{"id":862,"date":"2015-12-10T22:49:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/?p=862"},"modified":"2015-12-10T22:49:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:49:37","slug":"cheap-oils-first-us-casualty-alaska-forced-to-tax-personal-income-for-first-time-in-35-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/archives\/862","title":{"rendered":"Cheap Oil&#8217;s First US Casualty: Alaska Forced To Tax Personal Income For First Time In 35 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F862\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"862\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F862&text=Cheap+Oil%26%238217%3Bs+First+US+Casualty%3A+Alaska+Forced+To+Tax+Personal+Income+For+First+Time+In+35+Years\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"862\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div><p>Cheap Oil&#8217;s First US Casualty: Alaska Forced To Tax Personal Income For First Time In 35 Years.With sadly ironic timing, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2015-12-07\/canadas-oilpatch-depression-suicides-alberta-soar-wake-plunging-oil-prices-and-econo\">we noted just last week <\/a>that the<strong> blowback from &#8220;unequivocally good&#8221; low oil prices was set to cross the border<\/strong> from an increasingly suicidal Canada, and so, as AP reports, it appears Alaska is facing the toughest of times. As oil prices make new cycle lows, <strong>Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has called for the state&#8217;s first income tax in 35 years in order to close a $3.5-billion-dollar deficit<\/strong> the state is carrying. Alaska is currently the only state that does not have a state sales tax or personal income tax, having relied on oil income but, as Walker tweeted, <strong><em>&#8220;now is the time for Alaskans to pull together.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alaska is one of seven states without an individual income tax, and it\u2019s the <strong>only state to have repealed an existing income tax<\/strong>, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy research organization.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>States with no income tax:<\/strong> Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u00a0<\/em><em><strong>States with nearly no income tax:<\/strong> Tennessee, New Hampshire<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In 1980, after oil began coursing through the pipeline, the Legislature voted to repeal the income tax. Two years later, the first dividends were paid.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alaska has long relied heavily on oil revenue.<\/strong> In recent years, it provided about 90 percent of the money available for lawmakers to spend. That\u2019s down to about 75 percent, the state Revenue department says.<\/p>\n<p>But, as <strong>daily oil production has dropped to 500,000 barrels,<\/strong> and after the recent crash in prices, the state<strong> relied on savings to cover about $3.7 billion of its $6 billion budget last year,<\/strong> so this &#8216;tax advantage&#8217; will soon change, <a href=\"http:\/\/ktar.com\/story\/806400\/alaska-governor-proposes-income-tax-to-help-plug-budget-gap\/\">as AP reports<\/a>, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker is proposing instituting a personal income tax for the first time in 35 years as the oil-dependent state looks to plug a multibillion-dollar budget deficit amid chronically low prices.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"quote_start\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"quote_end\"><\/div>\n<p>In laying out his budget plan Wednesday, Walker also proposed using the fund that provides annual checks to most Alaskans to generate a stream of cash to help finance state government. <strong>The plan would change how dividends are calculated and mean lower checks, at least initially \u2014 with 2016 payouts about $1,000 less than this year\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Alaska isn\u2019t alone among oil-producing states to experience hard times as oil prices stay low. <strong>But unlike states like Texas or Louisiana, Alaska has few other industries to make up the difference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Walker\u2019s proposal also includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adding a dime to every drink of alcohol and $1 per pack of cigarettes.<\/li>\n<li>Additional budget cuts.<\/li>\n<li>Changes to the oil tax credit system, a big budget item.<\/li>\n<li>Increases to industry taxes including mining, fishing and oil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The administration says the <strong>goal was to spread the burden as widely as possible<\/strong> and that even with the proposed increases, the tax burden on individual Alaskans would be among the lowest nationally.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Alaska has been using savings to balance its budget but is<strong> blowing through its reserves at an estimated rate of $10 million a day<\/strong>. The state has been warned its bond rating could be lowered if it doesn\u2019t do more to address the deficit. A hit to the credit rating could increase the state\u2019s cost of borrowing and make it harder to finance a major gas project that Walker sees as critical to the state\u2019s financial future.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2015-12-10\/cheap-oils-first-us-casualty-alaska-forced-tax-personal-income-first-time-35-years\" target=\"_blank\">link<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F862\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"862\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F862&text=Cheap+Oil%26%238217%3Bs+First+US+Casualty%3A+Alaska+Forced+To+Tax+Personal+Income+For+First+Time+In+35+Years\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"862\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div><p>Cheap Oil&#8217;s First US Casualty: Alaska Forced To Tax Personal Income For First Time In 35 Years.With sadly ironic timing, we noted just last week that the blowback from &#8220;unequivocally good&#8221; low oil prices was set to cross the border from an increasingly suicidal Canada, and so, as AP reports, it appears Alaska is facing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}