{"id":77922,"date":"2021-11-03T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/city-considers-whether-to-weigh-in-on-state-revenue-options\/"},"modified":"2021-11-03T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T06:30:00","slug":"city-considers-whether-to-weigh-in-on-state-revenue-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/city-considers-whether-to-weigh-in-on-state-revenue-options\/","title":{"rendered":"City considers whether to weigh in on state revenue options"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Wednesday night’s City and Borough of Juneau Finance Committee meeting, assembly members flirted with going on record with a preference for how the state generates revenue.<\/p>\n

While they generally agreed that a statewide sales tax is not the best way to generate much-needed revenue, assembly members declined to make that stance official or endorse another method—such as a state income tax—preferring to consider the matter further before proceeding.<\/p>\n

City Manager Rorie Watt acknowledged that CBJ has long shied away from taking specific policy positions on state matters. He said that CBJ Assembly members advocated for a broad fiscal plan in the past but stopped short of specific recommendations.<\/p>\n

[Statewide campaign coffers are filling up]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n

But, he said the time might be right to consider whether the city should take a position in advance of the upcoming Alaska Municipal League Conference later this month, where a hot debate is likely to unfold around the question of the state’s options to generate revenue.<\/p>\n

Watt shared a potential resolution with the assembly for consideration. The resolution acknowledges that the state needs revenue but discourages a statewide sales tax as the mechanism to generate it.<\/p>\n

Wide agreement<\/strong><\/p>\n

CBJ staff and Assembly members widely agreed that a statewide sales tax is not in s best interest.<\/p>\n

Watt said that sales tax is traditionally a municipal revenue source and that cities specifically tailor the tax rate to prevent harming local businesses. He said that adding a state layer of taxes could drive up costs for local businesses, force cities to raise property taxes to generate new revenue or cut municipal services.<\/p>\n

[Study sheds light on electrifying cruise ship docks]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n

Assembly members added that a statewide tax is regressive and could hamper local businesses’ recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

New Assembly member ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak Barbara Blake said that Juneau serves as a hub for surrounding areas and a statewide tax could hurt those communities, too.<\/p>\n

Assembly membe Wade Bryson called a state sales tax “economically damaging” and suggested including that in any resolution about the topic.<\/p>\n

It’s better than nothing, maybe?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assembly member Greg Smith said he opposes a statewide sales tax but worried that opposing it could send the message that the City and Borough of Juneau doesn’t want to be part of the solution.<\/p>\n

“I don’t like sales tax,” Smith said. “ A sales tax is problematic. But, not doing anything could be more problematic.”<\/p>\n

Assembly member Carole Triem wondered if supporting a different type of tax instead of sales tax was “outside the wheelhouse” of the assembly.<\/p>\n

Assembly member Michelle Bonnet Hale said that she sees taking a position on other taxes as part of the assembly’s scope because the state has shifted costs to municipalities over the years and it’s clear the state needs revenue sources.<\/p>\n

Sitting tight<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because state lawmakers are unlikely to visit the question until winter, Mayor Beth Weldon and Jeff Rogers, CBJ finance director, suggested a subset of assembly members work together to bring back a resolution that the assembly can consider later this year.<\/p>\n

“I agree this needs more work, ” said Maria Gladziszewski, deputy mayor and assembly member.<\/p>\n

• Contact reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneauempire.com or 907-308-4891.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City leaders generally oppose a statewide sales tax <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":716,"featured_media":77923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[765,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-77922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-city-and-borough-of-juneau","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77922","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\/716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77922"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=77922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}