A grassroots effort to repeal Senate Bill 21 kicked off last week. Meetings took place from Anchorage to Unalaska, where organizers for the “Vote Yes! Repeal the Giveaway” campaign are struggling to convince residents that oil taxes matter in their community. KUCB’s Annie Ropeik has more.

Last Thursday, Unalaska’s library conference room was open to anyone opposed to S.B. 21, which cuts taxes for oil companies as an incentive for development.

An hour after the doors opened, the room sounded like this:

[sound of silence]

Nobody showed up to volunteer or record a video proclaiming their support. Local organizer Shirl Lekanoff says it’s frustrating – but not altogether surprising.

Lekanoff: "I think we really are up against a lot in this community."

She's worried residents don’t know how oil taxes factor in to their daily lives.

Lekanoff: "Budgets all over the state are getting cut. Education, roads, infrastructure -- that money comes from oil tax revenue. Well, why are we letting them pay less in taxes when, if anything, we need more revenue?"

Right now, most of Unalaska’s money comes from taxes on the fishing industry. But oil has been a bigger presence in town over the past several years. And that has some residents wondering if the town’s finances will depend on that industry down the road.

Greg Pawlak: "We certainly think that it would help to cut the taxes to encourage them to come in here and start doing this business."

Greg Pawlak has worked for a shipping company in Unalaska for the past two years. He says Inchcape Shipping Services is putting its operations on hold due to lack of oil activity in the Arctic this summer.

As a businessman, Pawlak thinks cutting oil taxes was the right thing to do. And as a resident? He didn’t have a lot of concerns about how declining state revenues would trickle down to him.

That’s not uncommon. But according to Unalaska City Manager Chris Hladick, state money pays for a lot of different services here:

Hladick: "One is the schools, right? You have funding for the university, fish and game jobs ... the airport is run by the state ... you’ve got state grants ... so I think if you really started thinking about it, there’s quite a bit. So we’re all reliant on what’s happening on the [North] Slope with the amount of oil extraction that’s going on, one way or another."

And that’s to say nothing of capital projects. In just the past few years, the city’s gotten tens of millions from the state for a new boat harbor and public utilities. That’s thanks in large part to the lobbyist the city employs in Juneau -- and Dutch Harbor’s clout as a major fishing port.

Those are pretty easy to take for granted -- so it’s tough to say what’ll happen when people are asked to cast a vote on the subject.

And it’s even harder to know just how many will show up at the polls. The last time there was an August primary, just 12 percent of Unalaska’s registered voters participated.

Back at the public library, Shirl Lekanoff is still waiting for supporters to show up. She’s wondering if, maybe, she should have offered free food.

Still, she’s not losing hope.

Lekanoff: "Regardless of the fact that there’s nobody here, I know that there’s people that are going to vote yes."

The question is -- how to find them? Lekanoff says she’s got friends involved in the campaign -- they were out of town the night of the meeting. But she’s hoping they can go door-to-door this summer, and bring the issue to residents before it goes to a vote in August.