Alaska Politics Blog : Hide the children! Shutter the windows!

Alaska Politics Blog

This is the place to talk about Alaska politics -- state, local, national. Public life in the Last Frontier has probably never been more interesting than right now -- the governor as candidate for vice president, the broad and still-evolving corruption investigation, a big election, powerful members of Congress under scrutiny, and the usual hardball Alaska politics. Come here for news, tidbits and information, and join the discussion. Keep your comments civil and on point. Avoid personal attacks. Do not use profanity. Posts that violate the Terms of Use will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.

Contributors

Erika Bolstad

Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He spent three years based in Juneau for the ADN before joining the Tacoma News-Tribune to write about Washington state politics. He went to Iraq twice for the News Tribune, and previously wrote about Alaska government and politics for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers politics and other stories for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously was a reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com

Features

SECTION

Alaska political corruption

The FBI raided state legislatures offices in Aug. 2006, and the fallout since has been epic in Alaska's political world.

Hide the children! Shutter the windows!

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: August 22, 2008 - 3:44 pm

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Wow.

Judging by the cover, I half expected to open this new campaign flier featuring former Gov. Frank Murkowski (above) and read that he's about to stomp through Alaska, stealing babies like the frigging chupacabra. Instead, it talks about Ballot Measure 4 and says Murkowski weakened rules for allowing "toxic mining discharge" in streams.

"This Tuesday, you have a chance to give back the salmon protection Murkowski took away," the flier says, next to a picture of what looks like raw sewage spewing into a grassy lake.

Is Murkowski now officially the boogeyman of Alaska politics?

Here's the other side of the flier, which is paid for by Alaskans for Clean Water, the pro-Ballot Measure 4 people:

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10 August 24, 2008 - 12:27pm | fsmith

Kohring: Bought early by big oil, stayed bought!

2002 Contributions to Kohring - Bought early, stayed bought!

Just checked, thanks to a poster below, to see who gave to Kohring. He was an unknown, subbed in late in a general election campaign for a withdrawing fundy preacher in Wasilla. Over $60 grand! Almost everyone who maxed out to Vic was a Veco employee or relative, but there were also Cornell prison interests represented. Hardly anyone else gave him anything. He was running against Pat Carney, a representative who never had the oil industry on his Christmas gift list. There were no Healths or Palins that year, though. When he was talking Jesus in Mat-Su, he was talking oil tax breaks in Juneau and Anchorage and cash for cons in Houston, Texas.

9 August 23, 2008 - 11:03am | kwalters

Executive Order 107 is Fascist Frank's Crowning Jewel...

some of the rest...

THE JET: No one wanted it except Frank. It couldn't land on rural gravel runways and the state eventually lost nearly $600,000 on it.

Net Profits Sweetheart Deal for the Producers: Bought and paid for by the Producers via VECO and Fascist Frank!

Pardoned Whitewater Engineering, found guilty of murdering Gary Stone. Stone was a 46 year old husband and father who didn't want to work in avalanche conditions and was then killed by an avalanche. Frank has a soft side when it comes to corporate MURDER!

The Lame Duck Asia Junket. Frank and his cronies flew to Asia on Alaska's dime just a month or so before his last day in office. Milk it buddy!

The energy conference in Texas-Frank took the jet out for a spin as a lame duck governor to an energy conference in Houston after dropping Nancy off in Utah. Bilked the state out of tens of thousands of dollars over the cost of 2 first class tickets. Frank loves to travel in style.

On and on and on...

So...Vote YES ON 4! Vote YES as an FU to Frank! Show Fascist Frank just how much you still care...

8 August 23, 2008 - 10:33am | rfn

Postal employees

apparently were greatly concerned earlier this week that the automated cancelling equipment as exerting excessive pressure on bulk mailings. The pressure causing the release of noxious odors from "scratch & sniff" inserts in the hit pieces being sent out on behalf of initiatives and, particularly, from one politician under investigation.

Turned out it was OK. The odor was entirely natural and would have been anticipated had anyone actually read any of the matrial before allowing it to be run through the machines.

No employees were sent home; no post offices had to be evacuated or closed.

August 24, 2008 - 10:13am | akgen

well,

I'm not too sure about the PO employees, but my granite counter tops sorta melted when I put the flyer down.

Thank god for the burn pit next to the barn. My sweetie was able to take the toxic photo of Frank and burn it, right away.

On another note, I heard the Mat Su women republican club members are all preggo. And that it does have something to do with Sarah. Have you 'heard' anything about the due dates?

August 24, 2008 - 2:15pm | Gus_Davis

It's kinda like this?

she displayed no trace of fear or concern. Shown the results of her pregnancy test, she responded: “Sweet!” She then rushed off to tell her friends.

August 24, 2008 - 2:26pm | AK_Lady

They should have those babies here!

Then they'd get TWO dividends and TWO resource rebates (or whatever the hell they're calling them).

August 24, 2008 - 11:52am | AK_Lady

What?

Sarah is getting women pregnant?

Is it true that Sarah's new baby looks a lot like Frank Bailey?

August 24, 2008 - 12:34pm | desaerica

You are out of line.

Your no class comment is beyond the pale.

August 24, 2008 - 12:41pm | AK_Lady

Flag it

song writer.

August 24, 2008 - 1:10pm | Cartman3_15

Already

done.

August 24, 2008 - 1:12pm | AK_Lady

Ha!

The baby does look like Frank! What's wrong with that? Love those round bald heads!

August 24, 2008 - 11:41am | rfn

I have heard of

photos of Murkowski being kept away from expectant women for fear of the unborn being "marked". This is the first, however, I have hard of those photos having anything to with pregnancies. As to the rest of the thought, consider the old saw: "Monkey See, Monkey Do".

7 August 23, 2008 - 2:02am | breogg

chupacabra

thank you kyle for the chupacabra reference.
it is exactly the term one should utilize when describing the murk.

6 August 22, 2008 - 10:58pm | desaerica

Frank.....

Yank Frank from the bank to the tank that goes clank.
If he blinks while in the clink, let's all wink and ignore the stink.

5 August 22, 2008 - 7:22pm | pixieteeth

Heard we had minions

This just proves it.

4 August 22, 2008 - 6:44pm | Diogenes_lamp

hey Doc...

Just think of Murky as just another of the crooks that you have supported.
Don, Ted, Frank...Did you vote for Ben too...?

August 22, 2008 - 9:36pm | TheSdog

Dim one

I never supported murkowski either. Nice use of the Palin Posse falshoods though.

August 22, 2008 - 9:42pm | Gus_Davis

Posse'?

You got a Posse?

Who are they after? Are their horses fresh?

Let's figure this out before we wear out the horses.

August 22, 2008 - 10:03pm | palmerbuyer

Do I get

a 'deputy' badge? huh? huh?

August 22, 2008 - 10:47pm | Gus_Davis

Is your name Cop?

Is your name Kopp?

August 23, 2008 - 7:41am | palmerbuyer

No........

how about a 'hat' then?

August 24, 2008 - 2:42pm | Gus_Davis

Well sure,

See if THIS ONE fits.

If it does, You're conscripted into Frank's posse! If not try another.

We got all sort of posses' gettin' together!

3 August 22, 2008 - 5:12pm | TheSdog

Using backlash

on a ballot initiative.

It is surprising that The Palin does not support this anti-business initiative. Maybe she will change her mind since its supporters are using her only and one strategy.

August 23, 2008 - 8:38am | Lysander_Spooner

Wishful thinking

The "anti-business" talking point of the anti-Palin mob is perhaps its most silly, given all available evidence.

Between her stated support for the mining industry through her opposition to Ballot Measure 4 and her obvious fighting for the oil industry with the polar bear lawsuit, reasonable people see someone who understands the value of industry to this state.

But I don't expect the critics to refrain from continuing to sing the same ridiculous, and obviously baseless, tune.

August 23, 2008 - 9:37am | TheSdog

A governor

that rises taxes on an industry to highest marginal rate in the world is not pro-business.

August 24, 2008 - 12:38pm | Cartman3_15

Right.

So by extension, a governor who fights for the mining industry by taking the recent stand she did, and fights for the right of the oil industry to operate in this state with the polar bear lawsuit, can only be anti-business.

Don't you think your "logic" is a wee bit silly? This is why it is laughable to hear you proclaim yourself a "realist".

By definition, to be a realist, you must live in the real world of the way things are, not the make-believe world of how you think things should be.

August 23, 2008 - 10:29am | rfn

Please update us!

I had not read in The ADN, heard on radio, or seen on TV that the legislature had abandoned the authority to raise taxes to the executive branch!

The figures alleging "highest" need to recalibrated almost daily as the rate is dependent on the price of oil and is only applied to the obscene profits which roll in when the prices get outrageously high. Pity they (the taxes) are not applied at a somewhat lower rate to the gross. Then the rate would look comfortably low but the actual receipts would be much higher as the creative accounting that conceals the true amount of profit would be, if not impossible, at least much more difficult.

Perhaps re-check that "highest" assertion in light of the percentage being applied to today's lower (but still not low enough to escape "obscene") world prices.

August 23, 2008 - 10:18am | kwalters

SDOG...BS! Back it up with fact.

Show me a table comparing Alaska's Tax rate of the Oil industry to other oil producing states. You are repeating a lie. A lie repeated often enough eventually passes as truth.

August 24, 2008 - 12:33pm | Cartman3_15

He has few facts,

but plenty of baseless and oft-repeated talking points.

August 24, 2008 - 12:42pm | AK_Lady

Yeah

I noticed kwalters didn't have a response to Sdog. :)

August 25, 2008 - 6:17pm | kwalters

KW is awaiting a response from SDOG to back up his claim...

He doesn't have any proof. No comparison of oil based economies...NOTHING.

Still waiting for the proof to back up his BS.

Alaska has been colonized for far too long by big oil and mining interests. The Producers are STILL making record profits. Alaskans are only starting to get our fair share. The FBI investigation is only scratching the surface.

Fascists GO HOME!

August 26, 2008 - 9:20am | TheSdog

Name one regime taxing higher.

Good luck, there is not one.

By the way, are you paying a 90+% marginal tax rate?

If their profits are obscene why is it not obscene that the government take is an even bigger number?

August 27, 2008 - 8:42am | Cartman3_15

Looks like

you just got smacked down. Again.

You really shouldn't say stuff you can't back up.

August 28, 2008 - 11:13am | TheSdog

Learn how to read cartman

It may help you to be something greater than totally irrelevant.

August 23, 2008 - 10:46am | TheSdog

The kind of table you want does not exist in the way you want it because taxes can be applied in many different ways as everyone here understands after the debate on exactly what to tax. You also need to calculate all of the other taxes in which up here includes all the federal taxes they pay down to FICA and Medicare. What is more, if you do go to make such a table you can tweek it to gain or lose a percentage here or there.

More than 50% of the oil companies revenue on oil goes to the state and that is before you even get to the feds or other state taxes on income and property. That does not even touch payroll either. That means for all the talk about obscene and windfall profits the government is still getting more. Taxes are far more obscene than profits.

Here are a couple of links for you which will show you that at $92.50 per barrell we were already at 75% which was pushing the highest rates and that now with where oil is at we are close to 93% with the progressivity.

Show me a country higher than 93%? Good luck.

The only people who know for sure are the oil companies when they do all their numbers and someone like yourself will call them liars even if what they say is true.

When you compare us to other states it is obscene enough. You cannot even begin to make an argument about us not being the highest in North America. We make California blush with our oil production tax and making California look like a low tax area takes some serious work. The wannabe socialist Canadians are not even in our league.

If you want to try and split hairs about whether we are higher or lower than places like Venezuela, Nigeria or socialist Norway you should really ask yourself what you are trying to do. We should be well below those places and if you have to ask the question if we actually are or not then we already have compromised ourselves.

August 25, 2008 - 6:22pm | kwalters

SHOW ME THE TAXES!!!

Still waiting for you to back up your claim Dog. You can't because it's not true.

August 23, 2008 - 11:24am | Cartman3_15

What crap

More diversionary BS and stale talking points that have NOTHING to do with getting the appropriate value for a commodity.

Face it, dog. You can't produce the proof he asked you for. But I'm sure you won't let that stop you from continuing to repeat the stuff or to try to frame the debate dishonestly.

August 23, 2008 - 12:54pm | TheSdog

cartman

The Palin, your hero, when she first proposed ACES wanted to put the marginal tax rate in the low 60s range. The argument at the time was it would put us in the middle.

The legislature took ACES and ran crazy with it. The Palin stood by silently and let it happen. By the time it was said and done we were in the 70s, 80s and 90s depending on the price of oil.

The only thing that keeps it from being a runaway victory for us as the highest oil production tax location in the world is that other countries have also raised their take.

It works out okay for The Palin though. She gets to grow government by 23% and bribe the populice with $1200 checks to maintain her socialist regime. Socialism works great when there is money, the problem is things have a way of catching up.

Now, if oil prices drop, we may not remain the highest but right now we are the highest. There is no debate on that fact with oil hovering around $120 let alone when it was $140.

August 23, 2008 - 11:53pm | Cartman3_15

It's easy to get

the result you want when you base your argument on bogus data.

August 23, 2008 - 11:27am | AK_Lady

How much is enough, Cartman?

99%?

Companies don't pay taxes; people do.

August 23, 2008 - 12:56pm | TheSdog

cartman

could care less about any tax that does not apply to him.

That is the way liberals operate. They want a fair share and never have to give any share.

August 23, 2008 - 11:34am | rfn

99%?

Maybe enough on the profits that aren't concealed through clever, creative accounting.

Of course if the tax were levied on the gross the percentage could be much lower and Alaska would still have far, far more revenue.

Then, think of the savings to our friendly neighborhood oilies in salaries paid to accountants and experts in the field of Leger-de-Main! Everybody would be millions of dollars ahead.

August 23, 2008 - 2:00pm | Diogenes_lamp

sdog ...

there was indeed a chart of tax schemes in the oil industry. It was given out during the debates over PPT. North Africa and specifically Morocco, if I remember correctly had by far the highest rate...in the mid 90%. but what you have to remember is oil companies are not making their product. They are producing it for the owners of the product. In our case, that would be us.
The oilys try to include everything they pay as a tax from Alaska. PPT allows them to deduct all business expenses first...everything...thus they are dealing only with profits. (this scheme was their idea to begin with)Obviously they do really well for themselves...ie record profits every quarter.
You should stick to things that you have some expertise on..like maybe removing warts or something.
If you are getting your often repeated stats from the oilys and their friends...I'm here to tell you it's BS. They were called on it in Juneau by some of the worlds leading consultants...over and over again. The same consultants said that the industry would make ample profits after the PPT revision passed. the oil companies cried they wouldn't....
Time has proved the consultants correct...the oilys are still crying fowl...and they are still here making record profits...and we are finally getting a fair share of OUR resources...not their resources.

August 23, 2008 - 3:02pm | TheSdog

Dim one

Time has not proven anything yet.

Tax changes take many years and even decades to change the economic climates. Your lack of understanding of how that works shows how shallow your understanding is. Projects are not planned and materialize in months.

The charts, as already mentioned, can be twisted to make a point. The numbers also change almost every day. The original ACES was supposed to put us in the middle and it went way beyond that when the legislature got it.

There is no arguing the point that with the progressivity and oil as high as it is the highest marginal tax rate on the oil companies is right here in Alaska. No amount of twisting cn change that.

It is amazing that someone like you complains about record profits and yet both the feds and the State of Alaska are bringing in more money on oil and gas taxes than the oil companies are making. Is that not obscene?

The problem is you do not see taxes as obscene. Again, fair share seems only to apply what you take and not what you give. I doubt you even pay a 30% marginal tax rate and yet you have no problem with a 90% rate on someone else.

Why ask somebody in an industry the question? They could not possibly know what they are talking about, right? Wrong, the people who know the industry the best happen to be the ones working in it.

You are shortsighted just like everyone in Juneau.

August 23, 2008 - 3:43pm | Diogenes_lamp

problem is...

I know what I'm talking about, and you know the talking points the oilys distribute. Without going into all the reasons why you don't know crap about it. I can tell you, you are a BSer.
Don't remember you being around during PPT. (because I know who was there) If I have a shallow understanding of the oil industry....you have none at all. My family has been in O & G for generations and I know quite well what went down before PPT and ACES and after. Don't kid yourself Doc...now go remove a mole.
oh, BTW...The oil companies only answer questions to their advantage. They remain silent on others. I saw it over and over again...sometimes they refused to answer even simple questions.
(hiding the truth) They want you to know, only what they want you to know. Get it Doc?

August 23, 2008 - 4:02pm | TheSdog

dim one

Business is a dirty game. You never know exactly what is in the other person's hand.

Here's the problem. You still have to do business.

The marginal tax rate on oil production is the highest in the world in Alaska right now. This not about PPT or even ELF, it is about what is going on now.

I am not beholden to oil companies or their talking points.

You do not need to ask them, all you need to do is look at the fact the feds and the SOA are making more money off of oil than the companies right now. That is obscene when the government is taking more in profit than the industry.

Now keep believing you can change a policy today and know the effects tomorrow. I will not even ask you to "get it" because it would be like asking a panda bear to not eat bamboo.

August 23, 2008 - 4:22pm | Diogenes_lamp

We own the resource Doc...

We are suppose to get the best value for our resources. You want to take your gage of what the industry says they pay at the highest peak or spike in market price and then pretend like that is what they pay as an average....hog wash.
At normal prices, before progressivity, we are in the middle of the pact in taxing schemes.
Guess who wanted higher progressivity at the high end, in exchange for concessions at the low end? That's right...the industry. Guess who wanted to go to a profits based tax instead of gross...that's right, the industry.
Didn't hear you speaking up for Alaska when we were giving all the profits to industry on certain fields because of ELF. Oh, that's right you had just got up here and didn't have a clue it was happening.
Doc, you don't have to lose any sleep because of the oil industry not making a mint...because they will, rest assured...they will just gouge us at the pumps...oh, they are already doing that.
Think like an Alaskan for a change, you're not in Texas anymore Doc.

August 23, 2008 - 4:32pm | TheSdog

dim one

We are not at "normal prices" and the definition of that has changed drastically. If we ever see $95 again we will be at a 75% marginal rate which is still very high.

Progressivity is a great idea but the base level and the rate of the progressivity is significantly higher than it should be.

So "best value" is your new tem for "fair share." How about we actually develop an economy instead of being entitlement driven wards of the state?

Interesting you mention the pumps and taxes in the same post. Guess what, the tax rate does affect the price at the pump.

Texas is attracting industry at a higher rate than any other state in the country right now.

They also are attracting doctors better than anybody else in the country right now.

Much of that is because they have put the reins on the legal system and made their tax structure attractive. At the same time, they are also pursuing alternative energy and have many other forward looking ideas.

This state could do far worse than to have some people thinking like Texans. Texas understands you need a vision that goes well past tomorrow.

August 23, 2008 - 4:54pm | Diogenes_lamp

No slam on texas...

Served some time in Texas City...you can have at it, and if they are attracting doctors...you've got it made! The point is you have no idea how much the industry makes here.
In a profit based taxing scheme, the write-offs are very sweet. Industry accountants are very skilled and gifted at their art. Many or all state taxes are deductible from their Federal taxes. They have Federal tax breaks and credits and substantial investment credits and breaks from the state to explore for new wells.
Their deal here in Alaska is a good one. I understand why they want all they can squeeze...so do I as a resource owner.
You don't have to worry for them...they make qreat money. As for the price of oil...gee who has more control over that...the industry or Alaskans. I'm willing to make less when the prices drop...they keep them high, we make more money...sounds good to me.

August 23, 2008 - 6:06pm | TheSdog

Dim one

If the oil companies have such great control of prices why has it crashed before?

Lefties used to complain they were keeping prices low to squash alternative energy.

Now they complain they are keeping prices high to stick it to us.

They just modify the argument to always make big oil the bad guy. Amazing how that works. I bet they really wish they had that power.

Truth be told oil prices are up because worldwide demand has gone up. They are also up for us because the dollar is weak right now. The dollar has recovered a bit lately and demand has dropped some as other places slow a bit economically and look at what oil prices did.

Doctors have it okay up here as well. The malpractice reform bill definitely stopped the potential for bleeding. All voters should note Francisco Berkowitz opposed that bill and wanted to make AK less attractive to doctors.

Oil revenue is well over 90% of what the SOA gets right now. This is not about how much they make. Private companies making money is okay.

Alaska is making bad decisions for the long term. We are not diversifying our economy. We keep growing our government. We keep adding new entitlements and attracting more unproductive people (unlike Texas). We are setting ourselves up for serious trouble when the resources run out and all the extra taxing in the world will not sole the problem.

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