I was disappointed by the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 305. The bill was a preventative measure to secure Alaska’s finances by de-coupling our oil and natural gas taxes.
Under current law, with the start of Transcanada’s “Open Season”, Alaska could be locked into a tax structure that costs our state billions of dollars in lost revenue. Estimates suggest that Alaska could lose-out on all our revenue from natural gas production, and up to 1/3 of our oil revenue.
At this point legislative action on this issue has ended. While it’s unfortunate the bill was not signed into law, the legislature now has better understanding of the complexities we’ll need to tackle during future tax decisions for developing our natural gas resources. I’m confident that fixing this anomaly in our tax structure will remain a top priority when fiscal terms for the pipeline are submitted to the legislature.
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