Opinion: You get what you pay for — and Alaska is paying too little

Most Alaskans, perhaps even most Americans, have a knee-jerk reaction to taxes. They affect citizens in a sensitive area — their pocketbook. Perhaps a little analysis and thought could change this normal negative reaction.

It is clear, even to the stingiest among us, that Anchorage and Alaska need more income. Our severely underfunded public schools, decreasing population — called “outmigration” these days — underfunded police force, deteriorating streets and highways, underfunded city and state park budgets, and on and on, are not going to fix themselves. We have to pay for it.

Public schools are the best example. Do you want your first grader in a classroom with 25-plus students or your intermediate composition student in a class with 35-plus students? What if the teacher needs four to five paragraphs per week per student from two such classes? Who suffers? The teacher and 70 students. It’s not rocket science — if you minimize taxes, you minimize services.

I was an English teacher in Anchorage and had students coming into my classroom at lunch for help. Why? They were ambitious. Far more students who wanted and needed help were too shy, too busy or less motivated. With smaller class sizes, those students would have gotten the help in class.

Some Alaskans resent paying taxes that help other people’s children. They often say, “But I don’t have any kids in school!” The same attitude is heard when folks say, “The streets in our neighborhood are fine.” Taxes are not designed to help specific taxpayers; they are, or should be, designed to help the entire community. And we are a community.

As well, lots of people get real excited by sales taxes, especially those who have enough income to buy lots of stuff. They argue that, on balance, sales taxes are unfair — they are regressive. That means that individuals with less income pay a higher percent of their income than individuals with a higher income, and this is true. It is minimized by exempting some expenses — medical care, groceries and the like.

A recent opinion piece published in the Anchorage Daily News explained the disadvantages of a regressive tax. In doing so, the author made an excellent argument for using a different kind of tax.

The solution is to use an income tax. With an income tax, the regulations of the tax can prevent it from being regressive by requiring higher tax rates as individual incomes increase. Alaska is one of only eight or nine states with no state income tax. For those folks all worked up about regressive sales taxes, this is the solution.

Any tax that most folks will accept depends on people seeing themselves as part of the same community. That’s not always obvious these days — but it doesn’t change the bottom line: We still have to pay our way.

Tom Nelson has lived in Anchorage more than 50 years. He is a retired school teacher, cross country ski coach, track coach, commercial fisherman and wilderness guide.

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