JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The City and Borough of Juneau Finance Committee has decided to pass its proposed changes to the senior sales tax exemption on to the Assembly for consideration.
It will now be up to the Assembly to decide on the changes, which include limiting the senior sales tax exemption to food, heating fuel, electricity as well as water and wastewater utilities. The committee’s proposal would also introduce a need-based program, allowing low-income seniors to continue benefiting from the existing tax exemption, reported The Juneau Empire (https://bit.ly/1IjFeil).
City finance officials expect the proposed changes to increase tax revenue for Juneau by about $1 million annually.
At Thursday’s meeting, Finance Director Bob Bartholomew said the city will continue to see a drop in tax revenue by about $400,000 to $500,000 per year as more seniors become eligible for the exemption.
Assembly members Kate Troll, Jesse Kiehl, Maria Gladziszewski and Karen Krane all agreed that the proposed changes to the senior sales tax exemption are not only about money but also about building sustainable budget practices for the future.
“We’ve got to start grappling with this,” Kiehl said. “This can has been kicked down the road before, and each time we catch up with it, it’s a bigger problem than before.”
But Mayor Merrill Sanford motioned to get rid of the committee’s proposed changes altogether and instead proposed raising the age requirement on the sales tax exemption from 65 to 70 during the next five years, one year at a time.
Dixie Hood, a member of the Juneau Commission on Aging, argued that having a needs-based approach would be more viable.
“When they talk about increasing the age requirement for the senior sales exemption, I think that this terrible,” Hood said. “Creating a need-based exemption makes sense. Having it be based on necessities makes sense.”
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Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, https://www.juneauempire.com
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