Does the Alaska House of Representatives have the votes to approve Alaska\u2019s first income tax since 1980?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working on it,\u201d Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon told reporters at a Tuesday morning press conference.<\/p>\n
With time winding down in the Alaska Legislature\u2019s 121-day limit, the coalition House Majority\u2019s plan to erase Alaska\u2019s $2.8 billion annual deficit appears to be in trouble.<\/p>\n
The coalition is backing House Bill 115, which includes a statewide income tax and spending from the earnings of the Permanent Fund to erase much of the deficit. A separate measure, House Bill 111, would increase oil production taxes and cut oil drilling subsidies to deal with remaining parts of the deficit.<\/p>\n
Now, some of the coalition\u2019s members are wavering on the income tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still not a 100 percent \u2018yes\u2019 when it hits the floor,\u201d said Rep. Jason Grenn, I-Anchorage, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, also declined to say that he is a firm \u201cyes\u201d vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cParts of House Bill 115 will change and need to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The House Majority has 22 members: 3 Republicans, 17 Democrats, and 2 independents. If Ortiz and Grenn aren\u2019t certain \u201cyes\u201d votes in a vote of the full House, that would leave the majority one vote shy of what\u2019s needed to pass the bill.<\/p>\n
In addition to serving as members of the majority, Grenn and Ortiz are members of the powerful House Finance Committee, which is considering HB 115.<\/p>\n
With Grenn and Ortiz uncertain, the committee abruptly canceled a Tuesday afternoon meeting that had been scheduled to pass the bill to a vote of the full House.<\/p>\n
Committee co-chairman Paul Seaton, R-Homer and author of HB 115, said the cancellation came because legislative staff needed more time to re-draft the bill to incorporate amendments passed Monday.<\/p>\n
Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla and a member of the finance committee, doesn\u2019t believe that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re having a hard time, or it would\u2019ve already went,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tilton is a member of the House\u2019s Republican minority, and other members of that minority also believe the majority is having problems finding enough votes for a bill that contains an income tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing canceled today is a good indicator,\u201d Tilton said.<\/p>\n
While the income tax is favored by a majority of Southeast residents, according to statewide polling, it remains unpopular in the rest of the state. It is unclear whether a single member of the Republican minority will vote in its favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have the votes for 115,\u201d said Rep. Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage and a minority member of the finance committee.<\/p>\n
Grenn said his principal concern is how the income tax relates to trusts. How would it affect someone who relies on a trust for their income?<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to be comfortable explaining that,\u201d Grenn said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t affect very many people, but those it does affect, it affects in a big way. That could be a big thing that could make the bill not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ortiz said he expects only that the bill will change before it leaves the committee.<\/p>\n
Leaving the committee is a significant milestone. That would show that it has the support of Grenn and Ortiz and would be likely to pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so,\u201d said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage and vice-chairman of the finance committee, when asked whether the bill is likely to pass a floor vote. \u201cI\u2019ve counted wrong before, but I\u2019m pretty confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does the Alaska House of Representatives have the votes to approve Alaska\u2019s first income tax since 1980? \u201cWe\u2019re working on it,\u201d Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon told reporters at a Tuesday morning press conference. With time winding down in the Alaska Legislature\u2019s 121-day limit, the coalition House Majority\u2019s plan to erase Alaska\u2019s $2.8 billion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":12335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,95,230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-alaska-state-budget","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12334"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}