By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 26, 2026 – Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is making his 2013 vote against Alaska’s oil tax overhaul a point of pride in his campaign for governor. He says the state should take another look at how much it collects from oil production. Most Alaskans, when asked on the ballot in 2014, voted against JKT’s vote.
“Of the 17 candidates in [this race for governor] I’m the only one who voted against [SB 21],” Kreiss-Tomkins said this summer before the primary, declaring himself the outlier. “I’m very proud of that vote, and I think it’s clear from the diminished oil and gas revenue that Alaska gets that we’re sort of due to revisit the tax system.”
The vote puts a consequential part of his legislative record before voters. Senate Bill 21 replaced Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share, or ACES, the radical oil production tax passed by Democrats and enacted under Gov. Sarah Palin in 2007. ACES was an elastic tax system, taking more for the state as the price of oil went up, making it impossible for companies to make business decisions based on what could be predicted.
SB 21 eliminated that escalating rate and established a straight 35% tax on net production value, with per-barrel credits and provisions intended to encourage new oil development.
Kreiss-Tomkins, in an August interview, called the current $8 per-barrel credit “very overly generous” and said the minimum tax should be examined. He also argued that Hilcorp should pay state corporate income tax. In other words, he is going to target the company that took over North Slope operations once British Petroleum decided to exit the state.
Tax uncertainty was a big part of BP’s decision to exit, as Alaska has constantly rewritten its oil tax system (ELF, PPT, ACES under Palin, then SB21 in 2013). BP executives told the Legislature that “ongoing oil tax uncertainty” and “tax risks” were factors for how the Alaska assets were evaluated by the company and put Alaska on the sale short-list.
JKT’s position revives an argument Alaska voters have heard before. After the Legislature passed SB 21, opponents like JKT sought to repeal it at the ballot box. In the 2014 primary election, voters kept the law: 52.7% voted against repeal and 47.3% voted for it.
Kreiss-Tomkins says Alaska gets too little from its oil and wants to revisit parts of SB 21. With a Democrat majority likely to take over in November, Alaska may be in for a rough patch, as once again the ever-changing oil tax system makes investors balk.
17 thoughts on “Kreiss-Tomkins says he is proud of voting against SB 21, wants to revisit oil taxes”
I guess he’s never heard about the results coming on line, like Pikka..
Sounds like he’s never met a tax he didn’t like – must have learned from Berkowitz in Anchorage.
JKT means Alaska Government gets too little from the oil taxes. But it means more money are being put into the paychecks of more Alaskans and other Americans directly working for the companies to send the oil into markets; as well as paycheck dollars spread over a variety of workers who serve the oil industry employees either collecting rents, airlines, mortgages, hotels, restaurants, grocers, etc.
Currently Alaska spends on itself 14 billion. Thats more than enough. Does Alaska government Really need more money from the oil industry in increased taxes?
“TAXING Ourselves to Prosperity” …
It may appeal to some but it’s a fatal approach that won’t deliver desired results but, voters and local businesses will definitely feel // experience the ultimate outcome, as history has proven!
The same old failed Democrat economic policy: Tax them into productivity.
Let’s be clear – this fella is hostile to industry of almost all kinds – except individual fishermen, of course. He wants a high-tax, high-cost, no-growth Alaska. Private industry is bad and resource development is inherently bad. Government and NGOs will grow and control. I am not exaggerating.
Other than serving several undistinguished terms in the Legislature, what on God’s green earth has he accomplished in his life? Has he managed an organization or had to please a boss? Wake up Alaska.
The last three words in your comment are more important, by three orders of magnitude, than all the other words combined.
Maybe JKT can tell us where Alaska’s money comes from. Fishing? Nope. Mining? Nope. Timber? Nope. JMARK is correct, I bet JKT wouldn’t like the EPA and eco whack job regulatory agencies futzing around with his fishing business like they’ve been applied on the oil & gas, timber and mining industries. Leftists like The Kriess (ala Bill Walker) make money off of the same industry that they vilify. If not for oil & gas, most of these mental midgets wouldn’t have come up here. Everything in this state, directly or indirectly, feeds off of oil revenues. When they continue to raid and eliminate the PFD account, their voting base may leave before they do. Go ahead JKT, run the host out of the state. Like parasites in the animal world, once it’s dead, he and his ilk will move on to their next victim.
JKT’s vast experience as a presumed-homosexual legislator seems to go hand in hand with creating a broader tax policy for Alaska. He will eliminate the PFD. Implement state income taxes. Force higher taxes on resource production and small businesses. Double the budget for Department of Education and HSS. And give the teacher’s unions and public sector unions avenues to create mandatory LGBTQ and DEI instruction in our public schools. Mandatory! This is the real fight that homosexuals desire in our society. In your face……straight persons. He wants to create a society where transexuals, lesbians and homosexuals are in charge. It’s THE most important policy for LGBTQ leaders. Voters beware.
Seriously? This guy is all for more taxes? I never would have guessed…..
Ol’ Jazz Hands JKT doing his tim Walz impression
To repeat: Rank All 3 (Wilson, Bronson, Taylor)in the governor’s race or end up with radical leftist homosexual JKT as Alaska’s next governor. Follow up with YES ON 2.
“Revisiting” oil taxes is killing us. We’re like Cardenas, the Ba’ath Party, Mossedegh, or Carlos Perez nationalizing their industries. The only predictability is unpredictability.
Parasites.
That’s all folks!
Bugs Bunny…..or Porky Pig? How do we get these creatures as candidates for high office?
Lance, the Alphabet Mafia has likely had their eye on JKT for some time. Just like with Talifreako in Texas. With Alaska and RCV voting they knew their chance to turn Alaska blue could happen if they got JKT elected as governor. So the money began pouring in from outside AK plus consultants grooming him on how to hide his real self from voters.
During the campaign to repeal SB-21, the oil companies spent around $30 million telling Alaskans that if SB-21 is repealed their Alaska profits would no longer be profitable enough to warrant further investments in Alaska. At the time, after all their expenses, including taxes, were paid, BP was taking home a net profit of $28 to $32 per barrel; their highest net anywhere on earth. While crying poverty to Alaska’s voters, they simultaneously signed a contract whit the government of Iraq agreeing to produce their oil for $2 per barrel plus cost. In other words they were netting $32 per barrel in Alaska, and, to this day, BP is paid $2 per barrel for each barrel produced in Iraq. The passage of SB-21 is why your roads are full of potholes and your PFD’s are a fraction of their former size.