Governor Sean Parnell revealed the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund Dividend in Anchorage on Tuesday morning. Cameras clicked away as he held up a large white card with the printed amount of $1174, followed by applause. This year’s dividend is $107 less than last year’s dividend of $1281.
The dividend is calculated as a share of each Alaskan’s share of the state’s oil wealth savings account, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests a portion of state’s oil revenues in stocks, bonds, and real estate. The dividend amount is based on a formula that includes an average of the last five years of realized earnings divided by the number of eligible Alaskans.
Department of Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher says the Fund has weathered several rough years by ending the fiscal year 2011 with a total value of $40 billion, the highest ever in state history.
“2008 took quite a beating all across country with investments and because of what happened on Wall Street,” said Butcher. “But we bounced back quite nicely from that.”
This year, Butcher says a total of $760.2 million in dividends is being paid out to 647,549 Alaskans.
Almost 535,000 Alaskans will receive dividends by direct deposit on October 6th. Butcher says paper checks will go out the same day to nearly 93,000 Alaskans.
Governor Parnell says the Pick Click Give charitable deduction program set aside the most amount of money ever – nearly $1.6 million is going out to about 400 non-profits and charities statewide in only the third year of the program.
