The Daily Alaska empire., 1949-01-20
SENATE BILL WOUlDRAISE
 FUELS TAX
Rate Would Be Doubled Committee Approves
 Double Mileage Pay
BULLETIN By a vote of g to :, the Senate this after noon defeated the proposal made by Senator Barr to raise the fuel tax.

A bill doubling the motor fuels tax, increasing it from the present two cents per gallon to four cents per gallon, hit the Senate hopper this morning with Senator Frank Barr's name on the heading
 The bill, Senate Bill No. g. was showed into second reading, amend ed to exclude from taxation the fuel used by stationary power plants owned by municipalities or non- profit organizations providing pub lie power, and its progress toward an immediate third reading was blocked only by failure of a motion to suspend the rules.
 The exemption amendment was offered by Senator Rivers who pointed out that stationary power plants make no use of roads, air.
 fields or water facilities and that the effect of the tax on fuel used
 by public power plants is to in crease utility rates.
 Senator Jones contended that the same thing applies to stationary power plants used to produce power for mining operations and thought that these should also be exempt. Senator Jones, however, voted for the adoption of the amendment, only Senators Garnick and Munz i voting against it. The vote on sus- pension Of the rules was nine in favor, seven against, with two- thirds ma ajority or II votes requir- ed.
 Restore Mileage Payment The Senate Committee on Print ing, Purchasing and Contingent EX- penses this morning turned in it's report on the special session pay measure amounting to more than S56,000 The four members of the committee, Democrats McCutcheon and Peratrovich and Republicans Jones and Nerland, unanimously approved restoration of portal to portal pay" in the form of mileage for the special session.
 The amendment endorsed by the committee would provide up to $l5,000 to pay mileage coming and going at the rate of 15 cents per
 mile. The legislators will also re- ceive mileage for the regular ses- sion which commences next Mon- day Two members of the commit tee asserted that the legislators are entitled by law to collect mile
 age and should have it.
 When the foreman calls you
 cut on a special job, you expect to get the regular pay for it. ! Senator Jones commented. Senator Andrew Nerland cited high living costs in Juneau as a reason for
 asking for double payment of mile age.
 House Members Opposed Several members of the House, which knocked payment of mileage for the special session out of the
 measure, expressed themselves this
 morning as opposed to its restora- tion in the pay bill and it could
 be that the two bodies will dead
 lock on the issue and fail to ap-
 propriate funds to pay themselves
 for the special session.
 Two amendments were offered for the Net Income Tax Bill in
 the Senate this morning. One of them was voted down, the other
 was withdrawn after some discus sion.
 Senator Barr offered the first
 amendment for the purpose, he
 said, of simplifying the provisions
 of the bill regarding the tax on transportation companies doing business between Alaska and the i states or Canada and their em-
 ployees.
 From, reading of the amend ment as offered it appeared that 1 it would have exempted such firms
 as Alaska Steamship Company, Pan
 American Airways and Northwest
 Airlines entirely from taxation, anc l Continued on Page Two)