In 1982, voters approved the creation of the Alabama Heritage Trust Fund (AHTF) with the revenues from this first sale of drilling rights.
In 1985, the voters of the state approved Amendment 450 creating the ATF as an irrevocable, permanent trust fund.
The ATF was established to capture future revenues from sales of offshore drilling rights and from royalties on the resulting gas production.
[4] The trust fund receives as principal ninety-nine percent of all oil and gas capital payments paid to the State with the remaining one-percent to the Department of Conservation-Lands Division.
This redistributes 35% of the oil and gas capital payments paid into the ATF to two newly created trust funds.
The amendment also gives the Board the authority to transfer up to 75% of the realized and unrealized capital gains on investments, excluding fixed income securities, to the general fund.