Nation: Alaska Bonanza

A state shares its royalties

While millions of Americans trudged unhappily off to post offices last week to meet the deadlines for paying state and federal income taxes, Alaskans were grinning. They learned that same day that some 270,000 of them will get checks averaging $1,000 each from the state government. The source of the cash bonanza: the royalties that Alaska collects on oil pumped in the state. They are soaring unexpectedly this year by an estimated $760 million, to a projected total of $3 billion. But instead of finding new ways to spend the windfall, Governor Jay S. Hammond and state...

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