Alaska House Democrats are pushing a bill to impose a universal education head tax on every Alaskan who “earns a wage or has self-employed net earnings.”
Sponsored by Anchorage Democrats Zack Fields (Anchorage), Alyse Galvin (Anchorage), Andrew Gray (Anchorage), along with leftist Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, House Bill 152 would establish a $150 head tax on all wage-earning Alaskans.
“This is a tax that applies for everyone and is projected to generate approximately $40 million to assist with funding education,” the sponsors statement notes. “
Additionally, the bill adds a flat rate 4% income tax on an individual’s income that exceeds $150,000 per year or a couple’s income that exceeds $300,000 per year (if filing taxes jointly). For example, if an individual has $200,000 of taxable income, they will pay $2000 in Alaska education income taxes, representing 4% of $50,000 (the amount over $150,000), plus the $150 education head tax, for a total of $2150 in Alaska education taxes.
Democrats see this as a way to generate more money for Alaska’s chronically underperforming public schools, which already spend more per pupil than nearly every other state in the nation.
Rather than champion stronger accountability measures or offer support for more school choice options – such as home, charter and private education – this bill seeks is narrowly aimed at raising up to $40 million in additional revenue for government-run schools.
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The sponsor’s statement echoes the talking points of teacher unions and entrenched educational bureaucrats who claim state schools simply need more money, not greater accountability, in order to improve outcomes.
Despite historic increases to education funding last year, the bill’s sponsors claim lawmakers must “quickly plan for a long-term solution before students across the state suffer another year of inadequate education due to insufficient funding.”
HB 152 would treat resident and non-resident Alaska earners alike, with both paying the Alaska education tax on their Alaska earnings.
The sponsors want to make it easy for Alaskans to simply sign off a portion of their PFD check to cover the education tax, claiming that voluntarily forfeiting a portion of the PFD “would mean, in practice, that most Alaskans would not pay any tax out of pocket.”
HB 152 is scheduled for a public hearing with “invitation only” testimony in the House State Affairs Committee on Feb. 17, at 3:15 p.m.
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3 Comments
I always thought we should have kept the $10 head tax for schools from the 1980s.
That $10 tax would be ~$40 now inflation adjusted.
Are these greedy pigs hoping to say: “OK, well how about we half the head tax & make it $75” ?
Fields is my yuppie rep.
He has stated we have to tax more & spend more to make ANC attractive to outside yuppies like himself.
Not sure why he doesn’t move back outside where there are high taxes, spending and the great schools he desires.
**Anchorage is in desperate need of funding because they can’t manage money and I’m not funding ASDs bad habits. Fairbanks somehow managed to balance their budget over the last few years to where they’re back to having a surplus, ASDs incompetency is their own to dig out of.
More thievery for their political allies. At least in the past they would do a middling job educating children.Now they can’t even do that. But they want more of our money. Disgusting.