LETTER: Reinstate our state income tax

To the editor:

So far I’ve not heard any politician who wants to be reelected breathe those words. Since 1980, we’ve skated by without personally having to pay income taxes for the services we receive. Only a few other states have no income tax. I’ve seen ads in the ADN and the Frontiersman paid for by Bob Gillam, (richest man in Alaska with reported net worth of 320 million) that claim that a personal income tax will be the death knell for this state. Well, it seems that not injecting cash soon into the state’s economy will in itself will have the same effect. It seems that we have already cut the budget to the bone The income tax could again be a certain percentage of our federal income tax, with the percentage subject to change depending on the fortunes of oil and our other resources. Trump’s promise to reduce our corporate and personal federal income taxes, if actually instituted, will free up our personal money to then fund the needs of our home state. The return to hundred dollar oil is dependent on geopolitical factors beyond our control and even less predictable now than ever given the now inevitable chaos in world markets. Denial of our fiscal predicament must be overcome and we must face hard facts and accept the fact that magical thinking rarely works in economics. Numbers will continue to be numbers, and will not be wished away.

— David P. Werner

Palmer