Alaskans passed a package of taxes and environmental regulations for large passenger ships, striking a blow to cruise ship operators already struggling with record fuel prices.
In a state primary election ballot held Tuesday, Alaskans passed a citizen initiative that will assess a $50 tax on each cruise passenger and tax the cruise lines' corporate earnings and gambling revenues reaped when the ships are in Alaska waters.
The initiative also requires cruise ships to obtain waste water discharge permits while operating in Alaska and to pay increased fines for any waste water violations.
With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, the measure had 52.4 percent support, according to results released Wednesday by the Alaska Division of Elections. Full results should be available later in the week once results are tallied from mostly small, rural precincts.
Companies offering Alaskan cruises, such as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., are already facing a slowdown in business in the Caribbean as well as high fuel costs.
Activists on both sides of the issue saw the initiative as a judgment on an industry that brings about 1 million passengers a year to Alaska.
The effort was not meant to punish the cruise lines but simply to put them under the same type of taxation and regulation that cover other Alaska industries, said environmental activist Gershon Cohen, one of the initiative sponsors.
"Is Alaska still open for business? Absolutely. But is Alaska going to sell its votes? Apparently not anymore," Cohen said.
The $50-a-head tax is expected to bring in about $50 million a year, not including other levies imposed under the initiative, said Mark Edwards, an official at the Alaska Department of Revenue.
One cruise line official said the initiative would weigh on Alaska visitor numbers because of the new costs and regulatory burdens placed on the companies.
"In the end, the only people who pay are the passengers," said John Shively, vice president of Holland America Line Inc., a unit of Carnival. "So the price is going to go up. And I think Alaska is our most expensive destination now."
But analysts said the impact of additional taxes would likely be minimal because Alaska cruises tend to be more expensive than those to the Caribbean.
"Adding $50 to a multi-thousand-dollar cruise is probably not a deal killer for most people," Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Robert LaFleur said.
