Lacking in the various debates among the candidates running for mayor of Anchorage in the April 2 election is any discussion about maintaining the integrity of the Anchorage tax cap.
Forty years ago, Linda Rexwinkle, Millet Keller and Don Smith worked to place into the Anchorage Municipal Charter a formula that would allow the growth of the Anchorage Municipal Budget to mirror the growth of the City of Anchorage itself without any excessive expenditures.
Those who oppose this fiscal responsibility have attempted to alter this Tax Cap formula. In 2003, then-Mayor Mark Begich removed two Municipal Service Assessments from beneath the tax cap, which resulted in the largest property tax increase in the history of Anchorage. In 2015, then-Mayor Ethan Berkowitz made a similar attempt on the integrity of the formula.
Both attempts were overturned by two separate citizen ballot initiatives, each passing with 60% in support.
On the April 2023 Anchorage ballot, Proposition 14 offered to pull the municipal marijuana tax out of the tax cap formula by stating that those funds would be dedicated to child care and early education. Prop. 14 passed, resulting in a $64 annual property tax increase for the average Anchorage home.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly recently called for a special election to be held on May 7 in order to alter their tax cap formula, utilizing ‘education’ as the need for the special election. Clearly, Fairbanks has noted Anchorage’s success utilizing children as a vehicle to increase taxation via altering their tax cap formula.
Each candidate seeking election to the position of Anchorage mayor this April should clearly and unequivocally state their position on maintaining the integrity of the Anchorage tax cap. Let us see who does and who does not answer that question.
— Bob Maier
Anchorage
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