Leaders of the Republican-led Alaska Senate say they aren’t interested in instituting an income tax or raising oil industry taxes as a way to address the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit.
Their position is at odds with House leaders, who have seen a broad-based tax, like an income tax, and a rewrite of oil tax and credit policy as key elements of a fiscal plan.
The House even conditioned approval of the one piece of a fiscal plan on which there’s general agreement, use of Alaska Permanent Fund earnings, to those other pieces passing.
The Legislature is expected to run beyond the scheduled 90 days, with the budget and pieces of a fiscal plan unresolved. Sunday marks Day 90.
The Senate has proposed focusing on a limited number of bills after Sunday.