No movement on oil tax, credits

As the Alaska Legislature grinds toward the June 16 end of the first 30-day special session, the conference committee on House Bill 111, the oil tax and credits bill, has met once on June 9. It was an organizational meeting and the only action was votes, along party lines, rejecting both the House and Senate versions of the bill.

Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, chairing the conference committee, said the committee would likely meet June 12, but by June 15, as this issue of Petroleum News went to press, no additional meetings had been held.

The committee was provided with a 10-page worksheet delineating the differences between House and Senate versions and Tarr said the first step would be to go through the differences and determine where there was agreement, after which the members would work on compromising on other issues. As indicated by the 10-page worksheet, differences between the two bills are extensive.

The House bill provides more revenue while the Senate bill is more revenue neutral. Both eliminate North Slope cash credits, providing instead for credits to be carried forward until companies have production tax against which the credits can be applied.

- KRISTEN NELSON