Sales tax would ease property taxes

To the editor:

Everybody squawks about property tax in the Matanuska Borough. There isn’t a service they don’t want or a tax they want to pay for it.

Five bold members of the assembly are giving residents a chance to vote on the Oct. 6 ballot to roll back the mill rate to the lowest in the last 20 years by levying a modest 3 percent sales tax. On an average assessed home of $209,000, this amounts to a $707 reduction in yearly property taxes.

This is the Valley’s chance to diversify the tax base and move to a more fair and equitable way to operate our borough. Putting the burden of a growing borough of one sector of its citizens, its property owners, is unreasonable and limiting. A sales tax is easy to collect and hard to avoid. We cannot let an anti- government idiom drive our future. Too many in the Valley are beginning to make personal attacks against our elected officials instead of joining in a dialog of solutions. “Taxes are too high and I don’t want to pay any” while saying at the same time, “When are you going to fix my road and provide this new service for me?” are not reasonable.

Mat-Su Borough residents need a chance to weigh in on Oct. 6 at the ballot box. A mayoral veto should not stop that process.

Terry Snyder

Big Lake