Alaska Has The Highest Taxes (Anchorage, Fairbanks: foreclosure, construction loan, houses)

[Marty Van Diest]

I heard an interesting statistic today. If the state government were not receiving income from oil we would have to tax everyone in Alaska about $15,000 per year to pay for the services that the state government provides to the people.

[RayinAK]

Well, I have no idea of what services the State provides other than DOT road maintenance, and trooper (police), but I do know that property tax in some of the boroughs, including the Fairbanks North Star Borough, is quite high.

I pay school, police, fire, road maintenance, and borough government taxes.

[stiffnecked]

This will get you started. They unfortunately provide a lot more services then people think.

The State of Alaska Departmental Directory

[roadfamily6now]

Wow!!!!

[Marty Van Diest]

Ray, the school taxes that you pay are only a very small part of what the schools get from the state. By far, the state pays most of the school costs in Alaska.

Think about this. The state is spending $15,000 per person per year. Thats over 10 billion dollars, about 2x what other states of similar sizes spent.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

Ray, the school taxes that you pay are only a very small part of what the schools get from the state. By far, the state pays most of the school costs in Alaska.

Think about this. The state is spending $15,000 per person per year. Thats over 10 billion dollars, about 2x what other states of similar sizes spent.

I understand that, but most of my property tax is for paying school bonds. If you compare the rate of property tax to other places' property tax outside Alaska, this one plus some other boroughs by Anchorage are near the top. And yes, it's quite high in some places, but quite low in most. You also have to take into consideration that it does not matter if you have school-age children or not. All properties in the borough pay school-bond taxes. The average property tax for a 1,700 sq. foot, $180K home is around $3K or more per year around Fairbanks. You should the the foreclosure list (more like a 20-page small newspaper) published each summer

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

I heard an interesting statistic today. If the state government were not receiving income from oil we would have to tax everyone in Alaska about $15,000 per year to pay for the services that the state government provides to the people.

I can believe it. I recently went to a presentation at work where they broke down the real numbers of the damage ACES is doing to us. In terms of taxation on oil and gas production, Alaska ranks dead last in the US with 68% of net revenues from oil production going to the Govt. The next closest is ND at 50%, while the GOM (Gulf of Mexico) is around 30% for comparison. Worldwide, Alaska ranks 96 out of 105 in terms of business friendly regions to oil and gas production. Even acounting for politcal corruption, places like Russia and Venezuela are more attractive to do business in.

We just heard the news today that Conoco is shuting down the LNG plant in Nikiski, and the head of the oil & gas development board is predicting TAPS could become economically unviable within 5-7 years. Our state legislators better pull their heads out of their a$$es real quick or we will all be in a world of hurt sooner rather than later.

[gobrien]

How did the pipeline in the '70's get started, seems like what is happening now is unnecessarily complicated and expensive.

[RayinAK]

The predictions are for state financial problems to happen from five to seven years unless something can be done about oil production, and this is nearly impossible now since the Federal Government has a stronghold on Alaska. If the AK's economy tanks, then there will be an exodus out of here, since the largest employers are State, Federal, and local governments. So, teachers, faculty, staff, fire, police, DMV, DOT, and so forth will see great job losses. And since these people are the ones buying toys, houses, getting construction loans, etc., the whole ball of wax could melt like it happened back in the early '80s. A lot of newcomers to Alaska don't know that our economy is often called a "boom and bust economy."

What would save our economy is oil, and mining. How can Alaska, a State mostly owned by the Federal government, be self sufficient? No idea

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by gobrien

How did the pipeline in the '70's get started, seems like what is happening now is unnecessarily complicated and expensive.

In typical fashion, the Democtrats and Enviro-nuts fought it at every level. It took the Arab oil embargo to bring it to a crisis vote. Even then, when Congress moved to enact leigislation to hault all lawsuits, it still came to a tie in vote the Senate. It took the Republican VP Spirow Agnew to break the tie and allow Nixon sign the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act in 1973.