Amid concern over a looming budget deficit, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is preparing to introduce a state sales tax proposal with less than one month until the end of the legislative session, according to lawmakers who met with him Tuesday.
, which entails splitting a now-annual draw from Permanent Fund earnings in half between the dividend and the state’s other budget items. But Dunleavy had said any change to the size of the dividend, and any new revenues, should be put to a vote by the people of Alaska before they are adopted.
“That indicates to me willingness to potentially sign or allow to go into law those pieces of legislation without a referendum. So did he say it explicitly? No. Was that the message that I got? Yes,” said House Minority Leader Calvin Schrage, an Anchorage independent. “I know certainly Alaskans don’t want to pay a tax to get their dividend. I think the idea of a revenue measure is a stabilizing measure, because of the fact that our oil revenues are so in flux all the time, that we have to have some kind of stabilizing piece that we can count on,” said Tilton.
Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said it’s “great” that Dunleavy intends to introduce legislation but it’s “a little late in the game.” “We are on the precipice of in the near future running out of money as a state. That is a terrifying thing to consider,” said Schrage. “Even if we avoid bankruptcy, just the status quo is frankly unacceptable,” he added, citing outmigration and the lack of private investment in the state.
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