Palin is praised for taking it to big oil and increasing the tax on exploration in Alaska, such that the state is now sitting on a $12 bill tax windfall.
Apparently the issue up there was that big oil and its minions historically controlled politicians so as to make this impossible.
Wyoming has similarly successfully structured its tax breaks for oil and gas to compensate the citizenry sufficiently -- last I looked they were generating over $1 bill per year more in lease rents to the state than Colorado, for less lease volume.
Colorado is now trying to revise tax breaks for oil & gas exploration to generate a share for its citizenry more comparable to Alaska and Wyoming.
If I recall correctly, complexity in CO is TABOR -- the right wingnut's (Doug Bruce -- just google it for all the fun) gift to governance here which makes it impossible for elected officials to manage any component of the budget without a referendum.
Hopefully the legislative history in Alaska can help us here; http://lba.legis.state.ak.us/aces_doc_log.htm
Subscribe
