PFDs to arrive in Alaska bank accounts in July, not October

At the conclusion of his press briefing Wednesday evening, Governor Mike Dunleavy made a surprise announcement that PFDs will be released July 1, months ahead of its traditional October date.

Gov. Dunleavy justified the early PFDs as a way to respond to Alaska’s ailing economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I just want folks to know that this has been a difficult situation for everyone. This an ongoing situation. Individual Alaskans have been hurt economically. Businesses have been hurt economically. We’re going to do all we can to get that going in the right direction.”

The July 1 date was chosen because it will take some time, about six weeks, for the Alaska Department of Revenue to adapt to the policy change.

As unemployment claims in Alaska are increasing, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Training, the financial boost couldn’t come soon enough for families.

However, Dunleavy said: “We’re going to have to wait for a month and a half. We’re starting our process right now to get that going.”

Dunleavy added: “But we’re in extraordinary times. We need to make sure people of Alaska have cash in hand to help with this economy. I can’t think of a better opportunity to do that than now.”

Gov. Dunleavy also announced a series of virtual town halls that will be held over the coming weeks.

“We’re going to have our virtual townhalls, that will start tomorrow at 5:30, and we’ll continue with those to get questions from everyday Alaskans and get those questions answered as soon as possible. So we’ll have a series of those this week and going into next week. And we’ll continue those if we need to.”

Details will be forthcoming from the governor’s office about how those virtual townhalls will be held.

Watch the full press briefing here.