Yvette Fountain says she plans to use the $1,312 in this year’s Permanent Fund dividend to pay some bills, and buy “clothes and some toys” for her grandson. But she’s not thrilled the payout — her sixth PFD as an Alaskan — is far less than last year’s record-high $3,284.
“I think it’s a crock of BS because of the fact of all the money they’ve got coming in and they only give us a lower amount,” she said while standing outside the Permanent Fund Dividend Division office in the State Office Building on Thursday morning, the day a majority of residents received their money electronically. “What are they doing with the rest of the money?”
The lower dividend is primarily due to the bipartisan state Senate majority prevailing in a budget showdown over the more splintered Republican-led House, resulting in a budget that boosted per-student education funding without incurring a deficit. Dividends are paid from a portion of earnings from the $75 billion Permanent Fund, with other earnings used for state programs and protecting the principal of the fund from inflation.
The dividend amount was the most bitterly fought battle of the past legislative session, with the House seeking a dividend of about $2,700 and Gov. Mike Dunleavy a “statutory” dividend well in excess of $3,000 — but resulted in deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, even without an education funding boost.
Most eligible residents have received electronic deposits or will receive checks that will be mailed out Oct. 26. But some residents, including Fountain, are still resolving issues with their applications, which is why she and two other people were standing outside the PFD Division office when it opened Thursday.
Hoping to receive his first dividend was Nasir Spears, who moved to Juneau from New Jersey, and said he needed to show a birth certificate to complete his eligibility. Eligible residents must live in Alaska for a full calendar year and meet other requirements to receive a PFD.
Like many other residents, Spears said he plans to use his dividend to pay bills if his eligibility is resolved. He said he didn’t have any thoughts about the amount being lower than last year’s or how lawmakers chose to allocate available earnings — it was simply a novelty to get a dividend.
“You don’t see that anywhere else,” he said. “It’s nice to have.”
Although the official electronic payment date was Thursday, some residents received their dividends a day or two earlier, according to Aimee Bushnell, a spokesperson for the state Department of Revenue.
“While the official settlement date is Thursday October 5, some financial institutions may have released PFD funds to individual accounts already,” she wrote in an email. “For the past few years, eligible Alaskans may have received their direct deposit within one or two days of settlement. It is common for some financial institutions to post the payment to an applicant’s account a day or two prior to the settlement date. This occurs at the financial institutions’ discretion. PFD has no control over this.”
Bushnell stated more than 607,000 Alaskans will have received this year’s PFD by the end of October. People with questions about their dividend eligibility can get answers to common questions and more detailed information at pfd.alaska.gov.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
