HB 223-NATURAL GAS PIPELINE INCENTIVE/ GAS TAX 9:03:52 AM CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 223, "An Act levying a tax on certain known resources of natural gas, conditionally repealing the levy of that tax, and authorizing a credit for payments of that tax against amounts due under the oil and gas properties production (severance) tax if requirements relating to the sale and delivery of the natural gas are met; and providing for an effective date." CHAIR WEYHRAUCH, having determined there was no one wishing to testify, closed public testimony on HB 223, and announced that the committee would discuss it at the end of the meeting. HB 223-NATURAL GAS PIPELINE INCENTIVE/ GAS TAX 9:42:14 AM CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that the committee would return its attention to HOUSE BILL NO. 223, "An Act levying a tax on certain known resources of natural gas, conditionally repealing the levy of that tax, and authorizing a credit for payments of that tax against amounts due under the oil and gas properties production (severance) tax if requirements relating to the sale and delivery of the natural gas are met; and providing for an effective date." 9:42:22 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to report HB 223 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. 9:42:26 AM REPRESENTATIVE SAMUELS objected for the purposes of discussion. He thanked the bill sponsors. He then related his belief that the legislative process was established by the founding fathers "so that despite all the rhetoric on both sides of the aisles, nothing ever really swings too far one way or another because it is so hard to get something through the process." He noted the difference between those issues that go through the legislative process where testimony and debate from experts and others bring "all points of view to the table," as opposed to ballot initiatives where the use of campaign funds can often [sway public opinion] and bypass the discussion process. He highlighted that whereas ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. sent representation to testify as to why the company economically opposed [HB 223], ExxonMobil Corporation and BP chose not to even enter the debate on this issue. He opined that "if the legislative process is going to move forward [without] the main victims' of this tax [willing] to sit up here and articulate [as to the economic effects] of this reserves tax ... then we've lost the key element of having the legislative process, [which] is to have all points of view come to the table." He opined that because the bill has a long way to go and he will have another opportunity to address it in the House Resources Standing Committee, [the bill] should move forward or there will be no further debate at committee hearings nor sufficient debate in the public arena as a ballot initiative. 9:46:18 AM REPRESENTATIVE SAMUELS then removed his objection. 9:46:21 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG opined that the reason this bill is moving forward is because there is an initiative behind it and that if the legislature doesn't act, the public will act. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON expressed her opinion that sometimes people vote on initiatives with insufficient facts and thus it's important that the [legislature] "scrounge up facts." CHAIR WEYHRAUCH provided, for the public's information, that the House Special Committee on Ways and Means was established to explore methods to fund the state's fiscal gap, and therefore it's the purview of this committee to explore tax policy. He also identified the variety of other committees on which this committee's members are assigned to "provide the context for how we analyze and look at measures." He also expressed his appreciation of Representative Samuels' comments regarding the fact that "we bent over backwards to take public testimony on these measures and have had many ... meetings for that specific purpose." 9:49:03 AM CHAIR WEYHRAUCH asked if there was any further objection. There being none, HB 223 was reported out of House Special Committee on Ways and Means.