Amid Alaska's fiscal crunch, voters in cities across the state are being asked to consider local tax

[TexasTowelie]

Amid Alaska’s fiscal crunch, voters in cities across the state are being asked to consider local tax increases

Elected officials in the Kenai Peninsula Borough were debating a new tax on hotels, motels and other accommodations last month when Larry Persily put some feelers out.

Persily, the borough mayor's chief of staff, wanted to show members of the borough Assembly that the Kenai Peninsula wasn't alone in considering taxes. He wrote an email distributed by the Alaska Municipal League to more than 100 communities.

"We're all in the same leaky fiscal boat of declining state assistance for education, school debt service reimbursement and community assistance," Persily wrote. "If your administration or assembly or city council is considering or has approved for voter consideration a new tax or tax increase, could you let me know?"

More than two dozen responses came in: A number of cities around Alaska had already placed tax measures on October municipal ballots, for reasons that ranged from state cutbacks to a need for new capital projects to rising costs associated with alcohol and drug use.

Read more: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/08/26/with-alaskas-fiscal-crunch-continuing-voters-in-cities-across-the-state-are-being-asked-to-consider-local-tax-increases/