Voters won't see severance tax on October municipal election ballot

MAT-SU -- Mat-Su Borough Assembly members attempted to salvage the proposed natural-resource severance tax, but on Tuesday ended up voting down a motion to allow the ordinance to be decided by voters.

The ordinance was discussed under the unfinished-business part of the Tuesday assembly meeting, after being postponed from a special meeting held June 29.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, a substitute ordinance was introduced that incorporated a few changes suggested at the June 29 public hearing. One such change was requiring gravel companies to make payments to the borough annually instead of monthly.

The ordinance was further changed Tuesday, when Assembly Member Bruce Bush amended it to reduce the tax from a quarter per ton to a dime per ton.

"I think that is more of an appropriate fee because a lot of this gravel is moved around in this borough," Bush said. "At this fee, then it'd be more fair and more reasonable."

Although a public hearing had previously been held on the topic, a few people from the gravel industry endured the assembly's six-hour meeting to have a chance to address the assembly about the ordinance before the assembly acted on the proposed tax.

Several of those who spoke reiterated concerns raised at the June public hearing. A primary concern was that the tax would be passed along to property owners and wouldn't broaden the borough's tax base -- one reason assembly members had requested it be brought forward.

"Part of the reason this is being put in place is to avoid property taxes on property owners," said Steve Lovs, general manager of Anchorage Sand & Gravel. "There's no way to think property owners are not going to get hit with this tax."

As the assembly struggled to rush through a decision on the tax in the remaining 10 minutes before its mandatory midnight adjournment, assembly members narrowly agreed with Bush's proposal to reduce the per-ton amount of the tax before placing it on the ballot. That motion passed with four votes, with assembly members Jody Simpson, Betty Vehrs and Bill Allen voting against it.

A motion to consider the substituted version of the ordinance also passed, with Vehrs, Jim Colver and Bush voting against it.

Just before the midnight deadline, assembly members had one last motion to consider -- whether to place the matter on the October municipal ballot.

That motion failed, with assembly members Allen, Talis Colberg and Mary Kvalheim voting against it. A motion to reconsider the matter also failed.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com