A Citizen’s Guide

JUNEAU — State Senate and House committees separately put Gov. Sarah Palin on notice Saturday: no new taxes. The committees gutted her oil tax bill, stripping out the most divisive section, an increase on net profits taxes from 22.5 percent to 25 percent.

This is not the final word. Two more committees each in the House and Senate will review the bill in this special legislative session that began Oct. 18 at Palin’s behest and could last up to 30 days

The oil tax has also been at the heart of a federal corruption probe that started in Juneau with state lawmakers and has now stretched to Capitol Hill, where Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, both from Alaska, are under scrutiny. Read the rest of this entry »

From the Senate:

Before the Senate Resources Committee voted on the bill this morning, Sen. Thomas Wagoner tried unsuccessfully to pass three amendments. Read the rest of this entry »

The cutting continues.

It sounds like the House Oil and Gas Committee is going to strip the bill of the floor tax on Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk.

Committee Chair Kurt Olson called it a way to share in the risk at low oil prices and share in the profits at high oil prices.

Olson said he would take amendments until tomorrow afternoon.

The Associated Press is reporting the Senate Resources Committee took the tax increases out of the bill.

Here’s what the wire says so far:

“A state Senate committee put Gov. Sarah Palin on notice: no new taxes. The committee gutted her oil tax bill, stripping out the most divisive section, an increase on net profits taxes from 22.5 percent to 25 percent.”

The Senate Resources Committee just voted to move the bill.

Committee Chair Sen. Charlie Huggins said some of the details of the bill would be more appropriate for other committees.

Sen. Thomas Wagoner seemed to disagree.

“I don’t want to rush to judgment. I’ve said that several times, and I’m worried were doing that,” Wagoner said.

We don’t have the language of any changes yet, but I’m going to try and get more details on all this later today.

The head of Doyon Ltd. on Friday charged that Alaska Native landowners have until now been ignored in the state’s quest to get a natural gas pipeline built from the North Slope, and must be acknowledged.

“The First Peoples of this state were forgotten in the planning of that line,” said Orie Williams, referring to former Gov. Frank Murkowski’s failed gas line deal with the state’s three major producers.

Not working with Native landowners until late in the game is not politically smart and “will only delay a fantastic project,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »