Vote no, no, yes

By Maria Gladziszewski

I won't rehash others' arguments on Proposition 1, the property tax cap (see excellent commentary from previous writers Christine Woll and Neil Steininger, Kate Troll, Steve Sorensen, and Mike Hekkers) except to say a property tax cap is a blunt instrument that will only hamstring the future. You may not like every budget decision every Assembly has made, but on balance, the budgets reflect broad community priorities.

Regarding Proposition 2, which would remove sales tax from food and utilities: during my years serving on the Assembly, I made multiple efforts to remove the sales tax on food. The Assembly has the power to exempt goods or services from sales tax and indeed there are numerous exemptions in city code. The sticking point, however, has always been how to make up the lost revenue if food was exempt, or what to cut if tax revenue decreased by $5-6 million annually. Any proposal to make up that revenue by adjusting the sales tax rate requires voter approval. Each time the Assembly came close to agreeing to put a proposal before the voters, something complicated the effort. No one disagreed with the goal of taking tax off of food. The disagreement was on a package of measures that would either cut the budget or somehow make up the revenue with tax changes. Removing tax from utilities only makes the problem bigger by reducing city revenue by another $4-5 million.

How to fill that budget gap? Pass Proposition 3, a seasonal sales tax. It collects more revenue from summer visitors and less from Juneauites. For Juneau residents, the combination of no tax on food and utilities plus the 7.5% summer/3% winter seasonal tax is estimated to save Juneau residents about $400 per person, on average, every year. Juneau is the only major cruise ship port in Southeast Alaska without a seasonal sales tax.

If Proposition 2 passes without Proposition 3 passing, however, the Assembly will need to cut roughly $10 million from the CBJ's annual budget. That's real money, real programs and real services. Lower priority items (pools, parks and recreation programs, Eaglecrest, the ice rink, libraries, the city museum) would be on the chopping block first. I know Juneau citizens do not want that; I saw how a previous city manager was nearly run out of town after proposing to close the downtown pool.

So, even though I wholeheartedly support Prop 2, I am advocating voting against it because the math only works if Prop 3 passes. If Prop 2 passes and Prop 3 does not, there will be a $10 million hole in the budget.

Remember, the Assembly already has the power to remove sales taxes from food and utilities; Prop 2 does not have to pass for that to happen. If Prop 3 passes, though, the Assembly would be able to immediately remove sales taxes from food and utilities because the seasonal sales tax would make up for the lost food/utilities revenue. And, since Juneau residents now pay most of the tax on food and utilities, by passing Proposition 3, more of that money would come from seasonal visitors, thus lowering our personal costs. A big win for year-round residents: fewer taxes paid by us while still having the funds to preserve programs Juneau loves. We'd join our neighbors in Ketchikan, Sitka, and Skagway who already have seasonal sales taxes.

Please join me in voting no, no, yes.

• Maria Gladziszewski served 11 years on the Juneau Planning Commission and nine years on the Juneau Assembly, including four as deputy mayor.