Public documents show Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration worked out a deal with Alaska’s major oil producers that allows the companies to withhold tens of millions of dollars in property taxes.
The Anchorage Daily News says the 2013 deal occurred after producers disagreed with the state board that set the value of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
The deal was negotiated after an attorney for the oil pipeline owners complained in a June 2013 email that the State Assessment Review Board set the value for the pipeline too high, raising the tax bill for oil companies.
The deal to give oil companies at least a temporary break emerged in public view in April when some of the municipalities that receive property taxes on the pipeline appealed the state’s 2014 valuation.
