Your check: $1,107.56 (But only if you're an Alaskan)

Anchorage Daily News ^ | September 25, 2003 | WESLEY LOY

[AlaskaErik]

PERMANENT FUND: Most dividends will be wired to banks Oct. 8.

Qualified Alaska residents each will receive a Permanent Fund dividend of $1,107.56 this year, Gov. Frank Murkowski announced Wednesday night.

It's considerably less than last year's payment of $1,540.76, but it's the ninth time in the 22-year history of the program that the dividend has been $1,000 or more.

[AlaskaErik]

Free money! Plus, we don't have a state income tax or sales tax.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Yea... but you pay $5 for a gal of milk. It's also friggen' freezen up there and (worse perhaps) dark most of the winter.

A lot of things have to be floated or flown in, but a lot of the higher prices are (perhaps) caused by the annual flush of cash everyone gets.

If you take a family of 4, that'll buy a lot of dried moose droppings.

[Brad C.]

It is my understanding that they are trying to find a way to spend more of the money, and have come up with this 5% plan as a way to cover their tracks.

As an example, the state already gets a percentage of the oil money as revenue, only a portion is deposited into the fund. So now if the 5% plan was in place, they would have access to 1.25 billion of which 663 million is being paid out. That leaves them with an additional 587 million on top of what they already collect from all other sources. That would be quite a shot in the arm for all the pork projects.

We already have the highest per capita spending in the country, and a new governor that promised he would make cuts and balance the budget. It ain't happening, and Juneau is going to spend us into the poor house.

[HogFixer]

I would rather get my $13,000 per resident and let the state justify why they want $12,000 back.