CSHJR 8(L&C) AM WASHINGTON CONTAINER FEE    CHAIR ELLIS announced CSHJR 8(L&C) AM to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE BILL THOMAS, sponsor of HJR 8, related that the Washington legislature has introduced SB 5207 that proposes to levy a $50 tax on 20 ft. vans and a $100 tax on 40 ft. vans leaving from and going into Washington. This will represents a 10 percent increase in freight cost of shipping goods to Alaska - a $40 million to $50 million increase. He said that 97 percent of goods that come to Alaska come in container vans from Washington. 1:40:53 PM SENATOR DAVIS arrived. REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS said that the state of Washington is targeting Japanese and Chinese exports and Alaska freight is incidental. He hoped to get this resolution through the legislature in time to keep the bill from being passed in Washington. His district consists of primarily fishermen and its related processing facilities, so this would be a disproportionate increase for them. The cost of moving fuel to Interior Alaska would increase as well. He related that Alaska can take credit for about 103,500 jobs in Washington and brings in about $4 billion worth of products through its ports. 1:43:28 PM EVERETT BILLINGSLY, Linden Companies, said he strongly supported HJR 8. Linden is also actively working with the Washington legislature to make sure this issue doesn't go anywhere. He said the goal of the tax was to get money to improve Washington infrastructure and to tax the large container lines bringing massive quantities of cargo in to the US from Asia. The impact on Alaska was an unintended consequence. Alaskans have few alternatives to using Washington ports and because most containers return from Alaska empty, the tax will effectively double on a typical Alaska Marine Lines (AML) container. He said that last year Linden Transport and AML together moved approximately 124,000 20-foot containers between Alaska and Washington. This tax would have resulted in more than $6.2 million in additional costs for shipping customers. He also mentioned that the sponsor is coordinating this bill with another one in California and that Hawaii is also considering similar legislation. Last year it did pass the California legislature, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it. He might not be able to do it again. 1:46:42 PM CHAIR ELLIS closed the public hearing and pointed out a zero fiscal note and said that no one had come forward with any amendments. 1:47:22 PM SENATOR DAVIS moved to pass CSHJR 8(L&C) am from committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.