Oil tax repeal referendum clears initial hurdles

JUNEAU — A citizen-led referendum to repeal oil tax legislation is making progress in its journey to reach the 2014 ballot.

State Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said there are a few steps left in the process to place the question on the ballot, but the referendum has cleared some of those initial hurdles.

To be certified by Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, referendum backers had 90 days to gather 30,169 signatures, or 10 percent of the voters in the last general election. Of those voters, Alaska law requires that at least 7 percent of the signatures be from 30 of Alaska’s 40 House districts.

Count totals released early Monday morning say that 31,673 voters qualified in the initial computer verification of the list. Fenumiai said the next step is to manually review the more than 7,400 questioned signatures.

She said the work of crosschecking the names on the list with voter rolls is expected to be complete by the end of August.

“Our role is to qualify as many signers as possible and then will pass the info on to the lieutenant governor for review and determination,” Fenumiai said. “Nothing is official until the lieutenant governor has certified.”

The ballot initiative is the next chapter in Alaska’s years-long debate about whether levels of taxation are stifling investment in the oil fields. Senate Bill 21, passed by the Legislature earlier this year, greatly reduces tax liability for oil companies but does not tie those cuts to guarantees of increased production.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.