Tax Incentive Evaluation Law: Alaska

Fact Sheet January 21, 2015 Read time:

Projects: Economic Development

This page is no longer being updated. As of June 15, 2017, newer tax incentive evaluation fact sheets are available here.

To ensure that economic development tax incentives are achieving their goals effectively, many states have approved laws requiring regular, rigorous, independent evaluations of these programs. For a list of states that have passed evaluation laws since the start of 2012, click here.

Alaska

H.B. 306, enacted July 7, 2014

What it does

Requires evaluation of all major tax incentives
Nonpartisan legislative staff reviews all tax credits, exemptions, and deductions on a six-year cycle. The review schedule is organized so that every incentive that a state agency administers is evaluated in the same year, allowing lawmakers to compare results of similar programs.
Ensures that reports draw policy-relevant conclusions
The Department of Revenue documents the costs and goals of each tax expenditure to help the legislative staff assess how well the programs are working. The evaluations determine whether incentives are achieving their goals and offer recommendations on whether they should be continued, modified, or ended.

Requires evaluation of all major tax incentives

Nonpartisan legislative staff reviews all tax credits, exemptions, and deductions on a six-year cycle.

The review schedule is organized so that every incentive that a state agency administers is evaluated in the same year, allowing lawmakers to compare results of similar programs.

Ensures that reports draw policy-relevant conclusions

The Department of Revenue documents the costs and goals of each tax expenditure to help the legislative staff assess how well the programs are working.

The evaluations determine whether incentives are achieving their goals and offer recommendations on whether they should be continued, modified, or ended.

Excerpt from Alaska’s law: The review schedule

Every two years, the legislative finance division shall deliver to the chair of the finance committee in each house of the legislature a report analyzing the indirect expenditure report created under AS 43.05.095 for the appropriate agencies listed in this subsection. The first review shall occur in the calendar year set out after each agency's name, as follows, and subsequent reviews of each agency shall occur every six years: