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Committee hears bill to let Alaskans donate part or all of PFD to state general fund online
Summary
House Bill 11 would add an option to the electronic Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) application allowing recipients to donate portions of their PFD, in 10% increments, to the state general fund or to the permanent fund principal; the committee set an amendment deadline and left the bill pending.
House State Affairs members reviewed House Bill 11 on May 13 in Juneau, a bill that would add a voluntary option on the electronic Permanent Fund Dividend application to donate all or part of a recipient’s PFD to the state general fund or to the permanent fund principal.
Riley Nye, staff to Representative Prox (the bill sponsor), told the committee the measure would add a selection to the online PFD application allowing donations in 10 percent increments up to 100 percent of a recipient’s dividend. Nye described the proposal as removing the current friction of applying for and later mailing a check back, noting that Pick.Click.Give. already provides online giving to qualified organizations through the PFD application. “This bill simply gives them the opportunity to follow through on that willingness,” Nye said.
Committee members asked about federal tax consequences, administration and priority order among other deductions. Nye said he had consulted legal counsel and was told that a recipient who directs their PFD to the general fund would still have federal taxable income for that distribution. He also reported the department had told him that, on average, about one person per year currently mails a PFD check back to the state.
Members pressed administrative details: whether the new option would be implemented as percentage increments (10%) or fixed dollar amounts (as Pick.Click.Give. uses $25 increments). Permanent Fund Division staff (participating online) told the committee that either approach is administrable but that there will be a one‑time programming cost to add the button and back‑end logic; the fiscal note is indeterminate.
The bill envisions priority order for donations: education raffle and Pick.Click.Give. allocations are fulfilled first, with a donation to the general fund applied afterward if funds remain; if a donor elects a percentage that exceeds the remainder the law as drafted would apply what is left to the general fund.
Chair Kerrick set an amendment deadline for HB 11 of Wednesday, May 14 at 5 p.m. and set the bill aside for further consideration.
