Jay Hammond - first leader of a citizen-ownership democracy.

Jay Hammond
From www.sitnews.us

Jay Hammond has a place in history.

Jay Hammond was the governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982. During his time in office, Alaska started the Alaska Permanent Fund and started paying annual dividends to Alaskans. Part of Alaska's oil revenue is placed in the Alaska Permanent Fund. Investment returns are annually distributed to all Alaskans.

Alaskans have been getting their citizen incomes for each of the last 31 years.

Jay Hammond was the founder of the first citizen-ownership democracy where citizens get an annual citizen income from the state's wealth.

The New York Times called him the Governor of Alaska who paid Dividends.

Jay Hammond was also called the Father of the Alaska Basic Income. Before he died in 2005, he tried to get the Alaska model adopted by other countries. He also fought to put more of Alaska's oil revenue into the Alaska Fund.

"If half of oil tax revenues went into the fund, as Hammond envisioned, every Alaska family of four could expect to receive more than $16,000 this year."

His policy benefits Alaskans long after his governorship, and even after his death. 

Did he give out charity to Alaskans through this Fund? No. He instituted a system that gives out what the Alaskans rightfully deserve as owners of Alaska. He is a great man. Other politicians deprive citizens of their rightful citizen income.

(Note: The concept of the Permanent Fund is originally championed in 1969 by then-governor Keith Miller and Anchorage Times publisher and editor Robert Atwood.)

Follow-up (24 April 2014)
Many other names come up in various records about the Alaska Permanent Fund and dividend.
For example,
Hugh Malone (Hugh Malone's life taught Alaska true meaning of statesmanship)

"Hugh's primary goal in public service was to make sure the people of Alaska got a fair share out of the enormous bounty of oil wealth created by the discovery of the supergiant Prudhoe Bay oil field on state-owned land.

Hugh would soldier on against apparently impossible odds to win victory after victory. At the beginning of the 1982 session, all the smart money said that the Legislature would never pass a bill that would provide permanent fund dividends equally to all Alaskans -- but with the help of Hugh (then in the minority), Gov. Jay Hammond, and a tiny band of activists, that is the program we have today."