By KEEP ALASKA COMPETITIVE COALITION
Alaska’s North Slope is finally booming with activity and Alaska is in the midst of an oil production revitalization. Several veteran and newer industry producers have spent billions on maximizing oil and gas recovery from legacy fields like Prudhoe Bay and on developing new major oil fields to the west such as Willow and Pikka.
In our view, the major reason Alaska is benefiting from these significant investments is that our oil and gas taxation system has remained stable for the past 12 years, giving the producers the tax predictability they need to make investment decisions. They already deal with the fluctuating price of oil, the risk of finding and producing economically viable oil fields, and the challenges of transporting that oil to market.
Why would we send a message to these companies who invest in our state that our tax policy is unstable and not competitive, thus adding to their list of risk factors? That is what SB 112 would do. Raising the production tax, as proposed in SB 112, is the wrong thing to do if we want to continue to encourage more exploration and development.
Alaskans have consistently said no to oil tax increases at the ballot box over the past 11 years. We have responsibly decided that attracting investment requires fair and competitive taxes. We understand that investment in oil production is critical to our economic future.
Our current tax regime is the result of many years of work with detailed analysis by internationally recognized consultants and is working the way it was intended.
Over the next five or so years, new production will bring significant new revenue to state and local governments and maintain the viability of the Trans Alaska pipeline further into the future.
Things are going well for us now, and the last thing we want is to reverse the momentum that got us here!
Please reject SB 112 to avoid the inevitable reduction of oil production and economic losses to our State.
Joe Schierhorn is chairman of Northrim Bank and co-chairman of the Keep Alaska Competitive Coalition. Jim Jansen is chairman of Lynden and co-chairman of the Keep Alaska Competitive Coalition. The Keep Alaska Competitive Coalition is a broad-based group of Alaska Natives, unions, businesses and individuals who care about the economic future of the state and understand that Alaska’s future depends directly or indirectly on the economy created by a vibrant oil industry.
Alaska has a spending problem and needs its own DOGE.
With this legislature make up!!!! ???? Too titillating opportunity to pass up.
Good effort on your part though. Tks for the effort.
Cheers,
Johnson-Ketchikan
We need business incentives!!! Taxes will do just the opposite.
I bet these folks listed in the author section at the bottom of the opinion piece would sing a different tune if the Legislature passed a personal income tax Bill that started charging 12% for every dollar over $200,000.00… in the mean time while they’re not paying any personal taxes they’ll be glad to watch the Legislature steal every penny of the PFD from the lower and middle income Alaskan’s….. Same as the oil companies are delighted to watch the PFD pay for State spending..
We’ve been a long time since ACES and we’re probably due for a little oil tax adjustment.. but not as much as the Senate Majority is wanting..
The legislature needs to come to grips with reality and realize if you’re going to increase taxes, they need to reduce spending at an equivalent rate to double the bang for the buck..
The old saying of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Who’s funding this coalition? How much does Alaska get paid per barrel? Why do you think these propagandists didn’t include this information in this article?
Several veteran and newer industry producers who have billions to spend on maximizing oil and gas recovery from legacy fields and on developing new major oil fields can’t, or won’t, spend a little pocket change to replace amateur dictators such as ours who threaten to disrupt their multi-billion dollar return on investment?
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Since Alaska’s election system is so thoroughly FUBAR’d, maybe voters should take whatever help they can get?
If the state is getting it’s fair share…why are we broke when oil was at a high?
15 Billion taken from the state in revenue, we get 2.4 Billion
THAT seem fair to you?
The oil belongs to the state of Alaska
Do you even understand the state Constitution or
how the Permanent fund was set up?
Do you even know who Jay Hammond is?
I like Joe, but he is wrong on this.
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