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Legislation to bring back a state tax on individual Alaskans to help pay for schools â which was abolished in 1980 as the state got rich with oil â looks destined for more homework and returning to class in committee next year.
The bill moved out of the House Ways and Means Committee on May 6, moving next to the Finance Committee. But getting a tax bill through the full House and Senate before the Legislatureâs May 19 adjournment deadline would be a tough assignment in any political school.
The measure, as amended by the committee last week, would impose an annual tax of $25 on all Alaskans earning less than $30,000 a year. At between $30,000 and $60,000 in annual income, the tax would be $100. The rate would go to $200 for people earning between $60,000 and $90,000 a year; $400 for incomes over $90,000; and $600 a year for incomes over $120,000.
Letter: Spohnholz for Senate adn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from adn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Back when the North Slope was pumping 2 million barrels of crude a day at its peak in 1988, and even for years after, oil provided upward of 90% of state general fund revenues in good years. But that was then, and now oil generates maybe 25% of the stateâs unrestricted dollars.
The king of the budget hill is the Alaska Permanent Fund. The annual draw on the fund to help pay for public services and the dividend will provide about two-thirds of the stateâs unrestricted general revenues this year.
âWeâve gone from being an oil state to being an investment state,â said Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, in her fifth year in the state House and first year as chair of the House Special Committee on Ways and Means.