Alaska State Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin wrote a letter today to legislators interested in lowering oil taxes, telling them oil industry jobs and investment in Alaska are up but drilling activity has been down.
Galvin’s letter was a response to questions posed by 15 state representatives in early December. The legislators said they were worried the ACES oil tax system the Legislature put in place in 2007 was “doing more harm than good.”
They wanted statistics on oil and gas activity and employment since the tax passed.
Galvin wrote back today that the state had its highest industry employment in history in 2008, with 12,800 jobs and annual average earnings of $113,541. The 2009 numbers are preliminary, he said, but are expected to be even higher.
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