This year's Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) will be $2,072. That's the highest on record not adjusting for inflation, though qualified residents received a $2,069 PFD in 2008 alongside a $1,200 resource rebate.
Qualified residents who applied for direct deposit of the funds and were in eligible status by Sept. 18, 2015 will receive their PFD on Oct. 1. Checks will be mailed out the same day.
Last year over $1.1 billion was paid out to almost 599,000 Alaskans. If there's a similar number of PFD recipients this year, the fund will pay out over $1.2 billion, more than the cost to fund Alaska's K-12 education system, Governor Bill Walker pointed out at Monday's press conference announcing this year's dividend.
This year's PFD is also making history. "It's the first time in Alaska's history that the earnings from the Permanent Fund have exceeded the earnings from oil," Walker said.
The PFD isn't a direct reflection of a single year's oil prices rather it's calculated using a formula that averages the fund's most recent five-year earnings.
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