“There is nothing more permanent than a temporary sales tax.” – Anon
It’s tax season and Alaskans are starting to prepare for the April 15 federal tax deadline.
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night delayed a public vote on whether to enact the Assembly’s proposed 3% “temporary” sales tax. It won’t be on the April 1 ballot.
Rather than drive fed-up residents to the polls right when people are calculating their federal tax returns, a time when liberal candidates favored by the Assembly majority might be rejected by voters, the Assembly will instead have a special election for the sales tax, at a date to be determined. Likely, it will come at a time when the public is distracted by fishing or holidays and won’t send in their ballots. Anchorage conducts all of its elections by mail.
With fewer people paying attention, the Assembly can assure a low turnout, which means that the municipal employees and unions will make up the majority of the voters, while the rest of Anchorage sits it out on a salmon stream somewhere in Alaska.
Special elections like this are designed for a certain outcome. City workers and their unions will want that sales tax to go through, because government workers always want more resources to have more government programs.
The Assembly is looking for revenues it can get outside of the tax cap, which it is now up against. Recently, it increased tariffs at the Port of Alaska — outside the tax cap. Most bonds on the municipal ballots have a caveat that all future costs related to a project, such as operation and maintenance, will also be outside the tax cap. The alcohol tax is outside the tax cap. The list of taxes the city leaders and voters have passed outside the cap is extensive.
Proponents have promised it will reduce property taxes, but they are challenged by a public that has little faith in government promised being kept.
The sales tax proposal by Assembly members Randy Sulte and Felix Rivera might generate $180 million annually, but would have significant administrative costs and mean additional revenue staff. The sponsors say the sales tax would be temporary.
Sales taxes never end up being temporary.
For example, Minnesota passed a temporary sales tax that was later temporarily increased to 6% in 1982, and was made permanent the next year. Another temporary increase to 6.5% in 1991 is still on the books today — 33 years of temporary sales tax that not only didn’t go away, but has crept higher.
The special election is estimated to cost taxpayers $200,000.
The resolution to delay the election passed 7-5, with Scott Myers, Mark Littlefield, Karen Bronga, George Martinez, and chairman Chris Constant voting against it, and Meg Zaletel, Felix Rivera, Daniel Holland, Randy Sulte, Kameron Perez-Verdia, Anna Brawley, and Zac Johnson voting in favor.
The Anchorage Assembly really is the gang that can’t shoot straight. Make no mistake, this will be a temporary sales tax that will never be rescinded. These springtime elections have to stop. EVERY lunatic proposal is pushed to a spring election because most hard-working Alaskans are working to get by. Only the activists on the left make the effort to turn out for these. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never missed an election, but you can’t deny that the (D)ems plan these things to get the numbskull proposals passed.
Precisely how it works. And when these incompetent unions fail, and they fail miserably. A scapegoat is created. The scapegoat is usually poor funding, lack of benefits, or climate change. Your child can’t read because you, pick one: 1. Ran your furnace too high last winter. 2. Didn’t pay the school district enough to teach your children how to transition into a girl. Pick one.
Nome passed a temporary 3% sales tax to pay for the sea wall in 1952. It’s still in place, has grown to 6.5%.
Democrats control the Assembly and the Mayor with no check and balance equals tax increase, sorry anchorage .
Say goodbye to more restaurants and other businesses that already operate on thin margins.
The Assembly wants those golden eggs faster, and cutting the goose open will do that. It’s the short-sightedness of some who forget dead geese lay no eggs.
This bunch running the city are bunch of carpet bagging racketeers that are causing the working people to be nickel and dimed to death by their continual pursuit of more money to appropriate for themselves. The fact that they continue to grow in number and control is testament to lack of attention the majority of the citizenry is paying to this continual destruction of a city.
Wow what a team of misfit california transplants working against Alaskans.
“California Dreamin” of Los Anchorage.
Its tax time again folks.
This is why people need to get behind the AO No. 2024-125. This ordinance which the Assembly is looking at would move the election to November when general elections are held. People need to email Assembly members about their support. This will have the “electorate” vote and not unions and muni employees. No one commented for this resolution when it came up last time.
This is so important. The Republican party should get behind this.
Every anchorage resident ought to be extremely worried about about the word temporary tax. Politicians lie all the time so I don’t believe it’s temporary. They’ll find a reason to increase it. Keep it raise it year after year the only way that I would be for a sales tax as if personal property taxes are eliminated 100%.
Anytime a politician say “we are going to do something special” the public is going to get screwed.
There will be no need for me to shop in ANC after they put a tax in.
Did everyone forget the .10 tax per gal of fuel?
All the same problems across the nation when you let these cities go blue or they identify as the alphabet group
So this is how LaFrance will get the $500,000 apiece toilets on the corners of each block in downtown Anchorage??? Disgusting !!!!!
Not enough money to pay for essential city services, but more than enough to spend on the vagrants.
I would not object to a sales tax, IF residential property taxes were permanently abolished. Property taxes are fundamentally immoral. People work hard to purchase homes, only to find that they are really only renting them from the government.