Who killed off HB 381? Sen. Robert Myers tells the backstory

By SUZANNE DOWNING

July 18, 2026 – The collapse of the Alaska gasline tax legislation, known as House Bill 381, is raising new questions about what legislative leaders knew, when they knew it, and why a sweeping compromise involving the Alaska LNG project was rushed to a vote with little time for scrutiny. The bill started out at 7 pages, but the final version, sprung at the last minute, was 45 pages.

Sen. Robert Myers, a North Pole Republican known at the Capitol for his measured approach, laid out a detailed timeline Friday that challenges claims that Glenfarne Alaska LNG had agreed to the conference committee’s final version of the bill.

Myers began with a seemingly simple question: Who canceled the HB 381 conference committee meeting scheduled for 4 pm Wednesday, July 15? He is pointing out that there’s some rotten meat in all the sausage making that went on during the recent special session.

Committee meetings are canceled routinely, Myers acknowledged. But the usual explanations are absent members, unfinished drafting or unavailable presenters. Those do not appear to fit what happened next.

After the conference committee report failed Thursday on a 19-19 House vote, reports circulated that Glenfarne had agreed to the compromise language during a Wednesday afternoon conversation. Glenfarne is the private-sector lead developer pursuing the proposed 800-mile Alaska LNG pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska.

Myers said he had no firsthand knowledge of whether that conversation occurred or precisely what was discussed. His questions focus instead on whether Glenfarne was shown enough of the proposal to understand all its provisions, particularly the new pass-through entity tax and the reporting requirements involving the gasline project.

“If an agreement on everything in the bill was reached, why cancel the meeting?” Myers asked somewhat rhetorically.

The conference committee draft was dated Tuesday, indicating that Legislative Legal Services had completed the document by then. If Glenfarne had agreed Wednesday that the legislation met the project’s financing needs, Myers said legislative leaders had every incentive to release it immediately, publicly announce the company’s support and give lawmakers and the public time to absorb the news.

Such an announcement could have helped proponents defend the controversial tax on pass-through businesses, including S corporations, by arguing that the gasline developer believed the overall package remained workable.

Instead, no such campaign occurred.

The conference committee report was released Thursday morning. Minority lawmakers’ requests for analysis and comments from the Department of Revenue were rejected, Myers said. There was no major press conference or structured public presentation explaining the purported agreement with Glenfarne. The bill was pushed toward committee action and floor votes within hours.

“That’s not how the Legislature treats a bill that has the agreement of the most important party in a deal that will drive the state’s economy for the next half-century or more,” Myers wrote.

He said the rushed process looked more like an effort to move a deeply flawed bill before lawmakers and the public could understand its full effect.

Myers also questioned why House and Senate minority members were excluded from discussions until 8 a.m. Thursday. Republican minority lawmakers in both chambers had strongly supported legislation intended to improve the gasline’s ability to secure financing.

If Glenfarne truly had accepted the conference committee language, Myers reasoned, telling minority lawmakers earlier would have put them in a difficult position. They opposed the pass-through entity tax, but some might have supported the overall bill if the project developer confirmed that the package would enable financing to proceed.

That could have generated crossover votes and placed significant pressure on opponents to approve a tax they disliked in exchange for advancing the gasline.

It did not happen.

Myers also identified language on Page 28 of the conference committee report that he believes deserves considerably more attention.

The language would have exempted the gasline from the pass-through entity tax. But another provision would have allowed a future Department of Revenue commissioner to require the project’s owners to submit informational tax returns as though they were subject to the tax.

The requirement also would have applied to the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, or AGDC, whose filing would have become a public record.

AGDC itself would not owe the tax because it is a state entity. Myers said the reporting requirement therefore appears unnecessary unless the information was intended to help lawmakers or a future administration revive the tax later.

Alaska maintains strict taxpayer-confidentiality protections. But Myers warned that a publicly available AGDC return, combined with public information about the corporation’s ownership percentage, could potentially be used to calculate the broader project’s income and tax exposure.

That, he said, could indirectly reveal confidential financial information involving Glenfarne and other private investors — and supply ammunition to those seeking to impose the tax on the gasline in the future.

Alaska’s Constitution prevents the state from permanently surrendering its taxing authority, meaning no Legislature can guarantee that a future Legislature will not revisit the project’s tax treatment. Myers argued, however, that there is a significant difference between recognizing that constitutional reality and intentionally collecting information that could make a future tax easier to impose.

“Why would Glenfarne have agreed to put a target on their backs, and the backs of any other potential investor, like that?” he asked.

Suzanne Downing: The Alaska Senate’s $800 million temper tantrum

HB 381 began as legislation designed to replace local property taxes during the gasline’s construction period with a volumetric tax paid after gas begins flowing. Supporters said the change was needed to improve the project’s financial viability and prevent construction-period property taxes from being passed immediately to utility customers.

The House approved a relatively narrow version of the bill. The Senate added several unrelated or substantially expanded provisions, including the pass-through entity tax. Business organizations and industry groups urged lawmakers to reject the tax and pass a clean gasline bill.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy repeatedly warned that the tax provision had not been adequately examined and said he would veto a bill containing it. The conference committee nevertheless retained the tax, setting up Thursday’s failed House vote and the near-failure of the report in the Senate.

Dunleavy unloads on Senate leaders after HB 381 fails: ‘That’s bullshit’

Dunleavy has called lawmakers back to Juneau for another special session beginning July 27.

Myers stopped short of accusing anyone of falsely representing Glenfarne’s position. He repeatedly emphasized that he was not part of the reported Wednesday conversation and did not know what was said.

But he said the Legislature’s conduct did not match its subsequent claims.

“Actions taken on Wednesday and Thursday do not line up with the statements of an agreement with Glenfarne,” Myers wrote. “That makes me question whether such an agreement with enough detail shared to survive scrutiny was made in the first place.”

Governor Dunleavy: ‘If the legislature passes the bill in its current form, I will veto it’