Last Updated September 5, 2020. A PFD of $992 was paid July 1st. This was an early, not additional payment. There is no new information regarding whether a second payment will be made in October.



Note: This page will be updated in real time as any new information about the PFD becomes available each year including dates and times of any announcements.

Does this page look familiar? That’s because it probably is. I’ve been updating this PFD information page since 2008. As a life-long Alaskan, the PFD is, of course, on my list of interests. As a website owner, I thought, what the heck, why not add a news and update page for the PFD? At the very top of the page you’ll always see a “last updated” message to verify all info is current and from this year.

Quick Navigation:

PFD Announcement Time

What’s Happening with the PFD?

How Much is the 2020 PFD?

What’s Happening with the Prior Year PFD Backpay?

How Much Should the PFD Have Been in Prior Years?

PFD Projections

When was the PFD be announced?

The amount of the Alaska permanent fund dividend is usually announced in mid-September, typically the 18th to 22nd sometime, but since 2017 there has not been an announcement. Just a randomly appearing note on the PFD division website. In 2017, it appeared September 4th, in 2018 on September 14th, and in 2019 on September 27th, in 2020 it was June 12 (as the dividend was paid July 1).

What’s happening with the PFD? How did it get cut?

As the state faces a budget “crisis,” attempts to restructure the PFD program to fund the government continue.

Former Governor Walker’s push for the PFD began with SB128 in 2015, which passed in the Senate, but failed to pass in the House and was deemed “dead” as the session ended. However, Walker was bent on cutting into the PFD…

In June 2016, he vetoed a portion of the PFD funding on the state budget limiting the 2016 PFD to $1,000. That had never been done before, but any veto can be overridden by the legislature with a majority vote. Nonetheless, they did not use that power, and the veto stood.

There was a court case filed by Bill Wielechowski, along with former Republican Alaska Senate presidents, Clem Tillion and Rick Halford, which attempted to challenge the legality of this veto. A verdict was awarded in the State’s favor by Judge William Morse. Wielechowski filed an appeal with the Supreme court, but that verdict upheld the superior court’s decision.

Walker’s 2017 budget proposal included a new (nearly identical) bill to SB128. This, and other bills like it, struggled for passage, and remained undecided as the legislative session (and extensive special sessions) came to a close. Regardless, the operating budget did pass in both the House and Senate. This budget capped 2017 PFDs at $1,100. Walker’s 2018 budget proposal continued to push his agenda with SB26.

On May 8, 2018, SB26 passed the legislature. It capped withdrawals from the fund at 5.25 percent before dropping to 5 percent in 2021. It did not alter the way the PFD is calculated.



Walker withdrew from the 2018 gubernatorial election, and Mike Dunleavy took office December 3, 2018.

In 2019, Dunleavy presented a drastically reduced budget, which the legislature ultimately rejected almost entirely, instead using Walker’s previous budget proposal. After a budget debate that nearly shut-down the state government, the legislature eventually submitted a budget compromise that did not include a PFD at all, suggesting the 2019 PFD would be placed in a separate bill. That budget was signed by the Governor with extensive vetoes.

The PFD then became a major political issue as many sources began to sell the narrative that the large budget vetoes issued by Dunleavy were “to pay a bigger PFD,” despite the PFD and budget being separate issues.

Lawmakers were called to a special session focused solely on the PFD in July 2019. This session was set to occur in Wasilla by the Governor, but a portion of the legislature chose to meet in Juneau. As a result, 37 members were present in Juneau, and 21 in Wasilla. The Governor later moved the special session to Juneau and added the capital budget to its scope.

HB2001, which reversed a great deal of the budget vetoes and included the PFD, was the result of that session. While the exact amount of the PFD was not set in HB2001, the total amount for all PFDs was, which resulted in a payment of $1,606 per person. According to the Department of Revenue, had the traditional formula been followed, the PFD would have been $2,910. Dunleavy could have vetoed the PFD funds and continued to fight for the full amount, but this would have resulted in a late payment or no payment of the 2019 PFD.

Given this, on August 19, 2019 Dunleavy didn’t veto the PFD from HB2001, stating he would continue to fight for the remaining funds in another special session. That special session did not take place, and the legislature was back in session from January 21, 2020 to May 20,2020. No bills regarding payment of withheld funds were approved during that session. Currently, no plans for a special session have been announced.

How much was the 2020 PFD?

The first indication we saw beyond projections (seen towards the end of this page) came in Dunleavy’s budget plan for fiscal year 2021 released December 11, 2019. This proposal allowed for a full PFD projected at $3,170. In February, Dunleavy submitted a budget amendment calling for a supplemental appropriation that would pay out an additional $1,306 to cover the shortage from the 2019 PFD. The bills for that supplemental payment (HB259 and SB205) were referred to the respective finance rules committees.

On March 20, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 economic fall-out, Dunleavy requested that the legislature release the $1,306 remaining from the 2019 PFD in April via an amendment to the operating budget, as well as issue a payment from the 2020 PFD early (~$1,550 in June) with the remaining amount to be paid in October. You can read his full economic stabilization plan here. These proposals required approval by the legislature.

The Senate approved a slightly reduced version of the proposed 2019 back pay amendment, calling it a “supplemental” PFD at $1,000 rather than $1,306. However, that failed to pass in the House and was later removed from the budget in committee negotiations. No action was taken on the early PFD payment suggestion.

Despite attempts in both the House and Senate to fund a full PFD, a budget passed both bodies March 29th that only included enough funding for a dividend of around $1,000. Dunleavy signed that budget on April 7, which, after applications were processed, set the 2020 PFD at $992. Dunleavy moved the PFD payment date from October to July on May 20th. Currently, this is an early, not additional payment, but Dunleavy stated during a virtual town hall meeting on May 28th, that he was still in discussion with the legislature regarding a second PFD payment in October. No updates have been made since.

What about back pay for 2016 to 2018 PFDs?

Dunleavy ran a campaign which focused heavily on the PFD, with promises to not only restore the previous calculation method and ensure it’s followed in the future, but also to return funds withheld in prior years. When this back pay would be delivered (should it actually be paid) is also not clear, but an interview with Dunleavy stated any sort of payment couldn’t be done without legislative action. Dunleavy does not have the power to issue back pay without legislative approval.

The first step in that process was made in the Senate by Bill Wielechowski who filed two bills last session aimed at back paying past withheld dividends and enshrining the traditional calculation method in our constitution pending voter approval. Alternately, shortly after Wielechowski, SB23 and SB24 were filed in the Senate at the request of Dunleavy. The primary difference between SB13 and SB23/24 was that SB13 paid a single lump sum while SB23/24 paid out over 3 years.

Despite both efforts, these back pay bills saw virtually no action in 2019.

As for action in 2020, via an amendment to the 2021 fiscal year operating budget in the House, Representative Eastman attempted to include back pay for all four missing years, but was unsuccessful. The vote on that amendment was as follows:

YES: 12 NO: 27 EXCUSED: 1

Yes (pay the back pay): Carpenter, Eastman, Johnson, LeDoux, Neuman, Prax, Rauscher, Shaw, Sullivan-Leonard, Talerico, Tilton, Vance

No: Claman, Drummond, Edgmon, Fields, Foster, Gillis, Hannan, Hopkins, Johnston, Josephson, Knopp, Kopp, Kreiss-Tomkins, LeBon, Lincoln, Merrick, Ortiz, Pruitt, Rasmussen, Spohnholz, Story, Stutes, Tarr, Thompson, Tuck, Wool, Zulkosky

Subsequent attempts by Eastman, such as amendment 5, which would have paid back pay for 2019, were tabled.

PFD payment in land?

In February 2020, Dunleavy also presented a PFD land voucher bill. The bills (HB270/SB217), would allow those receiving a PFD to claim double the value of that PFD in a land voucher that could be used towards the purchase of state land. This program would be optional. Those who prefer a traditional check would still be able to receive one. These bills were left in committee.

How much would have the 2016 to 2019 PFDs have been without the cap?

As many of us know, the PFD amount is usually calculated using the last five years of the fund’s returns by:

-Adding the fund’s Statutory Net Income from the last 5 years.

-Multiplying by 21%.

-Dividing by 2.

-Subtracting the prior year obligations, expenses, and PFD program operations.

-Dividing by the number of eligible applicants.

Below are the statutory net income numbers which should be used to calculate the PFD:

(expressed as millions rounded)



FY 2012 1,568-dropped off in 2017.

FY 2013 2,928-dropped off in 2018.

FY 2014 3,531-dropped off in 2019.

FY 2015: 2,907-dropping off in 2020.

FY 2016: 2,198

FY 2017: 3,214

FY 2018: 6,324

FY 2019: 3,305

FY 2020: TBA

As low years have fallen away, the fund should have offered high returns for residents over the next decade.

Just how high?

As it stands the PFD cuts have cost Alaskans about $7,145 per person– a major blow to families with kids. PFD estimates for the last four years are as follows:

2016: $2,083 vs. $1,022 paid

2017: $2,390 vs. $1,100 paid

2018: $2,982 vs. $1,600 paid

2019: $2,910 vs. $1,606 paid

2020: ~$3,100 (estimate) vs. $992 paid

In February 2019 as part of a presentation to the Senate State Affairs committee, the Alaska Department of Revenue released the following graph. It shows PFD projections for the next 10 years based on expected returns if back pay was not paid (orange) and if it were (blue). By “status quo” they mean by the standard calculation method without caps. As you can see, this puts PFDs estimated at over $3,000 per year for the next decade–assuming no legislative action somehow derails things.



A second PFD projection table was presented to the Senate Finance Committee in April 2019 to show what enacting SB103 would have meant for the PFD amount and public service funding. SB103 sought to split the 5.25 percent draw taken via SB26 50/50 with 50 percent going to the state, and 50 percent going to PFDs. That would have eliminated the use of the long-standing traditional five-year average method currently being ignored.

SB103 never made it out committee. This table also projects PFD’s to stay above $3,000 through FY2028 (“1982 Formula” is the current 5-year average approach).

The 2020 filing period began January 1st and ended April 30th (the period was extended this year due to COVID-19). Online applications with direct deposit were paid July 1st rather than October 1st due to the current economic crisis. Applications not approved by June 19th were paid July 23rd.



Care to Share?