Business

In the late ’90s Juneau had two Taco Bells. But by the early 2000s they were both gone.

The Juneau Assembly on Monday asked city staff to draft an ordinance for a ballot question to exempt food from city sales tax while raising the summer sales tax rate to 6%.

If groceries became exempt from sales tax and the sales tax rate went to 6% in the summer, the city’s finance director has estimated that local households would on average save, a summer visitor would pay about $1 extra, and the city would lose about half a million dollars in revenue.

The vet shortage is not just a Juneau or an Alaska problem. It’s part of a nationwide trend — as practicing vets retire, there aren’t new ones to fill the gap.

The threshold to qualify for the relief has also changed — applicants now have to show they lost at least 30% of their gross revenue between 2019 and 2020 because of the pandemic.

There’s about $34 million dollars left in the state’s pot of federal funds for businesses affected by the pandemic.

As ambassador during the pandemic, Hillman says a major focus for her and her team has been on Canada’s unique relationship with the U.S., especially with the countries’ shared border.

This year, the most controversial provision has been one that limits the number of tasting rooms for breweries, distilleries and wineries.

Similar pickets were planned at airports in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Electric cars and gas-electric hybrids are in short supply, and prices have been climbing rapidly.