Alaska Profit-Shares With Oil Companies: Your State Can Too. Just Pass the Right Law

[Silhouette]

Forget taxing pot, tax the oil coming out of your state..

Corporate Oil doesn't get a free pass in Alaska.. And they're whining in the lower 48 about how unfair it would be to tax them there. That they'll just have to "pass the costs onto the consumer." Like billions of net worth isn't enough for each of them?

Last I checked, "profits" mean "net booty after expenses". So it isn't useful to examine how much it costs to hire a couple of meatheads to suck some oil out of the ground. Instead it's useful to examine what the fatcats at the top are raking in at the end of the day. That they would suggest their extreme megaprofits [gotten at incalculable expense to the environment and climate systems combined, that they'll never be required to mitigate or pay for] be passed on to the consumer is beyond hubris. It is criminal.

Alaska doesn't put up with it and neither should the lower 48: Hint, your state can pass laws to do the same thing. Alaska is only a state after all and if they can do this so can you.

Alaska’s Petroleum Taxes: How They Work
Alaska has three different taxes that apply to the petroleum industry: the production tax, the property tax, and the corporate income tax. In dollar terms the largest of these is the production tax, which was $694.4 million in FY 2001. In addition, $8.7 million was paid as conservation surcharges on taxable oil. Second in FY 2001 was the income tax at $338.1 million. Third is the property tax, which was $265.2 million in FY 2001. $220.2 million of this was paid to municipalities and $45.0 million to the state. In addition, while not really a tax, there are royalties that are paid to the state under the terms of the leases for the state lands that oil and gas are produced from. In FY 2001 the state re*ceived $1,125.9 million in royalties, of which $339.3 million was deposited into the Permanent Fund. Northern Gas Pipelines is your public service, objective, 1-stop-shop for Arctic gas pipeline projects and people-best Northern Oil and Gas Industry Links on the Internet: Alaska Gas Pipeline, Arctic Gas Pipeline, Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline, Mackenz

 

[kiwiman127]

That's socialism! Leave it to the Socialistic Republic of Alaska to do stuff like this!

 

[Silhouette]

That's socialism! Leave it to the Socialistic Republic of Alaska to do stuff like this!

No, that's the state of Alaska wanting a share in the profits that its state is suffering for. The spills, the damage, something has to mitigate that. Alaskans own their state. They have a right to charge admission to huge profiteers.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Another sheeple thread.

 

[Toro]

1. The production tax is AKA a royalties tax. Most if not all states have royalty taxes for natural resources. The only issue is the rate. Royalty taxes have a highly elastic effect on new production, i.e. jacking up the royalties tax usually means a significant decline in production. This happened in Alberta, when the government - upon recommendation of a panel based on the experience of Scandinavia that concluded production wouldn't drop much - dramatically increased royalties on natural gas, and new production plunged to almost zero.

2. Property taxes. Most jurisdictions have property taxes.

3. Income taxes. Most states have income taxes.

 

[Silhouette]

1. The production tax is AKA a royalties tax. Most if not all states have royalty taxes for natural resources. The only issue is the rate. Royalty taxes have a highly elastic effect on new production, i.e. jacking up the royalties tax usually means a significant decline in production. This happened in Alberta, when the government - upon recommendation of a panel based on the experience of Scandinavia that concluded production wouldn't drop much - dramatically increased royalties on natural gas, and new production plunged to almost zero.

2. Property taxes. Most jurisdictions have property taxes.

3. Income taxes. Most states have income taxes.

Whatever. It seems pretty lucrative for Alaska. Why worry about the end product or events? Oil is oil and whichever company it is, it will come there if there's oil, profit-sharing with Alaska or not.

Of course their remedy is to pass on any taxes to the consumer at the pump. God forbid the upper crust should be happy with only a couple billion each year instead of tens of billions.

If the people cannot get a break at the pump, at least their state can kick it back to them in taxes. Don't argue which came first the chicken or the egg. The oil companies are already gouging it to the consumer. It's time the consumer's state fired back..

 

[Mr. H.]

There are over one million active oil and gas wells in the U.S.
The vast majority are owned not by "Big Oil" raking in "billions", but by Independent companies.
And most of those are small family owned concerns.

Why not place a tax on agricultural products? Oh- that's right... "God made a farmer".

Many states have a severance tax on oil and natural gas proceeds. This comes right off the top- a percent of revenue BEFORE expenses.

Some states, like Illinois, tax oil production as real property - a property tax like one would pay on a homestead. And still other states do both- collect a severance tax while at the same time taxing production as real property.

In short, you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

 

[Silhouette]

There are over one million active oil and gas wells in the U.S.
The vast majority are owned not by "Big Oil" raking in "billions", but by Independent companies.
And most of those are small family owned concerns.

Why not place a tax on agricultural products? Oh- that's right... "God made a farmer".

Many states have a severance tax on oil and natural gas proceeds. This comes right off the top- a percent of revenue BEFORE expenses.

Some states, like Illinois, tax oil production as real property - a property tax like one would pay on a homestead. And still other states do both- collect a severance tax while at the same time taxing production as real property.

In short, you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Well my point is that if BigOil won't pay for federal taxes like we want and instead keep gouging us at the pump, maybe a state surtax on the pump that is a money-maker [for that really will be a direct stab at BigOil] and a multi-state monitoring group that checks prices at the pump. Like we do with other utilities. Those prices are kept in check at pace with inflation so that people don't go without lights, etc.

 

[Toro]

Whatever. It seems pretty lucrative for Alaska.

The reason why it's lucrative for Alaska is because there is a whole lot of oil and not a lot of people. It's not lucrative for Alaska simply because they have a revenue scheme like virtually every other jurisdiction in the world.

 

[Silhouette]

Whatever. It seems pretty lucrative for Alaska.

The reason why it's lucrative for Alaska is because there is a whole lot of oil and not a lot of people. It's not lucrative for Alaska simply because they have a revenue scheme like virtually every other jurisdiction in the world.

In any given oil-bearing state, every little bit helps. Some states are so desperate for revenue that they're turning psychoactive drugs into legal recreational products that are finding their way to children through this abundance. All so they can tax them while the market lasts [no more than 3 years] before the prices start to plummet when everyone wants to sell them and not buy. It seems that if a state has oil, the simpler and more moral way to raise revenue would be to give pot a pass and tax oil instead.

 

[Mr. H.]

Jesus H. I Give Up.

 

[Silhouette]

This isn't a war, it's a discussion. No need to "give up"..

 

[Silhouette]

That's socialism! Leave it to the Socialistic Republic of Alaska to do stuff like this!

Police, schools, fire suppression, military..they're all socialism too. Are you saying we should have no taxes and just hope everything works out OK taking care of all the disasters that can happen to 300 million living sea to shining sea?