Fight over oil tax legislation lands in Mat-Su

MAT-SU — A statewide push to repeal a reduction in oil taxes has arrived in the Valley with signature gatherers trading barbs with a group trying to thwart their efforts.

Jamey Duhamel, who’s heading up the Valley portion of the statewide petition drive, said she thinks in some ways the people trying to stop the petitioners from gathering signatures have seen their efforts backfire.

“We are out there exercising our freedoms, which is very American,” she said. “Some people are very turned off by having paid protestors try to block that.”

But Art Hackney, a political operative who, with his wife, is leading and funding the anti-petition effort, said his people are well within their rights.

“If they have the right to stand there and collect signatures we have the right to stand there in the public commons and tell people it’s a bad idea,” Hackey said.

He said that the fight could either be during the petition drive or during the run-up to the election the petitions seek.

“It’s a heck of a lot cheaper to stand on the street corner and argue with somebody that is trying to collect signatures than it is to go through a multi-million dollar campaign,” he said.

Hackney has accused the petitioners of lying, but what he says they’ve been telling voters the petitioners don’t deny.

“They’re saying that (Senate Bill 21, the legislation enacting the tax cut) will destroy Alaska’s credit rating and make it harder for us to borrow money,” Hackney said. “They’re saying that it will end up forcing us to tap the permanent fund. They say we’ll have to have an income tax because of SB21.”

Proponents of SB 21 say a 2 percent increase in oil flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline, will pay for the tax cut.

Duhamel said petitioners believe that if the tax cuts remain in place the state will wind up having to find funding elsewhere.

“At some point we are going to have to dip into our reserves. That’s just simple math,” she said, and that will lead to “revoking our permanent funds or doing away with the permanent funds in order to make ends meet.”

As for Hackney’s contention about increased oil production, Duhamel is skeptical.

“If we got guarantees about oil production he may be correct. The problem is that the three major oil companies refused to make any guarantees,” Duhamel said. “We are basically throwing money at them and begging them to do more instead of standing our ground.”

At any rate, her group is going to continue gathering signatures. She said she’s confident that statewide they can gather enough signatures to put to the tax cut to a vote of the people. Hackney, meanwhile, said he thinks he has a good shot at stopping them.

In addition to the people giving his side of the debate at the petition gathering sites he has a website, imadeamistake.org, where people who have signed the petition can write an email to Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell asking to have their names removed. He said the idea for that came after he read the laws regarding removing a name from a petition. Apparently, the process is to send a letter requesting your name is removed and providing a personal identifier — a Social Security number, driver’s license number, etc. — to the lieutenant governor.

“They can send a letter in and it doesn’t have to be notarized why can’t they just sent an email in?” Hackney remembered thinking. He said Treadwell agreed with his reading of the law and the website was born. “As long as you have the accurate information they have to take their name off of it.”

Duhamel said that signatures will be gathered at Fireside Books in Palmer, at the Friday Flings also in Palmer, and weekdays at the DMV in Palmer from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone who wants to sign but can’t get to those places can call her at 982-6828.

On Monday and Tuesday, she said, economist Richard Fineberg will give a presentation about the tax cut at the Mad Hatcher’s restaurant on Palmer-Fishhook Road at 7 p.m.

“Come for food and a really good discussion about how the economics of the oil tax giveaways actually work,” Duhamel said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.