The proclamation for the Oct. 23 special session is a lesson in commas. Or lack thereof.
The proclamation by Gov. Bill Walker states he is calling the Legislature back to Juneau to focus on two things: Crime, and a tax on the self-employed.
Yes, that is, in fact, what his proclamation says: Just the self-employed.
It’s a matter of comma usage:
“An act or acts enacting a tax on wages and net earnings from self-employment; and relating to the administration and enforcement of the wages and net earnings from self-employment tax.”
Without the comma between “wages” and “net earnings from self-employment,” it appears that all who work for others will not have to pay the Walker income tax. State workers, for instance.
His verbiage only targets the people who work for themselves, such as the smallest of the small business owners in Alaska.
Surely this isn’t what Walker intended. And surely there are enough commas to go around in Alaska, unless those, too, are in short supply.
