Committee authorizes slope labor study

The Senate Finance Committee has authorized spending up to $200,000 on a study of oil and gas employment on Alaska’s North Slope.

The authorization came at the end of a long hearing on the Legislature’s last scheduled day.

Committee co-chair Bert Stedman says the study is intended to sort out conflicting jobs data that lawmakers received during the debate on oil production taxes. The proposal to cut taxes stalled in the Senate with leaders saying they didn’t have the information needed to make a sound decision. Stedman expects the debate to be revived when the Legislature reconvenes in January and for the study’s findings to inform it.

Committees have their own funding, and chairs can spend up to $25,000 on their own. More expensive items must get committee support.

—The Associated Press