An article posted yesterday evening in the Alaska Dispatch (see “Alaska legislative leadership runs into political and personality problems,” Nov. 8, 2010) reports on votes taken over the weekend in connection with the formation of the new Alaska House “Majority.” While the “leadership” is attempting to spin a serious disagreement that resulted as a “personality” dispute, in fact the vote that led to the disagreement appears to have been the first legislative vote on reforming ACES (which stands for “Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share”), the Palin era tax increase that has been discussed extensively elsewhere on these pages.
My comment on the development follows the article, and is repeated here:
“To me, there is something much deeper — and far more troubling — going on here with these developments. There are eleven members on House Finance — without much argument one of the two most important committees in the Legislature (the other being Senate Finance). Certainly, any legislation materially affecting Alaska’s economy is going to go through that Committee. Continue reading →
Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas 