Gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker proposes ending the Permanent Fund Dividend - but not before a $10,000 payout per eligible Alaskan

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Former Gov. Bill Walker, one of 17 candidates vying to be Alaska's next governor, is proposing ending the Permanent Fund Dividend program - but not before distributing a final payout of $10,000 per eligible Alaskan.

The Alaska Permanent Fund was created in 1976 to invest the state's oil earnings. In 1980, the Legislature created the dividend program, which distributed earnings from the fund to residents of the state.

The annual cash payout to Alaskans has consumed the state's legislative process for years. Walker and his running mate, former Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck, say that giving Alaskans the option of a one-time payment, followed by an end to the dividend, will allow the state move past that all-consuming debate and instead use the revenue from the Permanent Fund to pay for government services.

The dividend "is the 600-pound gorilla in the room," Hoffbeck said. There are two options, he added: either "cage the gorilla" with a new dividend formula, or "we do something even more dramatic" - ending the dividend program altogether.

"Someone's got to throw something on the table that's different," Walker said during an interview Tuesday.

An existing statute for calculating the annual Permanent Fund dividend has not been followed for a decade, as the Legislature has increasingly relied on revenue from the fund to cover the cost of basic government services. Without an alternate statute to follow, debates among lawmakers regularly gum up the annual budget-making process.

Walker and Hoffbeck are proposing using the next dividend application as a poll. As Alaskans fill out the application, due every year in March, they could be given the option to indicate if they support the one-time $10,000 dividend, followed by the end to the program. That unofficial poll can then be used by lawmakers to determine how to proceed, they said.

The window for their idea is narrow. Walker and Hoffbeck want it to either go ahead in 2027 or not at all, to avoid an influx of people moving to the state simply to cash in on the one-time benefit.

Hoffbeck said the $10,000 figure is based on the current amount in the Permanent Fund's Earnings Reserve Account. That one-time payout would require a draw of over $6 billion from the account.

"It's not a number picked out of the air," Hoffbeck said. But it's also one that could be "life changing" for many Alaskans - giving families the prospect of buying a house, buying a new car or paying down credit card debt, he said.

"So we see that as an incentive for people to give up something that they've gotten used to for 40 years. We need to give them something to incentivize them to actually accept that and take that step," Hoffbeck said.

"There's no real path to fiscal stability as long as the Permanent Fund debate sucks the air out of the room every time you try to figure out a fiscal solution," Hoffbeck added.

Walker and Hoffbeck entered the crowded governor's race on Monday - the last day to do so - with a promise to focus on a plan for Alaska's fiscal future, a topic that has dogged governors and lawmakers.

A new fiscal plan for the state has long been thought to require new revenue sources and guardrails on how that revenue can be spent. But Walker and Hoffbeck contend that eliminating the annual dividend will free up enough revenue to avoid a statewide sales or income tax.

Alaska is the only state in the union with no statewide broad-based taxes, thanks in large part to the Permanent Fund. Prior to the discovery of oil in Alaska and the ensuing wealth it generated, Alaska - like many other states - had a statewide income tax. Walker proposed reintroducing one the last time he was governor, eliciting a tepid response from legislators. He said he is not putting forward a similar proposal this time around.

Some Alaska politicians have previously considering disbanding the Permanent Fund altogether and distributing the money within it to current Alaskans. Walker called that idea "horrifically horrible." Instead, he wants to ensure the Permanent Fund continues in perpetuity to pay for government needs, like schools, transportation infrastructure and public safety.

This year's dividend payment is expected to be $1,200 per eligible Alaskan, up from last year's $1,000. The statute, if it were followed, would call for a payout of more than $3,500 per eligible Alaskan.

Some candidates in the governor's race, like Republican businesswoman Bernadette Wilson, continue to promise Alaskans a statutory dividend. Doing so would require more than $1 billion in new revenue annually over what the state's revenue officials are forecasting.

Other candidates, like Republican former Attorney General Treg Taylor, have hedged their promises, instead calling for "the largest PFD we can afford." Democratic former state Sen. Tom Begich is calling for "a stable, realistic dividend" tied to the Permanent Fund's recent performance.

But specifics so far have been hard to come by in the governor's race. Candidates often view the future of the fund as a political minefield.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is termed out from seeking reelection, defeated Walker in the 2018 governor's race on a promise of restoring the statutory dividend. Since then, the dividends have only shrunk - last year's was the smallest on record when adjusting for inflation.

"That has been hamstringing the legislative process for quite some time. It's sort of the balancing act, and the leverage for this and that," Walker said. "Our goal really is to put something out there for people to give some thought to and decide if that makes sense. We think it probably does, but we're just two people."

Walker and Hoffbeck say they have already given some thought to the specifics of their idea, like allowing Alaskans to collect the one-time payment staggered over several years or invest it in educational accounts to avoid a one-time tax burden. But some specifics, like the impact of the one-time draw from the account, would still need to be calculated by the fund's analysts.

As for any allegation that they are attempting to "buy votes," Walker and Hoffbeck said that their intention is for the idea to go through the legislative process - with no promises to voters.

"If we're trying to buy votes, I guess we would just say ‘full dividend.' But we're trying to solve a problem," said Walker.

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 7:31 AM.