Last year, Anchorage voters approved a ballot measure that will dedicate all of the city’s tax revenue from marijuana sales for underwriting of child care. The city is estimated to get about $5 million each year from its tax on cannabis that is started collecting this year. The granting of that money will go into effect in 2025.
But in Kenai, the borough assembly majority has turned down a pair of ordinances to fund child care in the borough with a proposed excise taxes on tobacco products.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche advised caution to the Assembly, which the majority gook to heart.
“This is a dangerous crossroads in the Kenai Peninsula Borough. We chose to be a second-class borough. We must be on guard, move against these insatiable services,” Micciche said. Watch his remarks here:
The ordinance to enact the tobacco tax in the Kenai Borough was sponsored by Assembly President Brent Johnson, who filed in April as a nonpartisan candidate to challenge Rep. Sarah Vance. Other sponsors were Assembly members Cindy Ecklund and Mike Tipper.
The proposal lost 5-3, and the ordinance to establish a child care grant program like Anchorage is developing for its tax revenue was then withdrawn by Ecklund because without the first ordinance creating funding, the second ordinance was dead.
Cigarettes are taxed by the federal government at $1.01 per pack and by the State of Alaska at $2 per pack. Anchorage taxes cigarettes at $2.39 per pack. An average pack of cigarettes in Alaska costs about $10.46, according to WorldPopulationReview.com.
About 14-16% of Alaskans are cigarette smokers, but the percentage of Alaska Natives who smoke may be as high as 19%, according to the American Lung Association.
Although Alaska has the sixth-highest prices for cigarettes among the 50 states, it’s 13th on the list when it comes to the percentage of adults who smoke. West Virginia has the most smokers, at 20% of the population.
