An oil tax reform initiative, the Fair Share Act, is one step closer to getting onto a state ballot. Supporters of the initiative gathered at the Division of Elections’ Anchorage location Thursday to collect petition booklets, which they must now use to gather 28,501 signatures within exactly one year.

The act is intended to bring the state closer to a time when Alaskans were, in their opinion, getting their fair share of oil revenues.

“The original deal was a third, a third, a third, with Alaskans to get a third,” said Oil and Gas Attorney Robin Brena, one of the initiative’s co-sponsors. “We’re getting under 20% now. It’s time for us to get closer to a fair share.”

The act would do away with the $8/barrel tax credit that companies in Alaska currently see and would implement a progressive tax on the three largest oilfields in the state: Prudhoe Bay, Alpine, and Kuparuk River.

Opponents of the bill argue that the tax would drive away investment in the state, while supporters said that since the bill only increases taxes on those three oilfields, smaller companies looking to invest in the state would be unaffected. They also said is the model the Fair Share Act proposes had been in place in 2018, the state would have collected around one billion dollars in taxes.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Association is opposed to the initiative, and they say that billion-dollar figure wouldn’t be good for the industry.

“I’m just not aware of any industry in Alaska that could sustain a billion-dollar-plus increase, and not have a negative impact on investment, which means less jobs and less production for the state of Alaska,” said AOGA President Kara Moriarty.

While supporters of the initiative do have a year to gather the signatures, they’re hoping to collect enough before the legislature meets in January.