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Save Alaska’s roads Published March 3
Southbound traffic on the Glenn Highway flows across the new three lane Eagle River Bridge, at right, on Sept. 9, 2020. According to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Facilities approximately 55,000 commuters and commercial vehicles travel the highway each day. (Bill Roth / ADN archive)
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Print article What is the motor fuel tax? When you see that dollar number on the fuel pump screen, $53 to fill up your F-150, what are you paying for? The simple answer to that question is: two things. When you fill your gas tank, you are paying for the cost of the gasoline and, in my opinion more importantly, you are also paying taxes that go toward building and maintaining roads. In Alaska, 18.4 cents from every gallon of gasoline goes to the Federal Highway Trust Fund, and an additional eight cents per gallon goes to the Alaska General Fund. The federal money is then disbursed to state Departments of Transportation (DOT)
Alaska’s motor fuel tax rate is the lowest in the nation; less than one-third the average of the other 49 states. The 8-cent-a-gallon tax has not budged since 1970.
As COVID emergency expires, Alaska’s border screening becomes optional Published February 14
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Print article JUNEAU Alaska’s mandatory border screenings for COVID-19 turned optional Sunday as a statewide COVID-19 emergency expired at midnight. Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the airport action is the biggest obvious change caused by the end of the emergency, but the state expects to find new implications over the next couple of weeks. One issue discovered just last week: The end of the emergency means losing a third of the state’s $23 million monthly food stamp aid from the federal government. Alaska has been operating under a state of emergency since March 2020 and now becomes the only state other than Michigan to lack a statewide COVID-19 emergency, according to the National Governors Association. In Michigan, local officials and the state’s health commissioner have issued separate declarations of emergency to fill the gap, but much of Alaska lacks