How dumb are we? Earlier, Alaskans were being bombarded by ads consisting of multiple lines starting with “FACT.” That word prefaced a series of statements hammering us with reasons why we should not change the oil tax regulations.
I am sure that I am not the only person who noticed that the statement about how much money the oil companies paid us for our oil was for a number of years ending with 2015. Why stop there? The open letter published in last Sunday’s Anchorage Daily News made it clear. When the new tax structure went into effect, we started paying the oil companies to take our oil! No wonder they don’t want us to change it. They are paying millions to air ads to scare us so we won’t vote to change it.
The ad that amuses me the most at the moment shows a woman saying that raising taxes on oil companies by a billion dollars won’t solve Alaska’s fiscal problems. That may be true, but we could use $900 million of it to pay what we already owe the oil companies. That way, we won’t have to cut even more of our basic services. When you vote on Ballot Measure 1, you are answering the question, “Should we get paid for our oil?” Please get the facts and vote in your best interest.
— Mark Beaudin
Anchorage
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