I have been preaching for years that we need a 3% sales tax that should go to help reduce property taxes. All of it should go only to reducing property taxes so that everyone has some skin in the game. This would also get out-of-state tourists and and residents that don’t live in the municipality, such as the Mat-Su and Kenai, etc., who use our roads and entities without paying anything and avoiding sales taxes in their areas.
It has also been mentioned in another article that the renters would be paying the landlords taxes and getting nothing for it. I will tell you, as a landlord, the biggest reason I have to keep raising rents is to cover the constant increases in property taxes. I believe that if we enact a sales tax, it will help to level out rents and not just get the landlords richer.
People are concerned and well justified that it would just give the municipality more to spend if we allocate two-thirds to easing property taxes and one-third to developing downtown. All should go to property tax relief.
— Greg Svendsen
Anchorage
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