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The following editorial first appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News:

State legislators should follow the money. The Legislature and the Palin administration suspended an 8-cent-per-gallon tax a year ago when fuel prices hit record highs. Legislators declined to renew the break during the spring session.

The suspension ended last week, about the same time that the fuel prices that had declined in recent months started to rise again.

Gov. Sean Parnell asked legislators to extend the tax break during a special session in August. They didn't, with some maintaining Parnell already has started campaigning for the 2010 gubernatorial race. Tax breaks always play well with voters, especially conservatives. Conservatives represent the largest political party in Alaska from which Parnell was elected lieutenant governor.

The tax break cost the state between $40 million and $45 million.

At least one legislator is concerned about whether that money made it into consumers' pockets. The way prices go up, up and up, and maybe down a little, it's difficult for the public to identify what is responsible for those increases and decreases. It could be a tax break. One legislator wonders whether it might not be.

When the Legislature convenes in January, it will be encouraged by Parnell to reinstitute the tax break.

But before it does, it should consider the single legislator's questions. (There might be other legislators posing similar questions.)

Who got the money? Was the savings passed on to gasoline buyers? And, another question posed by the legislator: Could the state lose federal highway dollars by being the only state not collecting a fuel tax?

It is a responsibility of legislators to get the answers. The state should know whether federal highway dollars are truly in jeopardy; it's irresponsible to act without that knowledge.

The intent of the tax break was to help regular Alaskans struggling with rising fuel prices in a downward-spiraling economy. For the benefit of future legislatures and Alaskans who might consider a tax break again, it would be helpful to know whether it really made it to those for whom it was intended.

Let's follow the money to see where it leads.