The headline alone for Robert Hall’s letter on Feb. 7 (I don’t know who assigns the headline, author or newspaper) irritated me enough to respond. I’m tired of hearing about our “free ride.”
When the income tax was abolished, I believe that was due to the amazing influx of income, especially from our oil industry. I’ve always felt the Permanent Fund dividend and the elimination of a state income tax were great benefits to the residents of this great state — we should benefit from our natural resources.
But thinking of bringing back the tax now, when our state in many ways is struggling, seems counterproductive to me. We have some of the highest medical costs in the world, from what I’ve read in several articles. There are high enough gas prices that there was a lawsuit looking into the why of it. Our cost of living is pretty high. Employment is high, due in part to a lot of seasonal work, among other reasons.
It seems so strange to me to bring back taxes when we have some $80 billion in part of the Permanent Fund. I know it’s not all in cash, but some is. You know, those funds started with not much to speak of. You withdraw the $3 billion we were short a couple years ago and you’d barely notice. I know legally there are many hurdles, but I heard that it was also meant to be a rainy-day fund.
Especially with so many still reeling from the changes COVID brought, is the answer really tied to more taxes? Do we really need $80 billion in that fund? Couldn’t we tap it? The people running the fund have been successful with their planning to the point that when globally stocks have tanked, the fund did well. We can build it back up to $80 billion, it sure seems to me.
But please, stop calling the benefits we enjoyed due to the huge influx of oil money a “free ride.” It helped us balance other high costs of living here.
— Joy Bruns
Wasilla
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