Women Legislators Weigh In On Oil Tax Referendum By Senator Lesil McGuire, Senator Anna Fairclough, Senator Cathy Giessel, Representative Mia Costello, Representative Lynn Gattis, Representative Lindsey Holmes, Representative Shelley Hughes, Representative Charisse Millett, Representative Lora Reinbold, Representative Peggy Wilson & Representative Tammie Wilson August 06, 2014
The Alaska State Legislature is currently blessed with more women legislators than ever before. Our backgrounds are diverse, but we share a few common traits: we are all either mothers, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers or guardians for many young people. As professionals, we work for the benefit of all Alaskans, but it is safe to say we make decisions with the best interests of children in mind. Whether that is standing up to fight domestic violence, working to improve our education system or even promoting breast feeding, we all legislate with an eye for what is best for our future generations. Our vote on oil tax reform was no different. In our minds, we owe it to our kids to lay the foundation for a healthy, sustainable economy for many years into the future. Ideally, our young people will have the same or even more opportunities than we did when it comes to finding a job and raising a family in Alaska. We realized several years ago that the reality of a brighter economic future for Alaska kids was in jeopardy because of a well-intentioned but failed tax policy. Our economy depends on oil. Not just for government revenues, which are vital, but also for private and public sector jobs which support families. So when we realized our old oil tax structure was delivering year after year of declining oil production, we knew we needed to make a change and get Alaska back on track. Collectively, we listened to thousands of hours of expert testimony, public debate, and conversations with our peers in the Legislature about how and why to change our tax structure. In the end, we knew we needed to take bold action to ensure that our oil industry, the lifeblood of our economy, was stable and growing. We couldn’t just hope for the best. It was time to actually do something, a trait many women are known to possess. So we voted to pass Senate Bill 21. And we remain proud of that vote. Why? As legislators, we know that if Alaskans feel at any time that we need to change the tax structure again, we can. For now, we are keeping open minds based on the positive results we are seeing. We are inclined to give the new oil tax time to prove it’s working in the longer-term, especially in light of the jobs and economic activity it is already generating. It is the fair thing to do, especially when we consider that a stable economy is something we owe to the generations coming behind us. For all of these reasons, we are voting NO on Ballot Measure 1 on August 19. Signed by: Senator Lesil McGuire
Received August 05, 2014 - Published August 06, 2014 Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
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