Assembly Fails Several Tax Proposals

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted down several tax proposals at their meeting this week. All are in an effort to diversify the tax structure. 

District 2 Assemblymember Stephanie Nowers proposed a 1.5% sales tax outside the cities that would have also provided a $75,000 property tax exemption for people who live in the Borough. She focuses on getting visitors to help pay for the costs of maintaining Borough amenities and facilities. 

She says the property tax exemption would favor residents and not big businesses and would provide a bigger reduction for residents in rural areas. The 1.5% sales tax would have applied only outside the cities where those taxes are not already implemented. However, it would have also applied in Talkeetna, where there is already a sales tax. 

District 1 Assemblymember Michael Bowles proposed a 6.5% Borough-wide sales tax with a reduction in property taxes. That proposal would have potentially created a $20 million shortfall in the Borough’s budget.

Assemblymember Nowers’ gravel tax proposal also failed. That tax would have added a 25-cent per-ton charge on gravel from larger operators. She says it would not have impacted smaller businesses and would have brought an estimated $1 million in revenue to the Borough.

District 7 Assemblymember Ron Bernier says he’ll be proposing a 3% area-wide sales tax coupled with a property tax cap soon. Tax proposals heading to the November ballot must be approved by the Assembly by the end of August.