Posted on 09/04/2008 6:57:35 AM PDT by steve-b
On tax policy, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has a rather uninspiring, albeit brief, record. The following is some information gleaned from State Tax Notes.
Palin supported and signed into law a $1.5 billion tax increase on oil companies in the form of higher severance taxes. One rule of thumb is that higher taxes cause less investment. Sure enough, State Tax Notes reported (January 7): “After ACES was passed, ConocoPhillips, Alaska's most active oil exploration company and one of the top three producers, announced it was canceling plans to build a diesel fuel refinery at the Kuparuk oil field. ConocoPhillips blamed the cancellation on passage of ACES [the new tax]. The refinery would have allowed the company to produce low-sulfur diesel fuel onsite for its vehicles and other uses on the North Slope, rather than haul the fuel there from existing refineries.”
There are good reasons for an oil-rich state to tax oil production, but a fiscal conservative would usually use any tax increase to reduce taxes elsewhere. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I see no evidence that Palin offered any major tax cuts. She did propose sending $1.2 billion of state oil revenues to individuals and utility companies in the form of monthly payments to reduce energy bills, but that sounds like welfare to me, not tax cuts.
Palin has offered a few narrow or minor tax breaks, including:
A tax credit for film production in the state, offering about $20 million per year in breaks.
A cut in an annual business license fee from $100 to $25 (the legislature went half way to $50).
A one-year suspension of the state fuel tax to save taxpayers about $40 million.
A repeal of tire taxes to save taxpayers $2 million.
A tax credit for commercial salmon harvesting to save taxpayers about $2 million.
That's about it.
Obviously, this guy isn’t an economist.
What is a severance tax? A tax on extraction of commodities from one state for resale in another state.
ConocoPhilips' canceled project was for a refinery that was - to quote the source - "to produce low-sulfur diesel fuel onsite for its vehicles and other uses on the North Slope, rather than haul the fuel there from existing refineries."
Question: How does a severance tax apply to diesel that is being extracted in Alaska for use in Alaska?
Answer: It doesn't.
I like Palin too but are you saying that anyone who criticizes her tax record is “LIBERAL?” Neither Obama or Palin should be treated as perfect messiahs. No politician deserves that status.
no LIBERAL but LIBERTARIAN. Think Bob Barr.
You said exactly what I was thinking when I started to read this tripe.
In Alaska thanks to the Governor, they don't have to pay gasoline taxes for a year. Are any of the rest of our states doing the same thing? Not in Oklahoma that's for sure -- they wanted to raise ours which was defeated!
It's my knowledge that the Cato Institute is hard left on social issues - while supporting libertarian economic policies.
When I think Bob Barr I think ACLU and I think out of control ego. Nuf ced.
I guess this jackass missed the part where Alaska HAS NO PERSONAL INCOME TAX OR STATE SALES TAX.
It's impossible to cut taxes that don't exist!
The last few days have left me with a profound mystery -- how can some people fling so much feces while living on a steady diet of Kool-Aid?
A. it sounds like she did. B. The CATO institute needs to do a clean up of their own idiot staff. They are supposed to be something like intellectual sophisticated and honest, even though they are really another bunch of K street lobbyists trying to get taxes reduced - not for you and me - but for their paying clients, BIG OIL.
Q. Why do you tax companies. A. It's like robbing banks. That is where the money is.
The real question about taxes, as Milton Friedman used to remind us, is whether or not we are getting out money's worth. Well, we aren't. But that isn't the part CATO is worried about.
BTW does anyone see the oxymoronic nature of a libertarian lobbyist group, of never done anything in their lives quasi-academics.
Libertarians ARE “left” on “social issues”, ie, they are libertines. They believe in no laws restricting individual behavior as long as that behavior doesn’t affect others.
Unfortunately, most “victimless” behaviors DO have an effect on others.
Personally, I think if we’d go about one generation where there were no “social programs” that alleviated the consequences for dumbass personal behaviorial decisions, there wouldn’t need to be any laws regarding those behaviors.
Not to mention that there is no state personal income tax or state sales tax. But I see that these facts aren't mentioned. Alaska actually has a NEGATIVE tax rate for individuals, how can that possibly be considered "uninspiring"?
Rants about BIG OIL? Did I somehow get connected to barackisthemessiah.com?
ok but they will love her stand on AGW and ANWR
Yeah, I guess the $500,000,000 she cut out of the Alaska state budget her first year in office doesn’t matter, either.
The Cato Cailin Institute needs to bone up on its basic economics skills.
Where did CATO find this bloviating dweeb. He should be a liberal. A cut in business license fees is only a cut that affects everyone who has a small business (CATO is for that isn't it?). Tire taxes (I guess that doens't help Alaskans who all go to work on dog sleds). Salmon fishing - aren't fishing boat owners sort of the definition of a small business.
Well, CATO just flushed its rep down the toilet.
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