During a press conference with the Senate Republican Caucus on June 17, 2026, Senator James Kaufman (R-Anchorage) called out the Senate Majority for delaying scheduled committee meetings and “being caught in a huddle” discussing HB 381 outside of public view.
“So, I felt we were on a pretty good path until just lately when suddenly, everything kind of crashes. And suddenly, committee hearings are being canceled, and the majority’s caught in a huddle, apparently trying to figure out what they’re going to do,” stated Sen. Kaufman.
Sen. Kaufman expressed his desire to see a “clean bill” brought to the Senate floor and encouraged transparency in Senate discussions. “If people want to try some amendments, do it, but I think it all should be done in the light of day,” he stated.
HB 381 as passed by the House reduces potential revenue for the State and municipalities by lowering the tax burden on the producers. While the tax cuts lower government revenue, they also lower the price of gas for the average Alaskan by lowering the cost of production. Sen. Kaufman reminds his fellow Senators and the public that if the project never happens, there will be no revenue. “If we’re squabbling over revenue that comes from this thing, we need to remember no revenue comes from bought gas, no revenue comes from windmills, none comes from solar panels,” he stated.
Following a question posed by a reporter with Alaska Public Media about whether the Senators believe there will be enough votes to pass HB 381, Sen. Kaufman replied, “I wouldn’t assume anything about votes… But I think the best thing we can do is get it to the floor and do it in in the light of day, just like we should have been having committee meetings to get the final bill in shape and then send it to the floor. But instead, we’ve kind of collapsed into this, you know, closed door caucus meetings rather than the committee meetings and the process that we should be following. So, let’s get it back on process. Let’s have open meetings. Let’s get the thing to the floor, and then it can live and die on its own merits, which is what I’ve proposed for this piece of legislation the whole time. Let’s argue it on its merits and not tie it to other things, other policy questions— whether it is the past attempt to try and link it to a pension, or the current one to apparently try to link it to additional taxes that are actually unrelated to the matter at hand.”
The unrelated tax matter Sen. Kaufman refers to is the attempt by Democrats to tax S-corps (also known as “pass-through entities”) in the Oil & Gas industry as if they were C-corps. During the regular session, Democrats pushed hard to pass an income tax S-corps this session. Senate Bill 92 and House Bill 350 were stand alone bills attempting to tax pass-through entities. After both bills stalled in committee, Democrats saddled their tax objective to SB 280, completely transforming it from a bill intended to attract investment to a bill intended to put more money in the State coffers.
By the end of the regular session, the Senate’s gasline bill (SB 280) was loaded with four different taxes. According to a statement from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, SB 280 had been “hijacked into a sweeping oil tax increase rushed through the process without meaningful economic analysis, public vetting, or a clear understanding of the consequences. These changes jeopardize not only the prospects of a future gasline, but also continued oil investment and development on the North Slope.” The current version of HB 381 does not touch S-corps/ pass-through entities.
The special session ends tomorrow, June 19, and it is uncertain what will happen if the Legislature fails to pass a gasline bill before the end of the session. HB 381 was scheduled to be discussed by the Senate Finance Committee this morning, June 18, at 9:00 a.m., but the meeting was delayed to a call of the Chair. The Senate Finance Committee is co-chaired by Senators Lyman Hoffman (D-Bethel), Donny Olson (D-Golovin), and Bert Stedman (R-Sitka). The committee has yet to meet in public view today. Another committee meeting for HB 381 is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today, June 18.
Listen to the full press conference with the Senate Republican Caucus here:
