By ROBERT SEITZ
July 27, 2026 – Two special sessions down and another one just started Monday.
It is time to realize additional taxes won’t encourage investment. Oil flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is not sufficient for the royalties from crude oil to fill Alaska coffers enough to cover necessary expenses for the State. Now is the time to put on the thinking cap and ponder what is best for Alaska.
There are TV and radio ads that tout a Dunleavy Decline and claim that he did not provide proper leadership. For certain he did provide leadership with his fiscal plan for this year’s Legislature. He proposed a revised property tax plan that would encourage investment, and he proposed a tax plan which would be modest but tolerable as Alaska regrows its extraction industries and builds the royalty base to a viable state.
The Glenfarne proposal is out there with a request to provide a property tax relief that will not be able to over burden the AkLNG project with property taxes from the multiple towns, boroughs and municipality until there is marketable flow of LNG shipping out of Alaska to the overseas customers. The objective is to have the project to be free of encumbrances which might fully discourage investors from participating in the project.
The attempt to try to add new S corporation taxes was definitely a wrong approach. Alaska is not in a position to fund much of anything through taxation as there is not that much money flowing in our economy, as we have not had enough projects or large enough projects to bring that kind of cash flow to the State. Corporations need to have good profits so that they can finance whatever future projects they might have planned. S corporation also need to be able to accumulate cash from their business so they have funds to finance their planned projects.
Consider, that if the “clean” revised property tax bill as submitted by Gov. Dunleavy is passed and the AkLNG project is officially started contracts will be signed, orders placed and work started on the gas pipeline. Cash will begin flowing and workers will show up for work, both Alaskans and outsiders. Some of the S corporations will dust off some of their project plans that will become more viable with the progress of the AkLNG project which will enhance the economic activity as well.
The projects will last long enough to encourage some of the businesses which have closed in recent years to reopen or to be replaced by new businesses, to further boost the new economy. Then, once the S corporations are not threatened with new taxes maybe some of them will invest more in the Cook Inlet infrastructure to further increase natural gas production so that Cook Inlet gas does not need to be preceded with “declining.” Other endeavors might also be revived once the environment is more attractive to potential investors. North to a new future.
Robert Seitz is a professional electrical engineer and longtime Alaskan.
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One thought on “Robert Seitz: It’s time for the Legislature to realize you can’t tax Alaska to prosperity”
Mom is a full on commie and she tried to hide it by joining the Republican Party years ago. But she is unmasked, largely due to her political donors who helped her make a comeback in the state senate. There are others like her who hide out as RINOs or Independents. But the word is now getting around. Don’t trust any of them. They are all liars with mental illness. Mom is a megalomaniac and needs senior emotional and mental therapy. It’s why I moved to Canada.