Good for Alaska: Washington container tax dead for now; different story in California.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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Although talk throughout state capitol corridors in Juneau and Olympia indicates there is little chance that SB 5207--a Washington Senate bill that would tax Alaska containers entering and exiting their ports--will ever amount to anything more than a bad dream, the recent passing of a similar bill that is on its way to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk has made Alaska legislators flinch.

The Washington legislation, introduced last year by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, proposed implementing a sizeable shipping tax on all containers entering or exiting Washington ports. It was estimated to increase shipping costs by 15 percent and cost Alaska consumers an additional $45 million to $60 million annually. When word reached the Alaska Legislature, Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, and other legislators threatened to propose a similar tax on Alaska oil sent to Washington. This would pass the earnings from the Washington's proposed container tax back to the people of Alaska so they could pay for the increased shipping fees that would result from the container tax legislation if it passed.

REGROUP

Washington went back into its corner after Gov. Sarah Palin also wrote a letter opposing the tax and a resolution passed asking Washington to find other ways of funding infrastructure improvements to its ports instead of levying a $50 per 20-foot tax on every shipping container loaded from the docks in Puget Sound. As a result, Alaska secured two seats on the 31-member Joint Transportation Committee Freight Stakeholders' Group formed to consider other taxation structures. Kaci Schroeder Hotch, legislative aide to Thomas, says at the last meeting in January there was talk about a different tax that would not require Alaskans to pay for transportation improvement projects in Washington that do not benefit Alaskans.

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MEET NOW

The start of legislative sessions prevented any further discussion and additional meetings have not been scheduled, though Schroeder Hotch expects the committee to meet again this month and its work should be finished by this fall.

"Our contacts in Washington and lobbyists from the Port of Seattle have told us a couple of times in the past months that they are 99 percent sure Washington will not pass a similar tax because it will drive business to Vancouver or up to Oregon," and out of Washington, she said.

CALIFORNIA BLUES

In the meantime, California SB 974 passed the Senate and the...