alaska dividend oil check.

Alaska plans to start distributing to residents the annual dividend payment derived from the state’s $83 billion oil wealth fund. This year’s payout is $1,000 per person. It’s one of the smallest Alaska Permanent Fund dividends in the last 20 years. It comes as lawmakers must balance the check size against other programs and needs that also compete for state funding. Lawmakers within the last decade abandoned as unaffordable a longstanding dividend calculation in favor of negotiating a sum during the budget-writing process. Had the old formula tied to the fund’s market performance been followed, this year’s check would have been around $3,800 a person.