Business

Juneau officials are keeping an eye on legislation making its way through Congress that would allow states to collect sales tax on online purchases.

The U.S. Senate this week voted 69-27 in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act.

While Alaska does not have a statewide sales tax, the City and Borough of Juneau is one of many municipalities with a local tax on the sale of goods and services.

CBJ Finance Director Bob Bartholomew says he’s still studying the Senate bill. But he thinks there might be a way for municipalities to collect local taxes if the Alaska Legislature passes enabling legislation.

“I think we could do it without the state having a sales tax,” Bartholomew says. “But they may have to be involved as far as state legislation helping us standardize things.”

Bartholomew says it’s too soon to speculate what that state legislation might look like. But the types of things that would need to be standardized include the tax rate and exemptions.

He also says it’s too soon to say what, if any, affect the federal or state legislation would have on the amount of sales tax collected by the city.

“The next step for us, especially if it starts making progress in the House, is to get in touch with the State of Alaska and the Alaska Municipal League to see what the next steps are for trying to share the information and get the coordination across the state that we’ll need for implementation,” he says.

Bartholomew says the CBJ’s lobbyists in Washington, D.C. – Chambers, Conlon and Hartwell – will keep track of the Marketplace Fairness Act’s progress in the House.

The City and Borough of Juneau has a five percent sales tax that includes three components: A permanent one-percent tax, a temporary three-percent tax that largely funds essential city services, and a temporary one-percent tax dedicated to capital projects.

 

A Southeast village Native corporation wants to export its cultural tourism expertise. It’s opened a consulting business to build on more than a dozen years in the business.

Huna Totem Corporation has more than 1,300 shareholders with ties to the Tlingit village of Hoonah, about 40 miles west of Juneau.

It places cultural interpreters onboard cruise ships sailing the ancestral homeland of Glacier Bay. It also presents educational programs at the national park’s lodge, the jumping-off point for many visitors.

Now, those efforts have a different name and goals.

“Alaska Native Voices is going to be an expansion of what we are currently working on,” says Mark McKernan, who heads up what Huna Totem used to call its Interpretive Services Department.

“We’re going to now provide consulting services for other cultural interests, Native groups, small communities and what have you. We’ll provide these services to them to help them answer the big questions of how do they start, where do they start and what goals should they be aiming for,” he says.

A number of other Alaska Native corporations and tribal entities use cultural tourism to make money and employ shareholders or members. (Scroll down for links to some other cultural tours.)

But McKernan says others are looking for help.

“What we have learned and what we can pass on is just as relevant in Southeast Alaska as it would be in Costa Rica or somewhere on the East Coast or the Midwest,” he says.

Alaska Native Voices began operations early this month.

McKernan says it has no formalized consulting agreements. But several groups have expressed interest and are discussing options.

Rosita Worl, president of the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute, says Hoonah Totem is well-equipped for the business.

“I think they have the experience. They’ve got the professional background and business experience in it. And I think they’ve done a great job in terms of trying to educate people about their culture and their history and meanwhile making a profit,” Worl says.

Huna Totem’s heritage guides are scheduled to be on about 200 cruise ships this year. That includes the Holland America Line, which sails large ships, and Alaskan Dream and Lindblad Expeditions, which operate much smaller vessels.

McKernan says cultural tourism programs need to tap traditional knowledge — and not just be another stop on the road.

“We do consult regularly with elders and others in the community and develop resources for these cultural guides to be able to grow and expand their knowledge base,” he says.

Huna Totem operates its own attraction, Icy Strait Point, which expects about 135,000 cruise passengers this year. Traditional culture is part of most of its excursions and programs.

McKernan says Icy Strait managers could also consult with other businesses interested in similar developments.

Learn about some other Alaska Native cultural tourism programs:

• Goldbelt Corporation, Juneau.
• Cape Fox Corporation, Saxman, near Ketchikan.
• Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
• Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage.
• Chilkat Indian Village, near Haines.
• Wrangell Tours.

Do you want your local cultural tour listed here? Email the website link to ed@coastalaska.org. 

Alaska Airlines is installing passenger power outlets on many of its planes.

It’s part of a switch to a new, slimmer seat design allowing the airline to squeeze more people onto its jets.

Powered seats will eventually be on many longer routes out of Anchorage, as well as Seattle and other larger Lower-48 destinations. But most other in-state flights, including those in Southeast, will not see any change.

The airline’s Marianne Lindsey says each seatback will have a standard AC power outlet, plus a USB connection. They will handle laptops, tablets, cell phones and similar devices.

“Something that our customers have told us once and again has been that they would love to have power,” she says.

The outlets are incorporated into new seats made by Recaro. The German company is known for its upscale luxury- and sports-car seats.

Lindsey says the airplane model provides the same amount of space as existing seats.

“It’s actually the same seat pitch and about the same size, the way that it’s designed in relation to the seat in front of it. And the seatback makes it feel roomier,” she says.

The seats are a couple inches thinner than current models. That allows the airline to install additional rows.

There’s been little comment on travel-advocacy websites.

But Douglas Kidd of the National Association of Airline Passengers points out the new design gets rid of some padding.

And Brandon Macsata of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights says the average American weighs about 25 pounds more than their 1960 counterparts.

“Yet, over than same time period, coach airline seats have either remained the same, or have even become smaller,” he says. “Alaska Airlines isn’t alone in their approach of cramming more seats into coach. American and Delta have done similar things with their newer aircraft.”

The $100-million transition will be gradual, starting this fall and continuing through the end of 2014.

Lindsey says the airline is already testing the seats.

“We’ve used them since November of 2012. We’ve been happy with them and the customers have been happy with them. So in a sense, we’ve kind of tested them and now we’re going to roll them out into our larger fleet,” she says.

Alaska Airlines will install powered seats on its Boeing 737-800, 900 and 900-ER aircraft. They will not be on 737-700s or 400s, including “combi” planes carrying both freight and passengers.

Lindsey says the company is also considering offering entertainment channels through its onboard wireless service.

Sealaska Corp. kicked off its 2013 timber harvest program with a First Tree Ceremony.

The Juneau-based regional Native corporation says in a press release that the event is like a Blessing of the Fleet at the beginning of fishing season.

The company says the ceremony was held April 13 on Prince of Wales Island near Big Salt, just north of Klawock.

A new non-partisan group seeking repeal of an oil tax cut has filed an application with the Division of Elections to begin a petition drive.

Prime sponsors of the referendum are former state Sen. Vic Fischer, former Alaska First Lady Bella Hammond, and former Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor and state Rep. Jim Whitaker.

They call the tax changes made by the state legislature a massive giveaway that will benefit major oil companies and hurt Alaskans.

Fischer was member of Alaska’s Constitutional Convention 57 years ago.  He says the tax break is unconstitutional  and lawmakers have an obligation to manage Alaska’s resources for the maximum benefit of Alaskans, not oil company shareholders.

The group has 90 days to collect 30,000 signatures of registered voters to get the initiative on the 2014 primary ballot.

Meanwhile, Gov. Sean Parnell says ConocoPhillips’ announcement that it will bring an additional rig to Kuparuk this spring is the first step to “an Alaska oil comeback.”

ConocoPhillips said Wednesday it will work with other owners on funding for a new drill site on the Kuparuk River Field. The company credits the decision on the legislature’s decision to reduce oil industry taxes.

 

Oil companies operating in Alaska will enjoy lower state taxes on their production beginning next year, but what will the state get in exchange?

That’s the question many are asking now that the Legislature has reworked the tax regime at the request of Gov. Sean Parnell, who believes it will spur the companies to boost their investment on Alaska’s North Slope, putting more oil in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

At a news conference on Monday,  he said he expects to see changes in the level of oil production within the next three years, and his administration is basing its budget outlook on the idea that oil companies will add a handful of rigs to legacy fields.

Parnell says his administration also will be watching the amount of money that producers put toward capital expenditures.

“The major companies have invested approximately $2 billion a year on average to kind of maintain where they are,” he said. “I think that’s a good base-level starting point to say, ‘What are you going to jump up to? What are you going to bump up to?’”

But Parnell didn’t provide any concrete metrics for judging his oil tax policy. He stayed away from defining success in specific terms, and avoided offering a timeline for evaluating the tax change.

Parnell also tried to temper expectations, saying he didn’t expect dramatic growth in oil production immediately.

At their post-session news conference, Democratic legislators criticized the governor for not offering clearer benchmarks.  Anchorage Sen. Hollis French said they also worry the administration might count projects currently scheduled to go online as new investment.

“We’re going to be watching, we’re going to be measuring, and when they start having those ribbon cuttings, and the brass bands, and the big hullabaloos over new things happening on the North Slope, we’re going to remind the public these were already planned,” French said.

The new tax structure is scheduled to go into effect in 2014.