Legislature should get going on oil and gas tax reform

To the editor:

The proposed education funding change the Legislature is considering is a poorly thought-out bill for several reasons.

First, there is no evidence that giving vouchers to private and religious schools will improve education in Alaska. Second, it will either increase the cost of education or reduce the dollars available for our public schools and the taxpayers will pick up the slack.

The conservative legislators who support this effort seem to have overlooked the fact that there will always be parents who are unhappy with the school system, who want an alternative and are willing to pay for their choice. It would be wrong for taxpayers to have to pay for that choice.

Then we have the state rules and regulations to qualify for the vouchers. There goes your alternate choice. Don’t we already have a system for homeschooling, and charter schools? How many choices do we need? And these legislators are anxious to change our state Constitution to achieve this voucher system. We should let the religious and private schools be.

They do have some advantages over our public schools, such as discipline without being used for breaking the law, to mention one.

Then there’s the voucher system itself. In addition to the legitimate private and religious schools, it will open up a Pandora’s box of schools just to get the money. How will that be controlled? By creating another bureaucracy? Remember, no government gives money away without strings attached. I think this whole issue is academic anyway because if it goes before the voters it will fail. Are there any more issues that the Legislature can waste their time on? Why isn’t oil and gas tax reform being debated every day and dominating the news?

We blamed the last Legislature for doing nothing on oil and gas because of the Democratic controlled coalition. The Republicans are in control of both houses and this time there’s no coalition to blame, only Republicans. The voters turned the Legislature around in the November 2012 election because we wanted something done with oil and gas taxes. The voters can change it back around in 2014 (next year) if nothing is done.

The voucher system wasn’t even an issue until this year. I think it is time to start moving ahead on what the voters expect and want. If the voucher system doesn’t get settled this year the state won’t be hurt. If the oil and gas taxes are not reformed this year the state will suffer and the oil volume flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System will continue to decline 6 percent annually.

I think all Alaskans have a right to expect this Legislature to get going on oil and gas tax reform before the end of the 2013 session. If not 2014, is not that far away.

Bob Lewis

Wasilla