Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Sunday, August 31, 2008 5:07:49 PM
Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, and now future Vice President of the United States, has been at the forefront of the fight against corruption in her own party. Her tax plan in Alaska directed at the oil industry is a testement to her ability to take action and reverse the corruption of her predecessors.
Former state Representatives Pete Kott and Vic Kohring have been convicted taking bribes from oil company executives in Alaska. Using the oil profits tax passed in 2006, these politicians literally used their offices to steal money from the citizens of Alaska. Governor Sarah Palin would have none of it, and set to work to correct the problem and return that money to Alaskan residents.
A crowd of about 250 showed up on a drizzly Sunday afternoon in Anchorage to hear about Gov. Sarah Palin's proposed new oil tax.
Legislators, administration officials, lobbyists and oil industry representatives were among those who came.
But mostly there were regular Alaskans, curious about how the governor wants to revamp the now-tainted oil profits tax passed in 2006. Two Veco Corp. executives have pleaded guilty to bribing four legislators to get a version of the tax favored by North Slope oil producers through the Legislature. Former state Rep. Pete Kott has been convicted, and former Rep. Vic Kohring goes to trial in a week.
"We own the resource, and we're getting gouged," Javen Ose, a 50-year-Anchorage resident, told the governor.
Ose, now retired, said his Permanent Fund dividend probably pays only for one-third of his electric, heat and gasoline bills. He questions why people in New Jersey pay less at the gas pump than those in Alaska.
"I'm glad more and more Alaskans are recognizing this nonsensical situation," Palin responded. "Look at the people in Fairbanks. They are 400 miles away from the world's richest reserves and look at what they are paying to heat their homes."
[...]
The public is showing a lot of interest in the oil tax, she said. Contrary to what some legislative leaders are saying, she said, people definitely care that the current tax was passed under a cloud of corruption.
"We need to go back and do it again," she said.
Rep. Mike Doogan, also a Democrat in his first term, said that he needs to learn more too.
"I couldn't pass a test on it," he joked. The way to go may be a two-tier tax with different structures for well-developed legacy fields vs. new, high risk ventures, he said.
Rep. Anna Fairclough, a freshman Republican, said she comes from a pro-business bent. She said the administration tells the story in technical terms but she wants to know the answer to a basic question: How does the tax proposal encourage development?
As to that, the tax proposal includes improved credits for exploration, officials say.
For those attacking Governor Palin for raising taxes on oil companies in Alaska, the facts tell a much different story. After rampant corruption was stopped and criminal politicians, along with oil executives, fined and/or thrown in jail, Sarah Palin set out to reverse the damage done. Here is the Palin tax proposal before Alaska's legislature got a hold of it. This is what Sarah Palin is responsible for on the issue of oil industry taxes in Alaska:
The basic elements of the Palin tax proposal, called Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share, are:
• 25 percent tax on net profits, or the value of the oil minus operating expenses and pipeline and tanker charges. That compares with the 22.5 percent Petroleum Profits Tax passed in 2006. The tax rate rises when oil prices are high.
• Protection when oil prices are low. The big fields of Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay would pay at least a 10 percent gross tax on the oil's value. This tax on the gross -- before operating expenses are deducted -- would be instead of a tax on net profits, not in addition to it.
• Changes in allowable tax credits and deductions. Producers no longer could write off the cost of replacing deteriorating pipelines.
• Higher salaries for oil tax auditors.
• More information for the state from oil producers and better sharing of information between state agencies.
What you see above is where the $1200 tax rebate came from that sent to the people of Alaska who were robbed by politicians convicted of taking bribes from oil company executives. When you read the actual proposal instead giving a knee-jerk reaction to a tax increase, it is clear this isn't a tax hike near as much as it is returning stolen money back to taxpayers. Not only was there bribery, but her predecessor was giving special breaks to oil companies as Palin stated in this report from FoxNews referencing both McCain and the Governor:
Governor Palin did what any conservative worth their own soul would have done. She gave tax dollars that were literally stolen from Alaskan taxpayers right back to them and appropriately reversed corrupt tax policy. Not only did she bring ethics back to the tax policy in regards to the oil industry in Alaska, she improved the policy itself in her proposal.
The tax raises when oil prices are high, and falls when oil prices are low. This give amazing incentive for the oil companies to produce more oil, which increases supply, and lowers prices for everyone including the taxes they themselves pay the state. When oil prices are low the tax moves to a 10 percent tax on the gross, instead of the net tax of 25% when prices are high. Instead of, not in addition to. The oil companies in Alaska with the Palin proposal pay the state minus their operating expenses along with pipeline and tanker charges. In this way, the oil companies are not taxed for the cost of doing business.
As for the oil companies in Alaska no longer being able to right-off the cost of replacing deteriorating pipelines; complain to someone else besides me because I could care less. Governor Palin was not able to return all that stolen money back to the taxpayers by giving the oil companies more breaks which they should have never gotten in the first place. Write-offs are not to be brokered in a dark room behind closed doors while bribes are being exchanged under the table with zero accountability under the noses of the people of Alaska! If that is your idea of ethics I suggest you vote for Barack Obama and Slow-Joe Biden whose liberal national windfall profits tax is nothing at all like Palin's tax proposal in Alaska. Conservatives don't do business that way, and that includes Governor Sarah Palin. The government is not in place to bail out a business when they have to replace their own equipment due to inadequate maintenance or the normal wear and tear of time itself. The Governor's tax proposal already gives the oil companies a break by not taxing them on the cost of doing business along with not taxing them on pipeline and tanker charges. It is unethical beyond belief to give them two breaks on the exact same thing while cutting other businesses out of the loop. The people of Alaska did not vote for it and they don't want it. Period.
Governor Sarah Palin put the decisions on oil company taxes back into the hands of the people of Alaska where it should have been from the beginning. The corrupt Republican administration which Alaskans elected Palin to replace put dirty money into their own pockets to make decisions which were not up to them in the first place. Alaska may border Russia, but it is part of the United States of America and here representation of the people takes precedence over bloated criminal politicians and corporate executives convicted of illegal activity.
*Thanks to Landon for providing the links giving the facts on Gov. Palin's tax proposal in Alaska.