ANCHORAGE, Alaska:
A STATE Superior Court judge has upheld the legality of a cruiseship ballot initiative that aims to impose new taxes, environmental permits and other measures on the giant foreign-flagged vessels that bring nearly one million visitors to Alaska annually.
Judge William F. Morse ruled this week that ballot initiative sponsors submitted enough valid signatures in October 2004 to allow the measure to move forward. Sponsors intend to place it before voters in the August 22 statewide primary election.
The cruise industry and some of its supporters had argued that the state Division of Elections wrongly certified the initiative, a measure they consider punitive and anti-business.
But Morse largely rejected their arguments.
Sponsors of the ballot initiative were elated with Morse's ruling.
"Even for a cynical political hack like me, it's a good day when the citizens get to win one against a multibillion-dollar industry located in British Columbia and outside," said Joe Geldhof, a Juneau attorney who helped found Responsible Cruising in Alaska, a group that organised the ballot measure effort.
John Shively, head of government affairs in Alaska for cruise line Holland America, said the cruiseship association has not yet decided whether to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
He noted that the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. on Wednesday passed a resolution opposing the initiative.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERMITS
If approved by voters, the initiative would impose a US$50 per passenger tax and a 33 per cent tax on gross income from onboard gambling. It would also make ships get environmental permits and disclose how much the cruise companies make off shore excursions, and it would allow citizen lawsuits against ships that violated any of the measure's provisions.
