The Alaska cruise ship industry has filed suit in federal court arguing that the state's new tax on cruise passengers is unconstitutional.

The state started collecting the $46-per-person tax last year after voters approved it in August 2006 as part of a package of new environmental and other laws on the cruise industry. Roughly 1 million people cruise annually to Alaska -- more than half of all visitors during the May-September tourist season.

The lawsuit from the Alaska Cruise Association was filed Thursday against Pat Galvin, commissioner of the state Department of Revenue.

Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan said the suit was not a surprise.

"The cruise ship industry has been threatening to sue the state ever since Alaska citizens voted to require passengers to pay their fair share of the costs of services and facilities provided to host them," Sullivan said.

He said the Department of Law will "vigorously defend" the state in the case.

ACA executive director John Binkley said the tax isn't just illegal; it is hurting Alaskans, including the employees of his family's riverboat cruise business in Fairbanks.

"There will be 30 percent less (cruise ship passengers) coming to Southcentral and Interior Alaska next year. That's where we will really see the impact of the tax," Binkley said.

The decline in visitation is due to a couple of cruise lines deciding to send several of their ships elsewhere next year. Some of the cruise lines have blamed the cruise tax, in part, for their decision to divert the ships.

Binkley's family business, Riverboat Discovery, hired 40 fewer seasonal workers this year due to the tourism downturn, mainly blamed on the global recession. He said the company will hire even fewer next year because of the loss of cruise visitors. The employees at risk are teachers, college students and retirees in the Fairbanks area who supplement their income with seasonal work, he said.

The lawsuit claims that the sponsors of the 2006 voter initiative that led to the cruise taxes and laws set out from the beginning to illegally discriminate against out-of-state interests.

The sponsors of the initiative said that is untrue, and that the tax is levied on anyone who boards a cruise ship sailing in Alaska, including Alaskans.

While there are valid concerns about how the state Legislature has spent cruise-tax revenue, the tax itself does not violate any state or federal law and it does not discriminate against the cruise lines, said Joe Geldhof, one of the sponsors of the initiative.

"This is like a grocery store screaming and yelling about sales tax when it's not the store that pays it. They just collect it," Geldhof said.

He said the initiative sponsors have already warned the Legislature against some of the appropriations it has made of cruise-tax money, including funding a new infirmary at the Alaska Zoo.

"We've been strenuous advocates for conservative spending of the (tax) money," Geldhof said.

According to the lawsuit, the Legislature has improperly used cruise taxes to fund millions of dollars worth of projects at the zoo, the Egan Convention Center and the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum and to build a railroad station in Wasilla that will be used for future commuter rail service, among other projects.

The Legislature has also used cruise-tax revenue to fund harbor projects and new pedestrian paths at the port terminals used by the ships.

Federal law dictates that states can collect "reasonable fees" that pay the cost of service to a vessel, enhance the safety and efficiency of interstate and foreign commerce, and impose no more than a "small burden" on that commerce.

The ACA is a nonprofit trade association that works on behalf of the cruise lines in Alaska. Its members include nine cruise lines that send ships to Alaska: Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and Silversea Cruises.

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