Nearly 18,000 absentee votes were counted Tuesday, August 26, further widening the margin by which Alaskan voters rejected the proposal to repeal the tax structure backed by Gov. Sean Parnell.
We spoke with Sen. Lisa Murkowski just after the initial votes had been counted which indicated the tax system would stay.
Sen. Murkowski: “I don’t know if SB 21 is the magic configuration, if we’ve got the numbers just right, I think we’re starting to see some positive indicators, I think we’re seeing some additional jobs coming online, some additional contracts being let, we’re starting to really see that investment that will really produce more when it comes to revenues in production, but in fairness it’s still pretty early, it’s just been a little over six months now since we saw SB 21 really come online so I think that we need to give it a chance and I think voters said yesterday that they’re willing to give it that chance, and if we don’t see the revenues coming in if we don’t see that production coming up then that’s what your legislature does.”
Repeal advocates say the system gives huge tax breaks to profitable oil companies without assurance that they will invest in new drilling.
On Ballot Prop 1, Kenai voters overwhelmingly supported the Governor’s new oil taxes, with 68% voting no. In Nikiski, 63% voted no. Down around Homer, District 31 voters leaned the other way, with 56% voting yes.