Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- The $1,200 "resource rebate" Gov. Sarah Palin proposed for Alaskans hurting from high gasoline and other energy costs could be in jeopardy -- at least in part.

State legislators on Thursday rolled out comprehensive energy relief legislation that cuts back the rebate.

In the House bill, the amount was pared to $1,000 per resident, with the amount to be tacked onto this fall's Permanent Fund dividend checks.

In the Senate bill, the rebate was chopped down to $250.

We might not know what the rebate will be, if anything, until next Thursday. That's the day lawmakers are scheduled to finish up the special legislative session and head home.

Palin proposed the $1,200 rebate on July 8, calling it a way to share with the people some of the billions of dollars in surplus revenue the state has raked in from taxes and royalties on the state's most lucrative resource -- crude oil.

But Palin didn't originate the idea of a rebate.

It started with a legislator, Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of Haines, who during the regular session early this year suggested paying up to $1,000 to Alaskans suffering with high energy costs. But lawmakers adjourned in April without passing a rebate bill.

On Thursday, the powerful House Finance Committee rolled out a comprehensive energy package to help rural and low-income people with high electric and heating oil bills, to temporarily suspend the state's 8-cent gasoline tax, and to pay Alaska residents a $1,000 resource rebate.

The committee co-chairman, Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer, said the $1,000 figure is just a starting point for debate. He said some lawmakers might argue for more and others for less.

"I have no idea where it's going to land," Meyer said.

One consideration, he said, is that this year's Permanent Fund dividend is expected to be about $2,000, which would be a record high. Tack on $1,000 and that makes it a nice, round three grand, Meyer said.

The Senate Finance Committee rolled out its own far-reaching energy relief bill, which includes a resource rebate of $250 per resident. The Senate bill also would tack the rebate onto the Permanent Fund dividend.

Committee co-chairman Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said his committee's bill is focused more on helping with the most acute problem many Alaskans face this winter -- staying warm in their homes.

One component of the bill would reimburse residents for the cost of heating oil above $3 a gallon during the coming two winters.

Stedman said he and other lawmakers worry that paying out a big resource rebate "sets a bad precedent," because residents might clamor for the payment year after year -- a demand elected officials might find hard to refuse.

"It could easily become another entitlement," Stedman said.

Alaska already has a payment to share its resource wealth, and that's the Permanent Fund dividend, he added.

The idea of doling out state cash spurred intense debate in the regular session, with some lawmakers arguing people who don't really need the money would just use it to buy big-screen TVs or other frills.

But Thomas, who works as a commercial fishermen, said he believes it's right to pay a $1,000 rebate, which he notes was his original idea.

"Overall, the energy costs are horrendous," Thomas said. "You can't control what people will do with their money. The majority of people are going to spend it properly. You can't worry about the 10 or 15 percent who are going to blow it."

Meyer added that unless the rebate is at least $500, the state shouldn't do a rebate at all. The Senate's $250 wouldn't be meaningful, he said.

"If it takes $50 or $60 to fill up your car, that's only four fill-ups," he said.

Find Wesley Loy online at adn.com/contact/wloy or call him in Juneau at 586-1531.

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