Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcticthaw
Currently there is not sales tax in the North Star Borough. The City of North Pole has a sales tax, but I think it is less than 5%. Maybe more like 3%. City of Fairbanks doesn't have sales tax either currently.
Both Fairbanks, and the Borough repealed the sales tax during the big $ years of the 80s. Now they are kicking themselves as the citezenry wont let them install new taxes.
Property taxes are higher than some places outside. the base bourough tax starts at about 17 mils. Probably up to 24 mills with extra services like road service area, fire service area. Then the city adds some for those inside it's limits.
http://www.co.fairbanks.ak.us/
http://www.ci.fairbanks.ak.us/
http://www.northpolealaska.com/ |
Mill rates are not too high, but assessments are quite high in the North Star Borough. Property owners in the city of Fairbanks also have to pay city property tax, so that adds to the total cost. For example, I bought a house back in 1992 that was worth 106k. According to the borough, my house today is worth around 200k. All I have done is to paint it, and very minor improvements inside, but not enough to make a difference. I am paying around $2, 600 in taxes per year.
People in general won't vote for a sales tax, because the proponents of such taxes can't create them to proportionally replace property tax. There is a good reason why they don't want to create a sales tax that would replace property tax: property owners are not only home and small land owners, but also every business in town and within the borough. These "property tax payers" include oil companies, the companies that own the right of way of the Alaska pipeline, and the mining companies around Fairbanks. If they create a sales tax that is made to "legally" and to proportionally replace property tax, such a sales tax would have to be huge.
The problem with "more taxes" is that in Alaska, city and borough governments create huge "ballooning budgets." Not only that, but a great portion of the Alaska's workforce is comprised of local and state workers. Since this is the case, budgets are huge, and property owners are paying for it.
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12-26-2007, 12:05 PM
Sales Tax
Thank You
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