As Juneau\u2019s upcoming special mayoral election draws closer, candidates Karen Crane and Ken Koelsch are beginning to move further apart.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s Native Issues Forum, co-sponsored by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and Sealaska Corp., revealed differences between the candidates, particularly on the divisive topic of senior sales tax exemptions, which the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly decided to restrict last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs mayor, how are you going to fix these two bonehead decisions the Assembly made?\u201d Juneau resident Brad Fluetsch asked during the question and answer portion of the noon forum at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. Fluetsch was also referring to the CBJ Assembly\u2019s recent decision to spend $16 million on a biosolids dryer.<\/p>\n
In his answer, Koelsch focused more on the senior sales tax issue than biosolids, which he admitted not knowing \u201ctoo much about.\u201d The senior sales tax, on the other hand, is something that he said he\u2019s quite familiar with. Koelsch testified against the move back when the Assembly was deciding whether to restrict the tax.<\/p>\n
He said that seniors are currently organizing an initiative that would pressure the Assembly to change the restriction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a myriad of things that can be tweaked in that,\u201d he said, noting that the city could at least add gas and soap back onto the list of items that don\u2019t include sales tax for seniors.<\/p>\n
Crane, who supported restricting the senior sales tax exemption when the matter was before the Assembly, said that the decision was one that boiled down to \u201cfairness\u201d and looking at the \u201cbig picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should I receive an exemption when I check out at Fred Meyer, and the single mother behind me working an entry-level job is paying more?\u201d Crane said.<\/p>\n
Crane also noted that Juneau\u2019s senior population is rapidly growing and the city will need more tax revenue to provide the services they expect.<\/p>\n
Tuesday marked the second public forum the mayoral candidates attended. The first was a Feb. 12 discussion hosted by the Downtown Business Association. At that forum, their answers were largely similar: both gave pro-business, pro-downtown position answers to questions.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the candidates were also divided on the topic of a city-instituted minimum wage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a minimum wage that is far below the cost of living, and housing costs that are astronomical,\u201d said an unnamed audience member who raised the issue.<\/p>\n
Koelsch said that he is a \u201cfirm believer that the market place dictates the wage.\u201d He went on to say minimum-wage jobs don\u2019t pay well because they are a \u201clearning situation.\u201d As mayor, he said he wouldn\u2019t try to establish a minimum wage \u201cat all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crane said that she supported the state of Alaska\u2019s movement to raise the minimum wage and wished that it was higher. She said that she disagreed with Koelsch, but she was unsure what the city can do about raising the minimum wage.<\/p>\n
Crane and Koelsch will meet again in the Assembly chambers at 7 p.m. tonight for a forum hosted by the Juneau League of Women Voters, KTOO and the Juneau Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Juneau\u2019s upcoming special mayoral election draws closer, candidates Karen Crane and Ken Koelsch are beginning to move further apart. Tuesday\u2019s Native Issues Forum, co-sponsored by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and Sealaska Corp., revealed differences between the candidates, particularly on the divisive topic of senior sales tax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28182"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}