Sponsor Statement for SJR 40

"Relating to the Fisheries Management Fee Proposed by President Clinton."

Senate Joint Resolution 40 expresses the legislature's opposition to a proposed fisheries management fee included in President Clinton's Fiscal Year 1999 budget. The fee is designed to fund the management and enforcement activities of the National Marine Fisheries Service, under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The fee would be derived from a tax of up to 1 percent on the ex-vessel value of all fish harvested by commercial fishermen. Because Alaska has the most profitable fisheries in the country, state fishermen would pay the largest share of the $20 million in annual revenues the tax is expected to generate nationwide.

Alaska's fishermen would receive no new benefits or services from the new tax. The new revenues would simply free up the $20 million already budgeted for management and enforcement services and enable these monies to be spent on new spending projects in President Clinton's budget.

Commercial fishermen and seafood processors do not need another tax, especially one that produces no new quantifiable benefits. In addition to paying all the normal payroll and business taxes, commercial fishermen and seafood processors are burdened with several other taxes and user fees, including a raw fish tax, marine fuel tax, licensing fees, fishery landing tax, salmon enhancement tax, seafood marketing tax, and seafood marketing assessment.

The new tax may also pose a disproportionate burden for fishermen who operate only in state-managed waters extending 3 miles from shore, and who therefore derive little benefit from NOAA's management services in offshore fisheries. President Clinton's budget does not specify whether the tax would apply to only those fish caught in federally-managed waters, or whether it would extend to all fish, regardless of management zone. This critical decision is left to the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce. However, lower-level employees at the National Marine Fisheries Service have expressed the view that all fishermen benefit from the federal government's management of the resource, regardless of the zone in which the fish are harvested. Following this logic, it appears likely the fee would be made to apply to all fish caught in waters around Alaska.

The fish tax would undermine the economic competitiveness of Alaska's seafood industry, which is the largest source of private sector jobs in the state. SJR 40 urges the Governor and Alaska's Congressional delegation to work to ensure the tax is not included in the Fiscal Year 1999 federal budget.

Last updated: March 3, 1998