In 1967, large oil reserves were discovered in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska. As a result, state revenues increased from $124 million in 1969 to $3.7 billion in 1981. In 1980, the state legislature enacted a dividend program that would distribute annually a portion of these earnings to the state's adult residents.
Under the plan, each citizen eighteen years of age or older receives one unit for each year of residency subsequent to 1959, the year Alaska became a state.
The state advanced three purposes justifying the distinctions made by the dividend program:
(a) creation of a financial incentive for individuals to establish and maintain residence in Alaska;
(b) encouragement of prudent management of the earnings; and
(c) apportionment of benefits in recognition of undefined ‘‘contributions of various kinds, both tangible and intangible, which residents have made during their years of residency.''
Crawford, a resident since 1978, brings suit challenging the dividend distribution plan as violative of the equal protection guarantee. Did the dividend program violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? Explain.