Alaska has no income or sales tax, and a huge chunk of its annual revenue — as much as 90 percent — comes from taxes and fees on oil companies. When oil prices soar, as they did this summer, so do the state’s coffers: Alaska in the past two years has socked away billions in its already massive savings account.
But that account, the $28 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, sends every Alaskan a dividend each year — this year it was $2,069.