What is the Purpose of the Permanent Fund?

The Permanent Fund is a device to convert temporary income from the sale of state property (such as oil gas, timber, coal) into a renewable and sustainable source of income for the purpose of paying cash dividends, resulting from successful management, to eligible residents of Alaska.

The dividend program is established for the public purpose:
of implementing, in a known and measurable way, the state's constitutional (Article VIII Sec. 2) requirement to maximize the benefits of Alaska's natural resources for all the people.

The Permanent Dividends achieve the following public purposes:
(1) To equally distribute our public wealth, without regard to age, sex, race, creed, color, economic status, geographic location or political power affiliation.

(2) To establish a stable statewide economic floor which would not otherwise exist in all areas of the state.

(3) To minimize the historic boom/bust economic cycle resulting in economic "poverty", welfare dependency, & related economic stress causing multiple social problems, such as violence, alcoholism, child abuse, and criminal behavior.

(4) To maximize individual responsibility for the management of each person's own portion of their public wealth and those of their dependents, by allowing each individual the personal freedom to invest their money in their own education, housing, medical care and other needs as the individual sees fit based upon that person's attitudes, values and cultural heritage.

(5) To reduce government paternalism, uneven wealth distribution, and government waste inherent in the political system.

(6) To promote the conversion of the Alaskan economy from a self-serving paternalistic system benefiting the very few, into an economy where each person directly benefits in a known and measurable way from his public wealth.

(7) To reduce the cost of living for all state residents by promoting large and small scale business growth in a competitive economic environment.

Submitted by Jim Weidner, a local guardian of the Alaska Permanent Fund and founder of Friends of the Dividend.

ITA disclaimer: Editorials by various authors in our guest section have been reprinted for your information and entertainment. The authors are not necessarily members, nor do they necessarily agree with the philosophy, aims, or endorsements of the Interior Taxpayers' Association.

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