By AMY M. ARMSTRONG
For The Star

Jim Stouffer of Chugiak, relaxing at home with his black lab, says he has always used his dividend checks to put his daughter and, soon, his son through college. PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMIE WHITESELL

How do you feel about getting an extra $1,106.96?

That's the amount of the 2006 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend that each qualified Alaskan who filled out their paperwork on time will receive.

How and when people get their checks vary.

Early bird filers who had their act together right after the new year and opted for direct deposit should already have the money in the bank.

The rest of those who qualified for direct deposit but got those applications mailed by the end of March should see their deposits Oct. 19.

Paper checks get mailed Nov. 14, according to the Permanent Fund Corporation's Web site.

Shawn Johnson of Boondock Sporting Goods of Eagle River says it's easy for hunters to go through $1,000 at the store, especially when shopping for a good hunting rifle. Photo by Tony Bickert

That's how Merry Braham, the special events coordinator at the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce, refers to it.

"That is how I have always looked at it," Braham said.

She doesn't buy into the idea that just living in the state should be a ticket to get PFD money.

"I guess I have a bit of a mercenary perspective about it," Braham said. "I've lived here most of my life. I came here before there was oil and stayed not knowing there was going to be oil and now, gas. So I look at it as a gift."

A gift she said she'll use this year for a spring trip to the Tuscan region of Italy.

Merry Braham of Eagle River, who came before the oil boom, says she has never counted on a dividend check, considering it instead free money. Photo by Tony Bickert

But that isn't what she's hearing "Joe Citizen" say about this year's bonanza.

"I've heard people saying they are buying a new set of tires, putting brakes on their car, having major surgery on their dog," Braham said. "It really is just a lot of the usual paying bills and stuff like that."

That doesn't surprise Neal Fried, an economist with the state Department of Labor.

"It no longer is treated like the windfall that it once was," Fried said. "It is almost as predictable as a paycheck, and I think people tend to budget for it just like anything else."

Or at least figure out ahead of time what they want to spend it on.

That's what Shawn Johnson, manager of Boondock Sporting Goods in Eagle River, said he sees happening.

"A lot of people go ahead and spend it ahead of time," he said. "They go out and research what they want. I've already put a few guns on layaway for people who want to buy them before somebody else does in front of them."

Johnson said the approximate $250 increase from last year's $845.76 dividend may increase sales at the store.

It's pretty easy to go through $1,000 at Boondocks.

"Once you buy a rifle and a scope to go with it, you are pretty much talking about that amount anyway. We do sell a lot of guns at PFD time. Basically, I hear a lot of people coming in and saying, 'Oh, I can't wait to get my PFD and here is what I am going to get.'"

That notion of spending before receiving doesn't surprise Fried, who said Alaskan economists missed a great opportunity to study the PFD and its effects.

"It's too late now, but it would have been a very interesting study to see just how this money is being spent over the long run," he said. "It would be especially interesting to see if the attitude toward the money changes each year as people get it. For instance, I think people getting it for the first time have a much different attitude toward it than people who have been collecting it for 10 to 15 years."

Attitude toward the money is part of what motivates Jim and Mary Stouffer of Chugiak to have put all of their children's money into college savings account since 1982 when the PFD distribution began.

"It has enabled our daughters and soon our son, Matthew, to go to college," said Jim, an accountant with the state Department of Natural Resources in the division of oil and gas. He's responsible for tracking royalties from the oil and gas companies working in Alaska. "It has been a major blessing for us. But we look at it as a gift and not an entitlement."

He believes there are more Alaskans than not who depend on the PFD to make ends meet.

"I think there are many people who do have to use it as a means to live on," he said.

While he's pleased to see this year's distribution making an approximate $250 increase since last year, Stouffer said this year's $1,100 just doesn't have the zing that the initial $1,000 distribution in 1982 had.

"That was an enormous amount of money back in 1982," he said. "$1,100 just is not the same as what it was."

Still, the estimated $600 million shot in the economic arm the state receives over the three-week period when the money is doled out has to make a difference in the financial health of the Last Frontier, he said.

"Everybody seems to hit Costco at about the same time and the department stores see a frenzy of buying things like computers and plasma televisions," he said. "But what percentage of folks are doing that or in the case of teens, buying $150 designer jeans, is unknown. It would be interesting to discover how many people spend it like that as opposed to those who need it to live on."

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, October 5, 2006.