What’s The Difference?
People have asked how I differ from Ethan Berkowitz. While we agree on a number of important issues, two ADN articles — “Oil taxation splits Democrats running for governor“ (July 14, 2010) & “Democrats Berkowitz, French divided on oil taxes“ (July 22, 2010) — show the fundamental difference.
In a nutshell, I support ACES and he, in the words of the Anchorage Daily News, wants to “eliminate ACES entirely and replace it” with something different.
Democrats fought hard to pass ACES, our current oil tax structure.
I was “one of the legislators who was most influential during the passage of the current oil tax,” according to the article. I’m proud of that, and I’m also proud of how we worked across the aisle to pass the legislation.
ACES is working for Alaskans.
We’ve built our savings to a record $12 billion and paid for badly needed improvements to Alaska’s education, public safety and transportation systems. Moreover, ACES provides incentives for exploration and production, which will keep oil flowing down our pipeline.
But most importantly, ACES is about renewable energy and education.
Why? You don’t put a great teacher in front of every classroom in Alaska for free. With ACES, we can invest in voluntary pre-k programs for our children, and fix our broken teacher retirement system. And you don’t lower the cost of energy by simply watching the wind blow; you need money and manpower to erect a wind farm. With the revenue from ACES, we can provide incentives for clean, cost effective and proven renewable energy projects.
We cannot afford to undo the oil tax that Democrats fought hard to win in 2007.
As Bob Poe said in the article, the proposal would “take all our past tax policy and just throw it out the window.” I believe that changing oil taxes now means we give something away. We can’t do that.
Instead, we need a governor with a strong vision for the future, and the proven ability to get us there. I’ll invest in our children. I’ll lower the cost of energy. And I won’t undermine the system that pays for these important projects.
Hard work passed ACES and hard work will win this election.
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Democrats passed ACES to improve Alaska’s future. I’ll deliver on that promise.
Sincerely,
Senator Hollis French
