Legislation to provide a product development tax credit for
certain salmon and herring products has passed the Alaska House and moved to
the Senate, where it was referred to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.
The legislation would allow a fisheries business to claim a
product development tax credit of 50 percent of qualified investment in new
property first placed into service in a shore-based plant or on a vessel in
Alaska in the tax year. The current legislation applies to salmon products
only.
The legislation now before the Senate would include salmon
or herring products, including canned salmon products in can sizes other than
14.75 ounces or 7.5 ounces. Property investment would include equipment used to
fillet, skin, portion mince, form, extrude, stuff, inject, mix, marinate,
preserve, dry, smoke, brine, package, freeze, scale, grind, separate meat from
bone, or remove pin bones. It would also cover new parts necessary for, or
costs associated with, converting a canned salmon line to produce can sizes
other than 14.75 ounces or 7.5 ounces.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Alan Austerman, R-Kodiak,
has a number of co-sponsors, including Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D- Dillingham. It is
posted online at http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=HB0204C&session=28
HB 143, a bill increasing fees for non-resident one-week
crewmember licenses from $30 to $60, which was introduced last March by Rep.
Paul Seaton, R-Homer, is still in the House, as is Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-
Dillingham’s HB 177, which promotes commercial fishing loan programs within the
Division of Economic Development.