Across the street from the Terry Miller Building where the Alaska Legislature held the first day of its fifth special session, about two dozen people gathered at Capital School Park at noon Monday, pressing lawmakers to come up with a plan to raise state revenue.<\/p>\n
Rally-goers carried signs that said things like, \u201cStop the clown car! Do your job!\u201d \u201cPass a fiscal plan,\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t drain the Permanent Fund.\u201d Juneau resident Joy Lyon, speaking into a microphone, led the rally and occasional chants, including, \u201cRaise revenues right now,\u201d and \u201c$1,000 is OK. Keep the Permanent Fund here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon is the executive director of Association for the Education of Young Children in Southeast Alaska and usually speaks out about early childhood issues, but for the rally, she represented herself.<\/p>\n
Instead of more budget cuts, she said the state needs long-term revenue solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf legislators delay as they have done all year through regular and multiple, multiple special sessions, the problems are only going to be harder to solve next year,\u201d Lyon said to the crowd, which included several onlookers. \u201cWe\u2019re going to see worse cuts in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said raising revenue is \u201cgoing to take a little bit from a lot of us.\u201d Options on the table include oil tax credit reform, sales or income tax, or taxing such items as tobacco, fuel or corporate mining.<\/p>\n
[Legislature starts fifth special session with no clear path forward<\/a>]<\/p>\n Juneau middle school teacher Mike Bucy called the tax rate on mining \u201cridiculously, pitifully small.\u201d<\/p>\n The state doesn\u2019t tax mining if the net income is $40,000 or less. It taxes 3 percent over $40,000; $1,500 plus 5 percent over $50,000; and $4,000 plus 7 percent over $100,000, according to the Department of Revenue\u2019s Tax Division.<\/p>\n \u201cI support mineral extraction. I\u2019m all for it, but we\u2019ve got to be fair. Everybody\u2019s got to do due diligence in this if we\u2019re all going to be in the state,\u201d Bucy said after the rally. \u201cAnd government is not the problem. Bad government is the problem, and right now we\u2019ve got bad government.\u201d<\/p>\n Jayne Andreen held a sign directed at the Legislature that said, \u201cStop Playing Around.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she was at the rally because \u201cit\u2019s time for this Legislature to do their job. Get done with business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFirst and foremost, we need to get back to having an income tax of some sort. We\u2019ve been really fortunate for decades, but now it\u2019s time. We\u2019ve got a real changing picture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n State income tax went away in 1980 under then-Gov. Jay Hammond.<\/p>\n State House hopeful Justin Parish, who\u2019s running against Juneau Republican Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, agreed with Andreen.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need an income tax that is going to be sustainable in the long term,\u201d he said during the rally.<\/p>\n [Democrat Justin Parish to challenge Mu\u00f1oz this fall<\/a>]<\/p>\n Lyon challenged those at the rally and others, especially lawmakers, to take the \u201cBudget Challenge<\/a>,\u201d an interactive tool by the Rasmuson Foundation project Plan4Alaska<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we should give campaign support to any legislator unless they\u2019re willing to come out with their plan,\u201d Lyon said to cheers and applause from the small crowd.<\/p>\n She then brought up the Permanent Fund Dividend, which she called the \u201ctouchiest subject of all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of how much our check will be, but how many checks will there be, because if we don\u2019t do something now, we won\u2019t have Permanent Fund Dividend checks,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n After the rally, she said the governor is not to blame in vetoing part of the Permanent Fund appropriation and capping the dividend at $1,000.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor took the first bold move and he\u2019s taking all the fury of people that are angry all on his own shoulders, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair. There are 60 people in the Legislature; a little bit of that burden on all of them is OK,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n [Walker limits PFD checks to $1,000<\/a>]<\/p>\n She remains positive when it comes to the state\u2019s fiscal future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to get through this,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be the end of the world if we had an income tax.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Related stories:<\/p>\n Cobbling together funding for Housing First<\/a><\/p>\n