The ADN editorial board normally writes a well-balanced opinion. But the Dunleavy/ Carpenter tax proposal obviously hit a really large, sensitive nerve. The editorial read like a fever dream, complete with elements of reality mixed in with knee-jerk anxiety closet nightmare demons. It should have lived in the drafts folder for a while. Actually forever, as many of mine have.
The board has apparently forgotten that there are two legitimate rationales for taxing Alaskans: one is that it does actually pencil out to a postive cash flow case. The other is that taxes restore the connection between the citizens and those they elect, creating the two-way street vital to state financial sanity. Also known as skin in the game.
While the tax and Permanent Fund dividend schemes may seem contradictory, the PFD scheme alone actually is so, since it violates the “No Free Lunch” reality.
— Jeffry Schmitz
Anchorage
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