I could not agree more with Tom Nelson’s opinion that Alaska is failing. My wife and I have lived here since 1979. We have never seen the state and city of Anchorage in worse shape. Our leaders are failing us. Our schools need to be funded, teachers need to be paid a decent wage and all public employees need a pension as well as social security. The University of Alaska’s budget has been shredded.
We need to stop fighting about how much money we are getting from the Permanent Fund dividend and start funding better services to stop the outflow of residents. The answer is a graduated income tax. A general sales tax is too regressive, but if necessary, a reasonable, seasonal sales tax to capture some visitor dollars would help. We need to reverse this decline and quickly.
— Mel Ackerman
Anchorage
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