Citizens for Ethical Government

Political campaign donations contributed between 1998 and 2004 by the top seven VECO executives to Alaska lawmakers. The figures were based on reports to the Alaska Public offices Commission.

• Sen. John Cowdery (R- Anchorage), Senate Rules Committee Chair: $24,550.
• Rep. Pete Kott (R- Eagle River), former speaker of the House: $21,300.
• Rep. Norman Rokeberg (R-Anchorage), House Rules Committee Chair: $18,000.
• Rep. Vic kohring (R- Wasilla), House Oil and Gas Committee Chair : $14,708.
• Gov. Frank Murkowski: $6,500 (excluding donations to past U.S. Senate races)
• Rep. Kevin Meyer (R-Anchorage), House Finance Committee Co-Chair: $12,300.
• Rep. Mike Chenault (R- Nikiski), House Finance Committee Co-Chair: $12,000.
• Rep. Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage), House Judiciary Committee Chair: $12,000.
• Sen. Con Bunde (R-Anchorage), Senate Labor and Commerce Committee Chair: $11,500.
• Sen. Lyda Green (R-Wasilla), Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair: $9,000.
• Rep. Mike Hawker (R-Anchorage): $8,050.
• Rep. Tom Anderson (R-Anchorage), House Labor and Commerce Chair: $8,000.

THE CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS

Microsoft PAC & Individual
Contributions to the Senate, 1995-00*
Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) $1,000

Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)$2,000

Microsoft PAC & Individual
Contributions to the House, 1999-00*

Don Young (R-Alaska)$2,000

Investigations ongoing and concluded

The FBI and IRS raid the home of Republican Senator Ted Stevens following investigations into dealings with the Bill Allen of VECO Corporation

Senator Lisa Murkowski reports she will sell back land purchased in a sweetheart deal, following close scrutiny of the shady transaction

ARRESTED

Alaska Rep. Victor Kohring, R-Wasilla, is led into the Federal Court Room for arraignment in Juneau, Alaska on Friday, May 4, 2007.

(AP Photo/Chris Miller)

Prosecutors allege the scheme unfolded as lawmakers weighed a new petroleum profits tax structure and a new contract for a natural gas pipeline last year.

Kott explicitly linked his support of the pipeline and the company’s preferred version of the tax proposal to benefits during a teleconference with company officials, according to the indictment.

“You’ll get your gas line, the governor gets his bill, and I’ll get my job in Barbados,” he told company executives, the indictment states.

May 2005

If enough Alaskan’s do nothing while Ben Stevens raids the Permanent Fund, Alaska’s Dividend distribution program will soon be history.

The need to stop Ben Stevens from raiding the permanent fund and the need to repeal ELF go hand in hand.

ELF refers to an endlessly increasing series of tax breaks that our Legislature approved for oil producers many years ago.

ELF is a mathematical formula that increases its tax cuts for oil more and more every year. Since the original pre-pipeline severance tax agreement Elf thus far has cut Alaska’s percent of take from North Slope Oil in half.

Our original 15% severance tax on North Slope Oil was the lowest tax of any major oil producer in the world when it started and it has now been lowered to 7%.

If ELF is not repealed, over the next five years, the automatic increases of ELF’s tax cuts will cut our severance tax on North Slope Oil to one-fourth of the pre-pipeline agreement, cutting our severance tax to an unheard world record low of 3%.

The oil companies cannot sustain their automatically and endlessly increasing tax breaks over the next five years, without persuading the Legislature to raid the Permanent Fund and take your dividend to make up for the difference in funding required to cover the costs of services we all demand.

Ben Stevens is the guy the oil companies have hired, to the tune of about $50,000 per year, to make sure the Legislature raids the fund rather than repeal ELF. While pretending to represent you, Ben Stevens in fact doing the oil companies business. He and the oil companies who bought his loyalty are using his position in our Legislature to rob us blind.

If Ben and his buddies get away with what they are up to, they will use the Permanent Fund to clear our roads and patch our potholes until the Fund runs empty. It will run empty just about the same time BP sucks the last drop of oil out Alaska and splits, leaving Alaska about as poor as the coal companies left the hillbillies in Appalachia.

Ray Metcalfe
rayinak@aol.com