The Alaska State Senate has voted to roll back the cruise passenger tax to $34.50; it still has to be ratified by the State House. I don't know about you but I'm gonna' rush right out and book.
For general information: The tax assessed is $50 but $4 of that is for environmental monitoring and was not part of the lawsuit. The actual passenger tax was $46 a head, so I guess this means the new tax will really be $38.50...the $34.50 plus the environmental fee.
I saw another news clipping where they actually passed the legislation to reduce it even more to $19.50. Now I wait to see if the cruise line gives a credit for my upcoming cruise.
Sorry, Jill. It won't be happening that fast! We are on the same cruise and we already checked with the TA. I guess it still has to go through another chamber of the house and then get signed by the governor before it gets passed down to us by the cruiseline. Oh well...it wasn't going to affect anything I'll be doing anyway since I've already paid it. Love the Red Dog Saloon too!!
The Alaska State Legislature passed a bill that will reduce the state’s cruise passenger head tax from $46 to $34.50, and end a lawsuit the industry filed to overturn the tax.
The Alaska Cruise Association signed an agreement last week with the Alaska attorney general to drop the lawsuit if the state passed the measure to reduce the tax.
On cruises visiting Juneau and Ketchikan, the cruise head tax will fall to $19.50 because the state offset municipal taxes charged at those ports.
Governor Sean Parnell said on his website today, “Alaska businesses have suffered because of the impacts of this tax. We need to incentivize tour travel to Alaska and build our businesses. Enactment of this bill will put litigation between the cruise industry and the state behind us and allow us to focus on restoring tour travel.”
Parnell introduced Senate Bill 312 in March, after citing statistics showing that after decades of steady growth in cruise ship passenger visits to Alaska, the state was facing a significant decline in cruise ship visits this summer.
On his website, Parnell said the decline in cruise visits meant a projected loss of up to 5,000 travel-related jobs this year, a 10% drop."
The last time I knew, it was as expensive to eat and drink in Alaska as it was in Hawaii.
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