“Not my job. I hear that a lot as our economy continues to struggle. We need fewer armchair quarterbacks and more players.”
– Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, dismissing citizen activist Brad Keithley for his critical analysis of the Alaska House Democrats’ tax-and-spend plan.
In other words, if your opinions differ from Rep. Spohnholz, she’s not listening.
On April 16, 2017, Spohnholz voted in favor of HB 115, which would have established an income tax in Alaska that would have generated between $600 million and $800 million in revenue for state government. Under the plan she voted for, a single person making $50,000 per year would pay nearly $1,000 in income taxes to the state, and receive a Permanent Fund dividend that was cut to $1,200 — from $2,000.
The result of the legislation, which failed in the Senate, would mean that by 2019 Alaskans making $50,000 would be paying to the State of Alaska about $2 for every $25 in income (we are designating the PFD cut as a defacto tax in that calculation).
