NEWS: Democrats Introduce Oil Tax Alternative

Reduction for Production: Bill Targets New Oil in the Pipe and Protects Alaska

JUNEAU – House and Senate Democratic legislators introduced legislation today to grant tax concessions to oil producers who put new oil into the pipeline. The bill (SB50, HB 111) targets tax incentives to new fields and to new development in existing fields, and it offers other incentives outside the tax code to spark new development.

NEWS: Democrats Question New Revenue Projections

Enormous implications mean new assumptions need more scrutiny

JUNEAU – Today, House Democrats raised concerns about the methodology and timing of the Parnell Administration’s new revenue projection model and asked Department of Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher to release to the public more details about its latest income projections. House Democratic Leader Beth Kerttula (D-Juneau) met with Commissioner Butcher and his staff this week to discuss the new report, but she was not satisfied with the explanations she received.

NEWS: House Democrats Call for Firm Timelines on Pt. Thomson Development

Without work schedules, continued delay likely

JUNEAU – Today, nine members of the House Democratic Caucus called on the Department of Natural Resources to require firm timelines and work schedules before approving Exxon’s most recent Plan of Development for Pt. Thomson. In their official comments submitted today, the lawmakers said that without a timeline for Exxon to complete the work, this Plan of Development is likely to result in the same delay and inaction that has kept the resource undeveloped for over thirty years.

Rep. Guttenberg’s Legislative Report: Important Testimony Opportunity: Constitutional Amendment on Education Funding

Tomorrow the House Finance Committee will take public testimony on HJR 16 “Constitutional Amendment: Educational Funding”. This resolution would amend the Alaska Constitution to allow state funds to be used for religious or private educational institutions.

Please consider testifying if you support or oppose this idea.

Alaska Democrats Push Federal Bureaucrats to Allow NPR-A Oil Development

JUNEAU – Today, fourteen Democratic members of the Alaska Legislature called on the Obama Administration to resolve permit issues that are delaying ConocoPhillips’ efforts to develop a new oil field in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A). Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers rejected Conoco’s permit application to build a bridge across the Coleville River that the company needs to access the new field just west of its Alpine oil field, the third largest in Alaska.