A Citizen’s Guide

Senate and House negotiators are meeting behind closed doors today to come to a compromise on an oil tax bill.

Publicly, the conference committee is deadlocked over the tax rate and the rate it increases at high oil prices.

Senate leadership on Wednesday told the House they wouldn’t budge from their 22.5 percent base tax rate and 0.1 escalator, but that may be changing.

Is Senate President Ben Stevens starting to blink?

If so, House members say they won’t split the baby on the two versions of the oil tax.

Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, a member of the conference committee, said she thought a 23 percent base tax wouldn’t fly in the House.

The House passed a base tax rate of 23.5 percent that would increase by 0.25 percent for every $1 the price of oil tops $50 a barrel.

While the House is eager to negotiate, it’s unlikely to move too far on those main two issues. There are about eight differences between the oil tax bill passed by the House and the Senate that the committee is working on.

Kerttula praised Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly’s work on the conference committee. Kerttula said he’s shown real backbone in standing up to the Senate.

It seems the House has learned its lesson from last year’s fight over changing the public pension system. This time bowing to the blustering of the Senate is doubtful.

But the clock is still ticking. There’s now less than 10 hours left in the special session. If both bodies don’t approve an oil tax by midnight, the bill dies.