Tonight, the Municipality of Anchorage Assembly votes on a proposed 3% sales tax at its Regular Assembly Meeting, Dec 2, 5pm-11pm. Buried deep in the agenda is Ordinance No. AO 2025-133, listed as item 14.K: the sales tax proposal.
The ordinance reads: “An ordinance of the Anchorage Assembly submitting to the qualified voters of the Municipality of Anchorage a ballot proposition amending the Home Rule Charter to authorize a 3% sales and use tax: 1% for property-tax relief; 1% for public safety and infrastructure; and 1% for childcare and housing; and authorizing borrowing from the MOA Trust Fund corpus to finance start-up costs. Chief Administrative Officer and Mayor LaFrance.”
New public hearings will begin no earlier than 6pm and end no later than 11pm. The proposed 3% sales tax is the 11th ordinance listed in this section with one ordinance following.
The public may give testimony in person at the Z.J. Loussac Library Assembly Chambers or submit a written testimony here: Assembly – Public Testimony.
Suggested Testimony Template
Here is a suggested testimony to read in person at the meeting or submit online. Please feel free to adjust it however suits you.
Chair and members,
My name is ________, and I’m an Anchorage resident.
I oppose Ordinance No. AO 2025-133 for the following reasons:
- Writing a new tax into the Charter is a significant, often permanent change. Once it is in place, future Assemblies and voters will have a very hard time adjusting or reversing it, even if the ordinance causes economic strain.
- A 3% sales tax is undeniably regressive. It raises the cost of living for families already stretched to the limit, while the promised property tax relief does not reach everyone—especially renters and lower-income households who will feel the hit immediately.
- The ordinance bundles several unrelated priorities into a single tax authorization. Public safety, childcare, housing, and tax relief are all important, but merging them together prevents residents from evaluating each one honestly and independently.
- Authorizing borrowing from the MOA Trust Fund corpus to cover start-up costs puts Anchorage’s long-term stability at risk.
Please vote no on Ordinance No. AO 2025-133. Thank you for your time.
Anchorage has lost many residents over the past few years, and this certainly will not be an incentive for others to stay.
I wonder if this is a gift in disguise. I think a 3% sales tax will not pass at the ballot box. By them putting this forward it might spur the voter turnout conservatives would hope for. Possibly with other election and down ballot impact.
I think Anchorage SHOULD pass a sales tax. Like the gasoline tax they installed a few years ago, this will incentivize more valley residents to spend their money closer to home.
3% sales tax …. Fine! Eliminate Property Tax! It’s Obscene!
Did you read before commenting? 1% for property relief, 1% for public safety and 1% for childcare.
“……Did you read before commenting? 1% for property relief, 1% for public safety and 1% for childcare……..”
Did you read before commenting? 1% for property relief, 1% for public safety and 1% for childcare and housing”. and I have questions:
* What kind of “housing”? The free variety? Housing for whom? Why is local government on the hook for housing?
* Child care? For which children? The state constitution makes Alaska responsible for education (which has transformed into an obscenely expensive babysitting and indoctrination. program), but the constitution makes no mention of “child care”.
Like they will EVER give up a source of their graft money. Won’t happen. One you have a tax, it doesn’t go away they want ” all of the above” when it comes to raiding your wallet leave no pocket unpicked
Read the Entire Ordinance being put forth. This proposed ordinance also proposes to evade the Municipal Charter that requires a 3/5 (60%) approval vote by reducing it to 50% plus one. Sneaky.
graybeard
I’d rather see a corporate tax for the state.
They will wait till 10:30 pm to bring up the sales tax cause most people will go home They will find a way to pass it
As if the commies on the assembly really care. I’ll take bets it passes.
MOA (like the nation, state and other localities) doesn’t have a revenue problem, it rather a spending problem.
Stop spending excessively and needlessly.
What exactly do they need this money for? More services for the homeless? A bigger school budget? A new city hall and more staff for the Assembly?
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Before they pass any new taxes, the Muni should be forced to trim every little bit of unnecessary expenditure from the budget. If it is not inherently a public service (fire, police, roads, parks) it is a luxury.
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But, like the toddlers, errr… I mean leftist they are, the Assembly and Mayor buy the shiny things first, and pay the bills with what is left over. Then when they cannot afford to provide the services they are required to, they raise taxes.
A reminder to everyone: The sales tax in North Pole is now at 7%. When it was passed, many claimed it would never go up. It was “for the schools”, blah blah blah. The MOA’s 3% is just a foot in the door. You can never slide up a slippery slope. Only down.
The Anchorage gasoline tax started just a few years ago at $0.10 per gallon. Now it’s $0.12. Has anybody seen any road improvements?
You can’t drive 200 ft on any city road without having the suspension system in your car taking a beating. They’ve been that way for decades, and the gasoline tax has done nothing to change it.
Hmmm only 3% remember the story about the camel’s nose…… an ancient fable about a camel that, on a cold night, asks a man to let it put its nose inside his tent for warmth. The man agrees, but the camel continues to ask for more, eventually getting its head, neck, legs, and whole body inside, forcing the man out into the cold. The moral is that allowing a small, seemingly harmless compromise can lead to a much larger, undesirable outcome.
How about the Alcohol tax that was supposed to help the homeless? Did anyone see a decrease in homelessness? What happened with marijuana tax money?
Should never approve without property tax ELIMINATION.
Correction: North Pole sales tax is at 5.5%. not 7. Still a lot more than they started with. – M.John
Sales tax is consumptive and voluntary in that you choose what to buy and when. It would be a fine idea if there was an elimination of all of property taxes tied to its adoption. But there won’t be. Taxation is theft particularly property taxes which steal your equity and unrealized gains are theft by force and coercion.
Okay can we have some one show all the taxes muni has now. Plus the revenues and where they are going. We seem to have a large amount of money for homeless, to buy buildings an have certain people profit from charities. I would like a full audit of our city. Hello Elon you available. Our businesses are dying, seniors can’t afford to live here anymore let alone whats happens if Eagelbrexit goes though.. It’s too damn expensive to live here as it is as everything has to be barged. Get our fields of gas and oil going again. Also do not see a better snow removal plan and you have not even been blasted yet. Democrat humbug. Wake up Anchorage
Actually a move in the right direction. I would offer that a complete removal of the property tax, replacing it with sales tax is the actual conservative, American solution. Point number 2 is a poor argument. Renters will always pay what a market will bear, regardless of tax. Although I seriously doubt the Anchorage assembly is moving towards a property tax elimination, now is when any real conservatives left in Anchorage should be pushing it. Go for a 10 percent sales tax, a school tax and increased user fees for public spaces. Add a 10% lodging tax for summer tourists and increased taxation on tourism transportation, including car rentals.. id take all of that over the government extorting money via property tax.
Where oh where are logical voters hiding… what is going on? Nobody I know thinks Seattle and San Fransico is anything but a city assembly communist takeover. Get your ass out and vote. It’s your job!
1% for property-tax relief; 1% for public safety and infrastructure; and 1% for childcare and housing
To me this reads 2% for homeless:
1% for public safety = homeless
2% for childcare and housing = homeless
Homeless = The assemblies Non-profit and NGO (non-gov organizations) buddies who fund their re-election campaigns and grow the homeless problem in every blue city.
If all properties in the municipality were subject to property taxes there would be no need for a sales tax. Presently about 40% of municipal properties are exempt from property taxes.
Don’t fall for the ” we will reduce the property taxes” scam. Remember Lucy and the football. They’re trying to play you into fattening their wallets with their” its only 3%” camels nose. Once it’s in place, raising it is just a minor change