When politicians can’t, voters need to lead

Listen. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of children not playing or shouting or running in and out of the house. It’s the gloriously quiet sound of a new school year. It’s also the sound of your tax dollars at work.

This year, Mat-Su Borough voters will have an opportunity to vote on a 5 percent alcohol tax and put more of those tax dollars to work. The borough assembly has passed a proposition to let voters decide if we want a borough-wide tax on alcohol with the proceeds going directly to emergency services and education. The tax would be on retail sales only. Wholesalers would be exempt, so the guy selling a case of vodka to Joe’s Bar doesn’t have to pay the tax, but when Joe sells you that screwdriver, he will tack on an additional 5 percent.

That sounds reasonable to me, but I don’t drink anymore. There was a time, however, when a 5 percent tax would have meant I probably could pay for all the high school marching band uniforms with enough left over for a couple of tubas. Anyway, an alcohol tax seems like a reasonable idea to me — especially if it is intended to help fund our schools.

While this may sound reasonable to me, and I would guess quite a few other folks, it didn’t sound that reasonable to Assemblyman Jim Colver, who voted against putting the referendum on the Oct. 1 ballot. In the absence of an explanation, I can only speculate why he would not want voters to decide if they want to tax retail sales of alcohol. My guess is that it is just a visceral reaction to any tax — if it is a tax, it’s bad. You know, redistribution of wealth and all that.

The fact is, taxes are redistribution of wealth and we, along with our politicians, need to admit it. We pool our resources and pay for stuff that benefits all of us. This doesn’t mean we all go marching off into the communal fields to pick crops for our overlords. What it does mean is we have certain commonly held values and are willing to pay for them as a community. That way, community institutions like the police department, fire department and schools are not just for those of us who can afford them. They are for everyone and they benefit the entire community.

This no-tax mantra that has attached itself to our political institutions is one of the most cowardly and debilitating developments in modern politics. Even some of those who voted for the referendum felt compelled to qualify their votes. According to a recent Frontiersman article, Assemblyman Darcy Salmon, who voted to put the question on the ballot, said he wasn’t voting in favor of the tax. He went on to say: “If I’m correct, this is merely a vote to let the people deicide.”

Wow. If anyone on the assembly should be in favor of an alcohol tax it should be this guy. A short time ago he was hit and almost killed by a drunk driver, but even he has a hard time signing on to a tax. A whole whopping 5 percent to help educate our children and protect our community. But of course, it’s a tax and no politician wants to be seen as being in favor of something as obviously evil as taxation. I guess that comes uncomfortably close to Communism for some folks.

Another fact we need to admit is Alaska gets more taxes back than we pay to that big, over-reaching Washington, D.C., machine. In fact, we receive more federal money per capita than any other state in the union and are the second-least taxed to boot. The only state with a lower per capita tax burden than Alaska is Arkansas, and that’s only because we pay slightly more in federal income tax. That slightly higher income tax is because people make more here. The states that should be complaining about taxes are California, New York, New Jersey and the like that pay more to the feds than they get back. So the next time we need to fund something that will benefit the community, we should all give a collective thank you to the blue states for helping Alaskans enjoy a very low tax rate.

In the middle of writing this I was interrupted by our dogs going crazy in the living room. We often get moose and the occasional bear, so I went downstairs to check it out. I looked out the window of the mud room and saw something completely unexpected. There at the front door were about half a dozen turkeys just milling around and bumping into each other. I stepped outside and herded them down the driveway to a nice, safe spot by a tree and out of sight of the dogs. I figured they would be OK there until whoever owned them came by to collect their flock. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

I think voters should likewise help herd the turkeys in our borough assembly to a nice politically safe spot under a tree. Vote yes to help pay for our children’s education and help pay for the emergency services the community needs. Apparently, our politicians don’t quite have the stomach for it, so it’s up to us to help them out. The voters will eventually be along to collect them under that nice, safe tree. It seems like the right thing to do.

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.