A bill authored by Fairbanks Democrat Rep. Adam Wool would tax the gig economy, such as those who rent their personal vehicles through car-sharing companies like Turo.
Turo will probably stop allowing people to use its platform in Alaska if the HB 90 passes, because if people have to collect the tax for Turo, federal tax laws govern the company differently and treat these car owners more like employees.. For those who make a little money on the side by renting their personal cars out, it could be the end of a good side gig.
Communities like Juneau and Anchorage have seen a lot of person-to-person rental vehicles available, especially over the past two years when car rental companies were selling off their fleets due to not enough demand during the Covid pandemic economy. When the fleets were sold off, the prices for existing rental cars skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the car rental companies received tens of millions of dollars from the federal government as pandemic aid to their businesses.
In 2021, it was nearly impossible to find a standard car rental on the road system in Alaska during the tourist season. Prices were typically over $300 a day.
At the same time, Alaskans who were being laid off due to the pandemic and who needed some extra cash filled in the gap, so that tourists coming to Alaska on vacation could find affordable vehicles to rent. To cover themselves with insurance and the vetting of renters, people renting their cars to others use companies like Turo, which has a big legal infrastructure to protect both parties in a rental arrangement.
The Wool bill could impact over 1,200 people in Alaska who have rented or shared their vehicles through Turo or a similar company.
Today, a rental of a used personal vehicle in Anchorage through Turo could cost someone about $70-$100 a day, depending on the make and model, with similar prices found in Juneau. In Fairbanks, current Turo-listed cars are starting at $179 a day and can be as high as over $300 a day.
According to Wool, “HB 90 adds a definition for the new service of providing private vehicle rental programs, including these services into existing statutes that regulate car rental providers to reflect changes in how people secure transport in Alaska. It also extends the same laws and regulations which apply to rental car companies to private vehicle rental networks, including the payment of the State’s Vehicle Rental Tax. Therefore, HB 90 brings equity to the rental industry for motor vehicles, and will generate additional income for the State’s general fund as the private vehicle rental network industry continues to grow and diversify in the Alaskan economy.”
Typical Democrat: if they can’t mandate it, or prohibit it, then they tax it.
Adam Wool is the wacko Democrat who owned a bar outside of Fairbanks for about 30 years. It was called the Blue Loon. He sold it a couple years ago, and a fire burned it down to the ground less than a year later. During those 30 years, wacko Wool sent hundreds, if not thousands, of inebriated driver’s onto the Parks Hiway with other traffic, where cars routinely traveled at 60 miles per hour. Wool also sponsored marijuana initiatives and encouraged marijuana smoking outside of his sleazy bar. Now, for all of the health and safety risks he imposed on his patrons, and for all of those risks that made him personally wealthy, wacko Wool wants to impose taxes on other individuals who are looking to earn honest money through entrepreneurship. Wacko Wool is out of touch with other Alaskans. He couldn’t even win his legislative seat without manufactured votes and ballot harvesting. Kevin McKinley won that seat, but for lying, cheating Wacko Wool.
100% true, Patriot. Most people in and around the Banks know Wool as a sleazeball with a potbelly. I voted for his Democrat opponent last year. Of course, Wool and Grier Hopkins both were benefactors of Hopkin’s brother, Scott Kendall, another sleazeball. Wool and Hopkins had hundreds of harvested ballots counted a week after the election was over. Neither Wool or Hopkins is legitimate. They are both a couple of counterfeit legislators, better known around the Banks as Dumb and Dumber. You figure out which is which.
One owned a bar for 30 years. The other owned a marijuana stand with his daddy and mommy. Hard to say which one, but the voters who support them can’t be too bright either.
Politicians it is so Simone says… All you have to do is what Simone says… and he says what trump did then repeat what trump did then repeat. So simple what trump did the repeat oath integrity oath takers and oath integrity then repeat.
Evil can’t create, it can only corrupt.
JRR Tolkien.
Can’t help but wonder if it was written with Democrats in mind.
Like all democrats he wants Alaskan people pauperized. He himself received a much appreciated raise. Frankly, what’s he done for Fairbanks lately. Nothing. Fairbanks deliver us from Wool. Get someone who identifies with Alaskans for once. Thanx.
What a slimey life these Democrats live. It seems that their sole motivation in life is to steal money from every citizen they can!
We have hardly any rental vehicles here in Juneau and when tourists/business people show up in the summer there is nothing. Rental agencies have no “equity” to lose. Alaska is a small market for Turo, they’ll just drop the service here.
Oh Boy! … The NAIVETY is running thick and strong in Juneau! Thinking we can literally “tax” our way back to fiscal responsibility! Indeed, this isn’t complicated calculus but rather, completely insane and stoopid! Maybe (just maybe), try spending less than you generate in tax revenues. Maybe even make a commitment to this “fiscal responsibility” for a minimum of a decade (that’s 10-years) and all of us can reap the rewards.
The pertinent sentence in that whole article (minus all the social justice equity fluff) is “Therefore, HB 90 … will generate additional income for the State’s general fund …” ~ Just another money grab from a self-serving democrat grifter in our circus-run legislature.
Let me guess… Woolite and/or his supporters have an interest in an establishment car rental business. This is the same wacko who received a fat insurance payout (unknown $, sorry) for his bar-business arson fire a few years ago.
What Ronald Reagan said about governments view of the economy is “If it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, when it stops moving subsidize it”
Yes, but what Reagan said in sarcasm, you Democrats believe in earnest.
“Therefore, HB 90 brings equity to the rental industry for motor vehicles….”
There it is…..”equity” the word used by Communists to sugar coat their real intentions, which is to increase their control over you and confiscate more of your money.
Adam Wool needs to be replaced!!
Seems easy to defy and defeat through underground barter or cash exchanges.
.
Jury nullification invoked on behalf of those dumb enough to be caught should finish off whatever Wool’s planning against productive Alaskans.
Tax democrats.
Wool has done nothing which would benefit Alaska or Alaskans. Wool only interest is himself and his wealth.
Anchorage already does this.
Let’s have a tax on politicians. I think they should have a special tax for the raise that got.
We are now living on borrowed time to get the corrupted out of our local government, lest we should live through what ukraine is facing for not removing the corruption from it government and personal lives. There is only one who removes the corruption out of lives, and thats through jesus christ.
SOA DOR after being told that they cannot tax Turo/GetaRound and other platforms for thier activity through court ruling has began proclaiming that they can back door the ruling by chasing platform users and has yet to have anyone in state leadership put thier foot on the sideways attack on Alaskans. Without this being addressed and ordered to desist it means that the TAX is already effectively in place and the bill would be shifting the burden, HB90 cannot be properly addressed without also addressing this attempted administrative ruling.
Uber bill V2.0.
Representative Wool came to AK from Massachusetts where everything is taxed and taxed again, and all your guns would have to be registered. The penalty for an unregistered gun includes a mandatory 5-year sentence (which is most often waived if you are black, but not for mainstream white people). Upon completing that registration many of your very commonly owned guns would be turned into the state and destroyed. Wool’s lead and highest paid staffer is Ken Alper, Walker’s Tax Director and tax guru. Alper was the technical originator of the failed oil tax increase ballot measures in 2014 and 2020. Alper’s tax expertise came from his experience as a Juneau baker of bagels. In addition to this tax bill, Wool’s bills in this Legislature include a gun control bill and a state income tax bill. I do not know which Wool staffer wrote the gun control bill. Yes, he is out of step with Alaska and with the nation. Very often people who back gun control and taxes call others fascists.
Adam Wool is a sleazy, double-talking low-life. I too voted for the gal who ran against him in the primary. For a guy who got rich by getting people drunk them turning them loose on the Hiway, Wool has the morals of an alley rat. How do miserable people like this get voters to support them? Offer drinks at half price?
There are always too many taxes. But lets be fair. The big guys (Hertz, Avis etc.) all collect the ten percent tax from their customers. The rub comes in more for the independent car companies. They collect the tax from the renters and pay it to the State which makes them much less competitive with Turo rentors. To be fair to all, let’s eliminate the ten percent State tax all together and have a level playing field for all. On top of this please remember the Muni collects an additional eight percent tax. Neither tax is being collected by Turo.
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