Latest news with #PermanentFund
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Some Americans to Receive $1,702 Direct Payment in June: Are You Eligible?
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Thousands of Alaska residents will soon receive a $1,702 direct payment from the state as part of the annual Permanent Fund Dividend program, a uniquely Alaskan initiative that redistributes a share of the state's oil wealth directly to its citizens. Why It Matters The Permanent Fund Dividend is an annual payment made to qualifying Alaska residents, drawn from the state's Permanent Fund, which was established in 1976 to invest a portion of the state's oil revenue. The fund invests in a diverse portfolio of assets, including stocks, bonds, real estate, and other investments to generate returns for residents and preserve the state's vast oil wealth. The fund has grown to over $81 billion and distributes a portion of its earnings, usually giving out in excess of $1,000 to eligible residents of the Last Frontier State. Payments vary from year to year, with the highest ever payment being $3,284. Some 600,000 Alaskans are expected to benefit this year. Stock image/file photo: Person holding several $100 bills. Stock image/file photo: Person holding several $100 bills. GETTY What to Know According to the Alaska Department of Revenue, the next wave of payments will be issued on June 18, benefiting eligible individuals who applied by the deadline and whose applications have been approved for the 2024 Permanent Fund Dividend. For the 2024 dividend, the payment amount is $1,403.83 with an additional $298.17 Energy Relief Payment, bringing the total to $1,702. It is roughly $400 more than last year's, which was $1,312. The largest payout occurred in 2022, when each eligible Alaskan received $3,284. This amount included a record-high base dividend of $2,622, along with a one-time energy relief payment of $662. Eligibility Criteria To qualify, individuals must: Be Alaska residents for the entire calendar year prior to the payment year. Intend to remain in Alaska indefinitely. Not be convicted or incarcerated for any felony or misdemeanor crimes in the state. Have filed an application by the annual March 31 deadline. According to the official PFD site, individuals with an "Eligible-Not Paid" status as of May 8 will receive their payments on June 18, assuming no issues arise with their applications. The income is also considered taxable by the state and the federal government. What People Are Saying Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum said in a statement: "This is the 43rd year Alaskans have received their share of the state's natural resources and investment earnings. The 2024 PFD will create an economic opportunity across all of our local communities." What Happens Next The Alaska Legislature continues to debate the future structure of the PFD, especially as oil revenue becomes more volatile and investment returns fluctuate. Discussions have included capping the dividend, changing the formula, or implementing new taxes to offset budget shortfalls.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska state budget and other bills head to Gov. Mike Dunleavy
The Alaska State Capitol is seen on the last week of the 2025 session on May 19, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) The three pieces of legislation that make up Alaska's annual state budget are on Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk. According to legislative records, the state's operating, capital and mental health budgets were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday, giving the governor until June 19 to veto the bills or sign them into law. The governor has the ability to use a line item veto to reduce or eliminate specific items within the budget, and Dunleavy has previously indicated that he may reduce funding for public schools below the amount prescribed by a formula in state law. State legislators voted to raise that formula in the session's last days, overriding Dunleavy's decision to veto the bill containing a $700 increase to the base student allocation, the core of the state's school funding formula. If Dunleavy reduces education funding below what's called for by the formula, it would be unprecedented and akin to former Gov. Bill Walker's decision in 2016 to veto part of the Permanent Fund dividend: Since the education funding formula was created, every governor has followed the law. Two policy bills also were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday. The first, House Bill 75, cleans up some state laws pertaining to the Permanent Fund dividend and was uncontroversial in the House and Senate. The second, Senate Bill 183, would require the executive branch to deliver reports in the form requested by the Alaska Legislature's auditor. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Alaska Legislature has audit authority over the executive branch, but since 2019, lawmakers have been unable to analyze the performance of the section of the Alaska Department of Revenue that audits tax settlements with large oil companies. Lawmakers say the Department of Revenue has switched policies and no longer provides a report that once allowed them to examine the section's work. Members of the department testified that they have turned over raw data, but the legislative auditor testified that her department lacks the information and capability to turn that data into actionable information on the state's oil revenue. The bill was transmitted to the governor's office with a letter from the Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, asking Dunleavy not to veto it. 'This letter accompanies the bill not as a routine legislative communication, but as a reflection of the extraordinary nature of the circumstances we face,' it read. 'The ongoing obstructions by the DOR must not be allowed to become a precedent for future administrations. We must reinforce, not erode, the norms of oversight and accountability that are vital to Alaska's republican form of government.' If Dunleavy does veto a bill, the Alaska Legislature is not expected to consider an override until January, when lawmakers reconvene in regular session.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature passes budget with $1,000 dividend and adjourns for the year
Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, hugs Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, after the Alaska House of Representatives adjourned its session on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature adjourned its regular session on Tuesday, one day earlier than expected, after passing a 'maintenance level' state budget that contains a $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend. Legislators do not expect a special session this year. 'I would like to thank all of you for getting to this point: a day early, and before midnight. Pretty remarkable,' said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. Legislators adjourned hours after overriding Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of a major education bill. During the time in between, they passed a series of bills, including a ban on payday lending, changes to tax collection for Turo, and policies for prisoners' use of tablet PCs, among others. This year, the first of the two-year 34th Alaska State Legislature, 32 bills were passed by both the House and the Senate. After the House ended its formal work for the year, legislative aides began celebrating with music and pizza, filling the Capitol's fourth floor with singing and cheering. During the session, legislators contended with falling oil revenue. Legislators didn't pass any tax increases, instead adopting significant budget cuts. The Alaska House navigated partisan divisions that left its majority coalition — 14 Democrats, 5 independents and 2 Republicans — with only a one-vote margin over a 19-person House Republican minority. That coalition majority, and a similar one in the Senate, had to negotiate with a governor who has significantly different policy views from the coalitions. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said the early adjournment is something to be proud of. 'I'm pretty pleased that we achieved it,' he said. It was the first time since 2018 that the Legislature did not reach the constitutional limit of 121 days to complete the session, though the 2020 session was interrupted by a seven-week break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 'In a year where the House was sharply divided in terms of numbers, oil prices sank, we did our best to work with the governor, who, at many times, was not seemingly here in the building, and we put it all together,' Edgmon said. House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said her caucus wasn't satisfied with the result. 'I think we're disappointed that we didn't address more issues related to energy and the challenges we have and the opportunities that we have with resource development and energy and dovetailing with the president and our congressional delegation,' she said. 'So we wanted more legislation in that area. But as far as adjourning, it is what it is, and we're just going to gear up for next year.' One of the Legislature's final acts before adjournment was to pass the state's operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. 'You could say that both the operating and the capital budget, the two main budgets, were maintenance-level budgets,' Edgmon said. The capital and operating budgets, including money for next fiscal year and changes to the current fiscal year, spend $6.2 billion, when looking only at general-purpose state spending. If federal funding and things like fees, college tuition and other money is included, the budget bills spend $16.3 billion. General-purpose state spending is down significantly. The enacted budget bills from last spring totaled more than $6.5 billion. Legislators started the budget-drafting process with the expectation that North Slope oil prices would average $68 per barrel in the next fiscal year. By the end, that expectation had dropped to $64, and the federal government — which pays for about 40% of the combined budget bills — had begun cutting its contributions. As revenue projections declined, legislators slashed programs from the budget, including things like new state troopers for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. A relative handful of budget increases made it through the process — money for mental health treatment in Anchorage, early childhood education programs, and child advocacy centers, which help the survivors of child sexual abuse. Those increases — and all other parts of the budget — are subject to approval by the governor, who has the power to veto individual line items. Every year of his term, Dunleavy has vetoed significant amounts from the budget. In the House, legislators failed to pass one part of the budget — a roughly $200 million draw from the state's principal savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve, in order to pay for a deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Conditional language in the budget says that if the CBR vote fails, the state will instead take up to $100 million from the accounts of the state's investment bank — the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority — and the state's higher education investment fund. The vote failed after members of the House Republican minority opposed it. Thirty votes are required to spend from the reserve. 'I wasn't comfortable going into savings,' said Costello. 'I felt like we could have done more work on the budget and involved our House Finance Committee team, which has a lot of experience, so I just wasn't willing to give my CBR vote to go into savings.' Costello said she feels that other members of the minority felt similarly. Next year, legislators expect that they will need to spend heavily from the CBR in order to balance the budget. In addition, legislators are expected to pass major policy bills, including a revival of the state's pension program for public employees, and election reform bills. 'Hold on to your hat, Nellie, for next session, because it could be much more challenging, as we all know,' Edgmon said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate approves austere operating budget with $1,000 PFD ahead of House vote
May 20—JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate on Tuesday approved an austere operating budget for the next fiscal year with a $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend. Lawmakers this year have grappled with a substantial deficit and a dire fiscal outlook due largely to diminished oil revenue. When adjusted for inflation, the dividend figure set to be approved by the Legislature this year is the lowest since the program began in 1982. The House is preparing to vote later in the day on the same budget bill. Legislative leaders said that Tuesday would be the final day of the legislative session, one day before the constitutional deadline for the session to end. The Senate passed the budget after minimal debate on a 17-3 vote. All 14 members of the bipartisan majority supported the budget. Three members of the Senate Republican minority caucus voted yes — Sens. Mike Cronk, James Kaufman and Rob Yundt — and three minority members voted no: Sens. Mike Shower, Robert Myers and Shelley Hughes. Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman, who manages the operating budget in the Senate, said the spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 has a roughly $57 million surplus. But lawmakers have warned that surplus could quickly disappear if oil prices stay below projections. Additionally, legislators have said the state's fiscal outlook will likely be even more dire next year. The Legislature's budget would make cuts across state agencies. The Alaska Department of Corrections is set to see several reductions, including a $7.5 million cut with the intention of closing a housing unit at Spring Creek Correctional Center. Additional cuts were approved for the University of Alaska, the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. The House passed its draft budget in April with limited spending cuts, a $1,400 dividend and a roughly $250 million deficit. The Senate's draft spending plan was balanced with deeper spending reductions proposed and a $1,000 dividend. The lower PFD figure freed up roughly $264 million for other spending. A conference committee met in the final days of the legislative session to negotiate differences between the House and Senate budgets. That way the same budget bill can pass through both chambers and onto Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk. The committee restored some funding that the Senate had cut from its draft budget. Just under $14 million in state funding was approved for behavioral health programs with Anchorage in the midst of a homelessness crisis. Another $14 million was approved for child care, including $7.7 million in subsidies for the sector, and $5.6 million in additional assistance for families. However, those assistance payments are contingent on a separate child care bill becoming law. The Senate on Tuesday also approved drawing close to $200 million from the state's main savings account — the $2.8 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve — to balance the budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30. To draw from that account requires support from three-quarters of the House and Senate. The Senate easily cleared that threshold on Tuesday. Eighteen of 20 senators voted to draw from savings to balance the current fiscal year's budget. Only Hughes and Myers voted no. If that three-quarter vote fails in the House, almost $200 million would be drawn from the state's investment bank, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, and from a fund that pays college scholarships to bridge the current fiscal year's fiscal shortfall. Hoffman said the need for extra funding for the current fiscal year was partly due to a drop in oil prices. He said that virtually all of the appropriation requests in the supplemental budget came from the Dunleavy administration. Shower, the Senate minority leader, said before the vote that lawmakers had already approved the appropriations being considered last year. He spoke in support of the savings draw and said, "This is just one of those things that we have to do." This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Decades of inaction by Alaska's leadership is leaving kids with the bill. Why are we OK with that?
A school bus drives in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) For decades, our elected leadership at both the legislative and executive levels have neglected to look ahead and find ways to cement a sustainable future for Alaskans. Instead of working to establish and secure new revenue streams, we married ourselves to oil and mining companies that inexplicably continue to receive massive tax cuts, even as the returns of their industries decline. Instead of standing on issues like good schools, quality roads, and affordable energy, political debates are instead hogged by questions about how big of a Permanent Fund dividend one can expect. In the sphere of Alaska's public education, this has all culminated in a way that is nothing short of a crisis. The state has not significantly increased the per-student dollar amount that goes to education since 2012, even though inflation has risen a whopping 40% since then. Make no mistake, flat funding in an era of 40% inflation is in fact a cut of 40%. Is it really so surprising that our declining test scores have mirrored that? All the while, the state shuffles between excuses, claiming we can't afford to spend more on education (lack of revenue); blaming so-called 'special interest groups' (otherwise known as parents, and the teachers who spend 40 hours a week with your children); and insisting that more charter schools will solve all our problems. Charters in Alaska are a wholly unsustainable model that is not expandable in any way, shape or form. To be clear, instead of addressing the declining enrollment and financial exigency that has led school districts across the state to shutter and consolidate neighborhood schools, the governor is literally proposing we open more schools. He has advocated making the application process easier and having the state take over the approval process, even though it's the local school district that would have to foot the bill in their budget. We can't even afford to run the schools we have. We can't open more. What's more, it is imperative that Alaskans understand that every charter school is subsidized by hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteer work — unpaid work donated by willing families. Charter schools in Alaska are public schools of choice, not neighborhood schools, meaning their enrollment is done by lottery. Families are often required to attend an information night and are asked to sign a document indicating they understand the special commitments associated with attending a charter before they are permitted to even enter the lottery. Those commitments include student transportation (not a single charter in the state is able to offer busing); supplying food (many charter buildings do not have kitchens and do not operate a food program for breakfast or lunch, and some are able to offer only cold lunch options); and volunteer hour quotas. Many charters do not have school nurses, PE teachers, libraries or librarians, music teachers, or counselors. Every family is expected to contribute significant time, labor, and/or money to the school to fill in the gaps. On no planet is this a sustainable model. This magnitude of commitment is not possible for many, many families. Advocating for more charters is not a way forward; instead, it is the foremost example of the short-sighted leadership that has led Alaska down this devastating path. Public education is not supposed to be a caste system. The governor is fond of claiming that charters are unilaterally responsible for superior academic performance. This is a spurious connection. Certain legislators are fond of impassioned speeches urging Alaska to prioritize charters because their constituents demand it. That does not legitimize continuing to grow an inequitable system. What constituents are really demanding is a better education and better experience for their kids. Sadly, the last few decades of underfunding have taught us that such an experience may only be attainable through enrollment at a charter school. Charters are like splinter cells, able to write completely well-intentioned education philosophy into their Magna Carta, allowing them to prioritize small student bodies, low student-to-teacher ratio, alternative learning models that can suit different learners, and immersion into things like place-based learning, the arts, or languages. Our neighborhood schools don't get to do that, because they can't afford it. That's not a reason to put more kids into charters. That's a reason to demand our government do better. You cannot blame parents and families. The short-sighted solution from the macro perspective is not short at all when you're on the ground as the parent of school-aged kids: that 'short' time is your kid's whole school career. As a friend recently observed, you can't begrudge people for simply utilizing an option that was made available to them at the time. You can't blame families for choosing what was best for their kids and sinking their hours into small schools of choice instead of lobbying for state-level structural changes that might take years, and generations of politicians, to come to fruition. Those improvements might be altogether too late. The thing is, it was not the responsibility of families to 'zoom out' and understand the complexities at hand in the fight for quality education for all kids — that was on our lawmakers. In our current landscape, charters are seemingly the only option parents have to make a better educational experience for their kids, so you can't blame them for saying they want it. That's the kind of short-sightedness you're entitled to when you suddenly realize you don't want your 5-year-old going into a kindergarten class of 28 kids. One can, however, blame the state for enabling only that one choice — especially since it's not actually a choice for so many. We can demand they do better. Thank you to Sen. Löki Tobin, Rep. Rebecca Himschoot and the other sitting and past legislators who have been education advocates. Now it's time for the rest of our elected leaders to pull up their bootstraps, look ahead, and get to the work of restoring public education so that it benefits all of Alaska's kids — not just the ones fortunate enough to attend charters. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
