Making the gas reserves tax pass

I had a thought while reading about California's Proposition 87 the other day: supporters of Alaska's ballot measure 2 could have ensured overwhelming bush support had they linked the tax revenue to alternative energy research and capitalization. There seems to be so much passion in this region for lowering the price of energy that I think the linkage would have swept away any questions about the natural gas reserves tax.

(Of course, linking revenue and expenditures like that might not be constitutional.)

On another note, the ADN editorial page makes an interesting note about the anti-2 campaign:

Former Enstar exec Tony Izzo, in a TV spot attacking the natural gas reserves tax initiative, claims Measure 2 will raise utility bills in Alaska.

Odd, then, that Enstar is raising its rates in advance of the election.

(A note on the ADN editorial: I appreciate them pointing out where politicians and campaign have veered off the rails in these last weeks but you can tell they feel the need to be even-handed and criticize both sides of an issue, say the measure 2 debate or the gubernatorial race. But that makes for a false equivocation. The RGA's late mailings and Sarah's non-answers are not equivalent to Tony Knowles' apparent anti-female campaign strategies. But the editorial makes them seem so.)