Hundreds seek temporary relief from Haines’ summer sales tax
- Chilkat Valley News
- 16 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Rashah McChesney
Chilkat Valley News
A petition to pause the 2026 seasonal sales tax increase gathered hundreds of signatures over the week that it was out at five local stores.
Organizer Barb Nettleton delivered the petition, which has more than 500 signatures, to the borough clerk on April 6. The language on the petition asks for a “temporary pause of the seasonal sales tax for the 2026
summer season.” It goes on to detail increasing economic pressure from sharp increases in the cost of fuel, shipping and transportation. “A one-season pause will prevent additional financial strain during a period of unusually high costs, while honoring the intent of the voters,” according to the language.
Haines’ seasonal sales tax is in its first year of implementation after voters approved it. It took what was a flat 5.5% tax rate in town and shifted it beginning January 1. The in-town sales tax rate dropped to 4.5%. Then on April 1 it jumped to 7% where it will remain through September 30.
Nettleton said her intention was that the sales tax rate would be kept at the lower 4.5%. She said it’s her first time organizing a petition and she got the idea after she shared a social media post from Alaska Marine Lines announcing that it was increasing its fuel surcharge due to increasing fuel costs.
She said she wanted the assembly to hear what people in the Chilkat Valley have been talking about so they “hear from more than just the handful of voices who are always commenting, always paying attention. Most people are busy with their lives, raising their children, running their businesses and they don’t have time to sit through hours worth of meetings.”
Nettelton put signature sheets out for a petition for a week at the Alaskan Liquor Store, IGA, Olerud’s, Haines Home Building, and Dandelion.
Some who signed it, like Taylor Ashton, originally supported the seasonal sales tax proposal but has since changed her mind.
Ashton, who owns Moose Horn Laundry, moved to the Chilkat Valley from Skagway where she managed the Glacial Coffeehouse. Skagway has had a seasonal sales tax for years. During an October 2025 interview, Ashton said residents there had adjusted well to the shifting tax burden which sees a 5% summer sales tax drop to 3% or lower in the winter.
Ultimately, Ashton said she did not vote in favor of Haines’ seasonal sales tax rate, in part because it didn’t seem like it gave residents enough of a break in the winter to make up for the cost of a higher sales tax rate in the summer.
And, she said, she is frustrated with how the Haines borough is seeking new revenue and specifically pointed to a potential $9 million grant for Letnikof Dock work that the borough missed a deadline to apply for.
“[Staff] need to prioritize their time and really reach for grants and funding from outside of the community,” she said. “I would be more willing to pay more taxes, bigger taxes, if the borough was more proactive in bringing other streams of income into town as well.”
Beau and Zane Bradley also signed Nettleton’s petition.
Zane Bradley said they voted in favor of the seasonal sales tax increase last year because they supported the idea of shifting more of the year’s taxing onto non-locals. But after seeing the new tax law unfold, they said it seemed like residents do not get a significant enough break.
And, “It’s a big burden on local business owners,” they said.
That’s a sentiment Beau Bradley agreed with. The Bradleys bought The Bookstore last year and said their margins are slim, so adjustments can come at a big cost, particularly when people buy fewer things in order to save money.
“We implemented a used book section to help make books more accessible to a wider group of people in town,” he said. “This [seasonal tax] is directly contradicting that.”
Ashton, the Bradleys and Nettleton all said they were not sure if it was legal or part of an established process for the assembly to do what the petition asks, to pause implementation of something voters approved at the ballot box.
Borough clerk Mike Denker said he has not researched the issue too heavily yet, but pointed to a section of borough charter which states that “the assembly may not repeal or substantially alter an ordinance enacted by initiative within two years after certification of the election at which the initiative was approved.”
One question that raises, Denker said, is weighing whether the language in Nettleton’s petition asking for a “pause” counts as “substantially altering” the seasonal sales tax ordinance.
“The assembly should seek legal guidance on that question,” he said.
But as the assembly mulls over the petition, Denker said there are alternatives local citizens can pursue that could result in changes to the seasonal sales tax. Right now, his office is working on a guide for a citizen petition, essentially a step-by-step process for getting something onto the ballot either during a special election or the general election.
Once a petition application is certified with the borough, organizers have 90 days to collect enough signatures to get it onto a ballot and they must collect at least 25% of the number of people who voted in the last election. Right now, he said, that number is 279 people.
Once 279 signatures are gathered, then the borough has to hold an election between 45 and 75 days later, though there are some overlapping deadlines for special elections he’s trying to get clarity on, in part because of Nettleton’s petition. It’s something that could help answer the question of just how quickly voters could get changes to the seasonal sales tax law on a ballot if they wanted to, and legally could.
But even though Nettleton’s petition is informal, Denker said he believes it’s important and means something both to the people who signed it and to elected officials.
“I think it matters and it’s what decision-makers would look at,” he said.
• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.
