7-3-16 Brennan: Walker stiffs state creditors

Brennan: Walker stiffs state creditors

Added by Tom Brennan on July 3, 2016.
Saved under News & Commentary

By Tom Brennan

Tom Brennan, Anchorage Daily Planet. NGP file photo by Dave Harbour

The news media’s references to Gov. Bill Walker’s moves on the oil tax credit obligation as “tax credit reform” are disingenuous. That’s a fancy word meaning bullpucky.

Reform would mean changing the law to limit or modify its use in the future. What Walker did was stiff the state’s industry creditors on money owed from past commitments by vetoing funds to pay the credits.

Reform could mean that the state should not have been offering tax credits as incentives for private industry to explore acreage and drill wells that it might otherwise not be interested in. But whether that is really the case is unclear. The tax credits looked like a good deal when the state was flush with money and exploring such acreage looked like a good investment for the state.

The hope was, and it appears to have been valid, that such drilling could result in development of new or expanded oil reservoirs in Cook Inlet and elsewhere that would result in new production, increased tax and royalty revenues and added value for the state’s economy.

The other day Walker vetoed $430 million in the Legislature’s budget that would have gone to meet those commitments. Now he seems to be unapologetically bragging about stiffing our creditors.

Read entire commentary here….

About the Author: wpnorthern

Dave Harbour, publisher of Northern Gas Pipelines, is a former Chairman of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, a Commissioner Emeritus of NARUC, NARUC's Official Representative to IOGCC and Vice Chairman of NARUC's Gas Committee. He served as Gas Committee Chairman of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners. He also served as commissioner of the Anchorage Bicentennial Commission and the Anchorage Heritage Land Bank Commission. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree: English, at Colorado State University, a Master of Science Degree: Communications-Journalism at Murray State University and graduated from Utility Regulatory School for Commissioners at Michigan State University. He served as a Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Alaska Pacific University, taught bank marketing classes at the University of Alaska and was an English teacher at Los Alamos High School. Harbour served in ranks of Private - Captain during a 4-year assignment with the Army in Korea, Idaho, Georgia and Fort Meade and received the Meritorious Service Medal among other commendations. Harbour is also a past Chairman of the Alaska Council on Economic Education, the Alaska Oil & Gas Association Government Affairs Committee, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the Export Council of Alaska and the Department of Commerce's District Export Council. He is a past President of the Alaska Press Club, American Bald Eagle Foundation, Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska and Common Sense for Alaska. Harbour was instrumental in founding the American Bald Eagle Research Institute (UAS), the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the Downtown Anchorage Business Partnership, and Arctic Power. He also served as CEO of several small Alaska organizations, including the Anchorage Parking Authority and Action Security, Inc. Harbour is also Chairman Emeritus of the Alaska Oil & Gas Congress. Harbour's wife, Nancy, is a professional, performing arts administrator and his three boys, Todd, Benjamin and William work in the fields of environmental management, energy marketing and medicine.