Lori: It’s been more than two weeks since the Legislature was scheduled to finish its session. But not only have lawmakers not finished their work, there’s been little progress recently – at least in public. There have been no public meetings on the contentious oil and gas tax bill. And no recent meetings on the state budget or making changes to the Permanent Fund.
APRN’s Andrew Kitchenman has been following what’s happening in Juneau. Andrew, hello.
Andrew: Hi, Lori.
Lori: Why aren’t Alaskans seeing more progress?
Andrew: There are a few reasons. One is that the House has focused on the criminal justice overhaul bill this week. Members continued to debate amendments to the bill today, and there could be a vote on the bill as soon as tonight. This bill has had an unusually long floor debate. It would reduce some sentences. That’s put members in a difficult position, since they don’t want to be insensitive to crime victims, but many members also want to reduce the number of prisoners – as well as the need to build a new prison.
Lori: What else is holding up action?
Andrew: Well, the Legislature’s move from the Capitol late last week may be a minor factor, since legislators are getting used to their new home in the Bill Ray Center. But more importantly, there remain big differences between over the oil and gas tax bill.
Governor Bill Walker wants to dramatically cut the tax credits, and increase the minimum tax that companies pay. The House Resources Committee really scaled the bill. After the scheduled end to the session passed, the House Rules Committee came up with its own version of the bill. That has some things the Walker administration likes. They include eliminating tax credits for the Cook Inlet. But Walker has concerns with other pieces of the bill. Like shifting more of the benefits of tax deductions to large producers and keeping Cook Inlet tax credits for another three years.
While there’ve been no public talks. There have been private discussions about the bill. Those close to the talks say there’s been some progress, but much ground still needs to be covered. Without this bill, work on other major bills won’t happen.
Lori: Is there anything else happening?
Some minor things. The House Finance Committee has heard bills that would raise taxes on commercial fishing, and mining.
But not much else. There’s only committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow. And there’s a good chance that’ll be cancelled.
Lori: What are Legislators saying about getting things done without a special session stretching into June?
Andrew: I’m hearing a lot of uncertainty, but I think most are resigned to holding a special session. The oil and gas tax bill still is a challenge – and there will be a lot of work to do when it’s done. We may have a better sense in the next few days, once work on the crime bill is done.
Lori: Thanks, Andrew.
Andrew: You’re welcome.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
