00Enrolled HJR 16                                                                                                         
01 Opposing imposition of a milk tax on Alaskans.                                                                          
02                                         _______________                                                                 
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                             
04      WHEREAS Alaska residents consume more milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, and other                                    
05 dairy products than Alaska dairy farmers are able to produce, making Alaska a "milk-deficit"                            
06 state; and                                                                                                              
07      WHEREAS, because of their milk-deficit status, the United States Congress wisely                                 
08 excluded Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico from the mandatory dairy promotion assessment or                               
09 "milk tax" of the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983; and                                                       
10      WHEREAS this exemption was maintained in the Farm Security and Rural                                             
11 Investment Act of 2002; and                                                                                             
12      WHEREAS the National Milk Producers Federation and other dairy interests in the                                  
13 lower 48 states want to extend the milk tax to Alaska dairy farmers; and                                                
14      WHEREAS the milk tax would require Alaska dairy farmers to pay into the national                                 
15 dairy promotion program that presently benefits only the lower 48 states and does nothing to                            
16 help Alaska dairy farmers or consumers; and                                                                             
17      WHEREAS Alaska dairy farmers and consumers cannot benefit from the various                                       

01 dairy promotion, advertising, and research programs funded by the milk tax imposed on milk                              
02 marketed by dairy farmers in the lower 48 states; and                                                                   
03      WHEREAS the mandatory dairy promotion assessment would constitute an onerous,                                    
04 costly, and unacceptable new milk tax on all Alaskans, including dairy farmers, consumers,                              
05 school children, day care centers, residents of rural Alaska, Alaska Natives, small businesses,                         
06 and others who would be forced to pay more for milk and dairy products that already are                                 
07 among the most expensive in the nation;                                                                                 
08      BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature strongly condemns and                                           
09 resolutely opposes imposition of the milk tax on Alaskans.                                                              
10      COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President                               
11 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States                              
12 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Ed Schafer, United States Secretary of                                  
13 Agriculture; and the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S.                                       
14 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                       
15 delegation in Congress.