House and Senate look to limit Permanent Fund dividend to $1,000 — this year and permanently

In 2018, the bumper sticker for then-Gov. Bill Walker claimed that Walker and Lt. Gov. Mallott “SAVED THE PFD FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.” Walker vetoed half of the dividend that year. His bumper sticker was saying, essentially, he had to burn the village to save the village.

Seven years later, the PFD is still being burned. Now, it could be reduced to ashes for some Alaskans.

House Bill 209 by Rep. Zack Fields sets the PFD at a flat amount of $1,000, but would eliminate the dividend for anyone making over $50,000 a year (or $100,000 per married couple.)

In other words, the dividend would no longer be a share of the oil wealth of the state, but instead would be a welfare payment. HB 209 has been referred to House Judiciary and Finance Committees and is unlikely to pass both bodies this year due to the looming legislative deadline of May 21. It will be on the calendar for Judiciary on Monday.

“Payment of PFDs based on a 1982 formula is no longer practical,” said Fields in his sponsor statement.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Senate may cut the Permanent Fund dividend this year to $1,000 — its lowest level in history, when adjusted for inflation. It’s also lower than what the House passed earlier this year, $1,400.

The reduction in Senate Finance Committee trims an estimated $265 million from the Senate’s version of the budget, potentially bringing the state’s finances into balance without requiring new revenue sources or tapping more heavily into savings. The full Senate is expected to vote on the budget proposal next week. Ironically, several revenue bills are also awaiting action in the House and Senate, such as the controversial Etsy Tax, SB 113.

The PFD, distributed annually to nearly every Alaska resident, is a unique program Alaska lawmakers set up in 1982 that returns a share of the state’s oil wealth to its people.

The wealth originates from the Alaska Permanent Fund, a constitutionally established fund created in 1976 to save a portion of the state’s oil revenue for future generations and to eventually pay for state services when the oil runs out.

Dividend payments began in 1982, via statute rather than constitution, and were intended to ensure that Alaskans directly benefit from the development of natural resources, since private landowners in Alaska do not hold subsurface mineral rights — those belong to the state.

Historically, PFD amounts have fluctuated with oil revenues and investment earnings, but the dividend has become a contentious political issue in recent years as lawmakers find it easy to spend when oil prices are high, but can’t manage to trim when prices slip.

While earlier PFDs regularly exceeded $1,000 — and in some years, such as 2008 and 2015, approached or surpassed $2,000 — recent fiscal pressures have led to smaller payouts. The Legislature has increasingly used Permanent Fund earnings to pay for essential government services, squeezing the portion available for dividends.

This year’s proposed $1,000 check would be the lowest in real, inflation-adjusted terms since the dividend’s inception.

Historical Permanent Fund Dividend Amounts (1982–2024 not adjusted for inflation)