The Petersburg Borough Assembly agrees with the governor — on at least one thing.
At a July 18 meeting, members unanimously approved a resolution supporting a state income tax over a state sales tax, issues that Gov. Bill Walker and the legislature have been considering to bring in more revenue.
Walker proposed and backed an income tax. He only brought up a sales tax at the request of some lawmakers.
Assemblyman Bob Lynn said a state sales tax would hurt smaller communities more.
“When you look at the State of Alaska one of the things that you have is a lot of the smaller communities like similar to the size of Petersburg, even smaller, have a sales tax in place, whereas, a lot of your bigger municipalities do not,” Lynn said. “So, what happens is if you put an additional 3 percent or 6 percent from the state on top of what we have, that would put our local sales tax at 9 percent or higher.”
Lynn said an income tax would also include visiting workers.
“An income tax reaches out to all those, even those who make their income in Alaska but then take that out of state; quite a difference,” he said.
Assemblyman Jeigh Stanton-Gregor agreed saying the sales tax hurts poor people the most.
“Sales tax is a regressive. And for those of us who don’t know regressive taxes, they hurt those people on the lowest end of the income spectrum the most,” Stanton-Gregor said. “And just on an ethical level I have a problem with that. It doesn’t seem equitable to me.”
The next regular meeting for the assembly is Aug. 1 at noon.
