"If we don't do anything we still have the cloud over us," Harris said on the first full day of the 30-day special session on oil taxes.
Harris said "the cloud" would come from the media, members of the public and Gov. Sarah Palin, who has said that corruption tainted the oil tax passed last year.
Harris also acknowledged that the FBI could still be watching legislators in the wake of the scandal. The agency has described its broad investigation of Alaska political corruption as ongoing.
"Every bit of our action is being scrutinized to this day. There very well could be wiretaps, there very well could be bugs in this building or anywhere else," Harris said, speaking at the state Capitol.
Harris said he can't watch legislators 24 hours a day.
"They all have their own integrity they have to live up to, and hopefully they all will," the Valdez Republican said.
The speaker said he wasn't asking legislators to do anything different during the special session. "Except stay out of the Baranof over there," Harris said, not seriously.
Executives of the oil field services company Veco met with legislators in Suite 604 of the Baranof Hotel in Juneau last year during the debate that resulted in the existing oil tax system. Two Veco executives subsequently pleaded guilty to bribing four legislators in an attempt to get a tax rate favored by the big oil companies.
Former state Rep. Pete Kott has been convicted and former Rep. Vic Kohring goes to trial next week.
IS TAX TAINTED?
Legislators at this special session are focusing on highly technical matters of building an oil tax. But the corruption issues are looming huge, with the ugly reason lawmakers are back considering the tax again a tangible force in the session.
Palin cited the taint as she called the special session to consider her proposal to raise the tax.
Legislators can be defensive about the corruption talk, and many of them don't agree with Harris that the oil tax has to be changed to remove a taint. Harris' own House Republican caucus is divided.
Legislators such as Senate President Lyda Green dispute there is really a taint on the tax at all.
"I think the cloud has been vastly overrated," said Green, a Wasilla Republican. "I'm sorry, I just don't think you have to go back and change anything."
Green noted the legislators arrested were pushing for a lower tax rate than what actually passed. But lawmakers such as Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly argue that doesn't mean the bribed lawmakers didn't influence the process and keep the final tax rate from going higher.
Kenai Republican Sen. Tom Wagoner, a member of the Senate minority, said there isn't enough information to tell for sure at this point.
"I don't think we've seen the last of the indictments come down," Wagoner said. "And when we see those indictments come down we may know more."
House Majority Leader Ralph Samuels, R-Anchorage, said the oil tax decision needs to be made based on what's best economically for the state, not on a perception that the current system is tainted.
"My vote wasn't tainted," he said. "I never asked Pete Kott or Vic Kohring advice on tax policy."
FRUSTRATION
Samuels is clearly frustrated about legislators being painted as a corrupt bunch.
He grew a little heated at a House Oil and Gas Committee meeting Friday, repeatedly telling Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin that no one is angrier about corrupt legislators like Kott than other elected officials who worked honestly and are left with the mess.
Speaker Harris said he doesn't know if he'll end up supporting the governor's specific proposal to raise the state oil tax rate. But he said the Legislature needs to do something about the public confidence problem.
"For us to really get the majority of the Alaska public behind us we're going to have to probably make some tweaks, and maybe some bigger changes," the speaker said.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Harry Crawford said he's feeling optimistic about securing a greater state share for the oil. He said the feeling in the Capitol is much different than last year, and he hasn't seen anyone take Veco's place as corrupter.
"There were people here that were tainted, and I think we cleared them out," Crawford said. "Without that influence here I think we'll do a much better job."
Crawford said he just put one of his rental properties up for sale so he'd have money to finance a ballot initiative if the Legislature refuses to change the oil tax system.
House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula said the public will have something to say about it if the Legislature doesn't act on the tax.
"If it has to be an initiative, that is what it has to be," the Juneau Democrat said.
1 comment:
Well said.
Post a Comment