| June 2, 2006 A Little Illegal Is Still Illegal Alaska Democratic Party, press release Legislative
counsel says gas contract “re-opener” still unconstitutional
JUNEAU – Legislative legal services has provided a new opinion stating that any attempt to contractually prevent voters from changing oil and gas taxes in the future would be unconstitutional, regardless of the duration of the lock in. The opinion was requested by Rep. Les Gara (D-Anchorage) after several Republican legislators suggested a new proposal to reduce the length of the lock in, originally proposed by Gov. Frank Murkowski. Gara, who also requested a legal opinion two weeks ago which concluded the original 30 to 40 year “lock-in” provision was unconstitutional, said: “You can’t be a little bit pregnant, and you can’t enforce contracts by arguing they’re just a little illegal. I’d rather see a fair, enforceable contract that leads to an actual pipeline.” Concerned that this proposal might still violate the Constitution, last week Gara again asked for legal advice from the Legislature’s legal department. Legislative attorney Don Bullock has responded, concluding that such a provision would be unconstitutional for the same reason – “Contracting away is contracting away, regardless of the length of the contract,” Bullock wrote in his opinion. Bullock added that preventing voters from changing the tax laws, whether for 10, 20 or 40 years, violates Article IX, Section 4 of the Constitution, which prohibits the state from “contracting away the power of taxation.” The legal opinion is attached. Two weeks ago Governor Murkowski’s gas contract proposal to stop voters from changing oil or gas taxes for the next 30 to 40 years came under fire. The Legislature’s legal staff concluded that preventing voters and legislatures from fixing or changing tax rules in the future would violate the Alaska Constitution and make the Governor’s proposed gas “fiscal terms” contract unenforceable. In the aftermath some Republican legislators, including Senate President Ben Stevens, have stated they’re now considering binding future voters and Legislatures for a different time period – this time for perhaps 10 to 20 years. “Spending all summer writing an unenforceable contract, that just gets thrown away three years from now, is spectacle not policymaking,” said Sen. Hollis French (D-Anchorage). Gara and French, both former Alaska Department of Law Attorneys, have worked together on analyzing the contract’s provisions. Since Gov. Murkowski’s Attorney General, David Marquez argued in a May presentation to the Legislature that it is legal to prevent future voters from changing oil and gas taxes – advice Gara and French have stated was too one sided to give the public a fair understanding of the issue – a series of opinions addressing Gara’s and French’s concerns have come to light. In addition to the two legal opinions requested by Gara, it has come to light that the Attorney General’s Office also failed to mention, in championing this contract provision, that the office provided the opposite advice back in 1997. Then Assistant Attorney General Jack Griffin, who now works for Conoco Phillips, testified that such a provision would render a gas contract unenforceable. A 1998 opinion from the Legislature’s attorneys coming to the same conclusion has also been found. Gara & French have questioned why the Murkowski Administration didn’t mention either of these opinions in advising the Legislature that its proposal to lock in oil and gas taxes was legal. |
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www.akdemocrats.org - also from this writer - Alaska Republicans Missing the Party Democrats File Lawsuit For Election Records |
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2005
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Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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