: Do Alaskans really get paid by the Government simply for living there?
Zev Steinhardt
Damn! Beaten by less than a minute! 
Zev Steinhardt
It’s very true, though I don’t know the specific $ figure. Try googling “alaska permanent fund.”
There was also a GQ thread on this about a week ago, IIRC.
Yes, Alaskans get dividend checks from the state government. But it isn’t exactly redistributed profits from the oil industry. First thing, 99% of land in Alaska is public lands…state lands, federal lands, military reservations, national forests, national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges, state parks, native lands, etc. And none of this land is up for sale.
So if you are an oil company, you can’t just buy land you think might have oil under it, pump it out, and make a lot of money like you can in the lower 48. All the oil is under public lands. So you have to work out a deal with the entity that controls those public lands. You get the right to pump the oil, but you have to pay a royalty to the state and federal governments for every barrel of oil you pump.
In Alaska, those royalty payments are put into the Permanent Fund, a giant investment fund. The money is invested similar to how large pension funds are invested. Some of those investments pay dividends. Half the dividend money is reinvested into the permanent fund, the other half is distributed to Alaska residents. The amount distributed depends on how well the fund is doing, so the recent stock market crash gave the fund a big hit.
The amount of the check is usually about $1500, but could be more or less. Anyway, if you have several kids all of them get dividend checks, and those few thousand dollars can add up. In a lot of bush villages dividend checks make up a very large percentage of the annual income. The only requirement is residency, and not being a felon, and suchlike. Your dividend check can be seized to pay for your bad debts, unpaid student loans, etc. And you have to pay federal income tax on the amount. Although Alaska has no state income tax or sales tax, various towns and buroughs have local sales taxes.