Why would anyone live in a state where winter temperatures reach 60 below zero? Is it the pristine wilderness or the dream of starting a new life in The Last Frontier? Maybe it's the annual check we get just for living here.
This October the state paid $663 million directly to its roughly 600,000 residents, taken from the earnings of the largest permanent fund in the United States. To Outsiders, as we call them, that may seem astonishing. But the extremes of Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend don't end there.
♦ "It's the biggest thing going on in the state. This will always be our lead story," says reporter Loy Wesley, who has covered the announcement of the PFD for the Anchorage Daily News.
♦ For some families in Alaska, the Dividend is as much as 80 percent--or maybe even more--of household income.
♦ "Ironically, the dividend program has now become - next to K-12 education - the largest single expense of the government," says historian Terrence Cole of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
♦ The Alaska Permanent Fund is the largest of its kind in the United States.
♦ The value of the Alaska Permanent Fund is more than $26 billion.
♦ The Alaska Permanent Fund has been considered at top levels of the federal government as a model for Iraq. "With respect to oil revenue and how to use it in Iraq, the interesting concept that has been used in Alaska for so many years is under consideration," Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate subcommittee in April 2003.
Check out the links below to learn more about the Permanent Fund Dividend and how it rules the lives of Alaskans.