At the end of a Senate majority press conference today, Sen. Cathy Giessel of south Anchorage answered a reporter’s question about her call for a new tax.
Must Read Alaska was the first to report that Giessel had stated in her constituent newsletter that an income tax on Alaskans is unavoidable.
“I’ve lived here since before statehood,” Giessel said on Tuesday. “We’ve lived since 1982 with a cash handout from the state of Alaska. And I think it’s pretty obvious that the time for that is ending.”
Then she blamed President Donald Trump.
“President Trump wants to lower the cost of fuel, lower the cost of oil. That’s what we’ve been depending on. But now, nearly 50% of our income is coming from the federal government. Somehow we’re going to have to make some corrections here,” she said.
“So what I’m basically hoping to prepare people for is the fact that the gravy train is over,” she continued. “And we’re going to have to make some serious decisions. We’ve got some revenue suggestions on the table. We’re going to get a huge amount of pushback on that. I know who will say ‘wait, you’re going to reduce the production of oil, you’re going to cost these companies more.’ These are very big national or international companies. We’re a small state. No other regime has given away cash credits before as we did in Cook Inlet, right? And to some degree that we still do on the North Slope. So I think citizens need to have a very serious look at this concept of receiving a dividend every year.”
She said she gets a lot of emails from people that say they want the Legislature to increasing funding for education with half of their Permanent Fund dividends.
“That’s what that dividend money should be used for,” she said. “We all benefit from a solid education so that people don’t end up in corrections, needing more police officers, or committing suicide.”
