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Alaska residents to get $845 dividend payout

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 01:28 CDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Nearly every Alaska resident will receive a payment of $845.76 starting next month, this year's share of investment earnings from the state's $30 billion oil-wealth savings account, Gov. Frank Murkowski announced on Tuesday.

The dividend from the Alaska Permanent Fund will be the smallest since 1988, the result of poor stock returns a few years ago. The dividend is calculated according to a five-year earnings average and the dividend payment has declined steadily since 2000, when it reached a record $1,963.86.

The dividend amount was announced at a banquet in Juneau as part of the fund's two-day annual meeting.

"The dividend is vitally important to the dreams and needs of Alaskans and the economic vitality of the state," Murkowski said in a news release.

The smaller payout was long expected so Alaskans are unlikely to be very disappointed with it, said Neal Fried, a state labor economist.

Although auto dealers, furniture stores and other companies regularly advertise dividend sales specials, Alaskans are probably less likely now than in the past to have grand plans for spending their annual payout, Fried said in a telephone interview.

"I do think we increasingly as Alaskans are thinking of these things no longer as windfalls," he said. "It's built into our annual budgets, except of course, for new people who are just getting them."

The dividend will go to about 603,080 adults and children, nearly all of Alaska's residents, officials said. Most will receive the payments by direct deposit into their bank accounts on October 12. The remainder will have checks mailed out later, officials said.

To qualify for the dividend program, which is unique to Alaska in the United States, a person must be a resident for a full calendar year and intend to stay in the state indefinitely.

The Permanent Fund was established by an amendment to the state constitution approved in 1976, which directed that a portion of North Slope oil royalty payments be saved and invested for the benefit of residents. It has paid dividends since 1982.

Fund officials on Tuesday also announced financial results for fiscal 2005, which ended June 30. The fund, which invests in equities, fixed-income securities and real estate, had a market value of $29.96 billion at the end of the fiscal year, an increase of $2.56 billion over the 2004 closing balance of $27.4 billion, officials said.

With the a recent recovery in stock performance, future dividends are likely to be larger than this year's payout, officials said.

Source: REUTERS

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