LeBuick said:
So you saying there is no problem taking from the rich bog oil companies and giving to the citizens. Isn't that what Obama said? He wanted to tax companies like Exon more? Also, you know we paid AK taxes with each gallon we bought at the pump don't you? You don't think big oil ate that cost, the passed it on to us. So in the end, the lower 48 paid the taxes for the AK's.
Once again.....
sloooooooooooooooooooooooowly:
The resources belong to the people in Alaska.
For example.....
If I own land...... and I do....
If an oil company decides to drill..... and some have... less than 20 miles north of me.
But if my land were near enough by so that the oil pumped out of the ground also flowed under my land.....
I would be entitled to royalties. And my county would or could do as it has.... tax the oil to offset expenses of local government and infrastructure which both supports the industry and is depreciated by wear..... such as roads for heavier equipment where heavy truck don't usually run in a local country area... and additional monitoring to ensure all regulations and policies are enforced which assure the safe removal of oil from the earth without contamination of the water table or the wetlands.... or the farm land.
In the case of Alaska, the land is large, people are clustered within communities: Much of what is eaten and used for building is imported/transported with increased distance, expense, and time. The winters are long and extreme in cold requiring an expensive outlay for energy by the people......Energy which is purchased at competitive prices as the rest of the states with the added cost of transportation . The state has a surplus of royalties from the resources in the ground which is pumped out by the oil companies for their profit: To benefit the citizens of Alaska, the royalties are returned to them which brings their austerity into balance. It neither rewards the people for their choosing to live there but neither does it work to increase their burden or expenses... make that taxes.... to make their numbers more difficult to maintain.
Royalties returned to the people is not redistribution of the wealth... It is a return on resources which belong to them but which have no value without the industry which harvested it from the earth and refines it so it is consumable.
Taking tax dollars from people to give back to a few people through programs.... is a horse of a different color.....no pun intended. Royalties and taxes are not the same.
The former is going to be paid by oil companies, and other mineral interest no matter what. It is trading something of value which is possessed by person(s)for something of value. It is like a writer with intellectual property.... but he makes nothing on it without the industry which publishes and markets his work. When it is sold, it is taxed, and profits, and overheads of marketing and printing paid.... but the author deserves a return (royalties) for his labor and composition so that his work is shared and others profit from his sharing: Otherwise he may keep his manuscripts, but noone else profits from it while it remains solely in his possession...sight unseen.
