A panel in the Alaskan House has rewritten Governor Bill Walker’s oil and gas tax credit bill, eliminating a tax for North Slope fields and introducing a tax for oil produced from the Cook Inlet.
The state Revenue Department says there is currently no production tax for Cook Inlet oil.
The House Finance Committee’s rewrite is garnering criticism from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s Kara Moriarty, who says there is no positive elements she can see that will come from the proposal.
She says the shift in policy to tax Cook Inlet would negatively impact production, jobs, and investment in Alaska.
Lawmakers are struggling to balance cuts to the tax credit program, without discouraging exploration in Alaska, as they work to close the approximately $3.5 billion budget gap.
Representative Les Gara says the bill is positive in some areas but also still contains too generous of tax credits.