Dunleavy revives proposal to strip Alaskans of right to raise tax by initiative

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has again released the constitutional amendment he proposed two years ago to make tax increases all but impossible to approve in Alaska.

The amendment was rejected in the last Legislature and should be defeated again.

The amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 7, would strip Alaska voters of their constitutional right to raise taxes by the initiative process.

Of course Dunleavy doesn’t say that out loud, but his idea is that no tax increase could take place without getting approval from the voters and from the Legislature.

This is one of the three amendments that are the foundation of the mythical Dunleavy fiscal plan.

Dunleavy doesn’t discuss the merits of banning tax increases by initiative when he talks about this amendment, he just claims that this is all about involving the voters.

“When it comes to new revenue ideas, Alaskans must be involved,” Dunleavy says, neglecting to mention that Alaskans have been involved since statehood. The oil tax initiative on the ballot last fall, defeated by the oil companies spending tens of millions in deceptive advertising, would not have been a threat under the Dunleavy plan.

As his former Attorney General, Kevin Clarkson, put it in a moment of accidental candor in 2019, the proposed Dunleavy two-step is really a way to prevent “predatory’ taxes on industry.

“So for industry, we want predictability for them so that they can come and invest in Alaska without having to worry about the risk that Alaska will continue to spend like crazy and then decide to pay for that spending through a predatory tax on industry,” he said at the Anchorage version of the Koch/Dunleavy road show.

"If the people by initiative create a new tax, which they can, it will only be effective" if the Legislature approves it, Clarkson said.

In the news coverage of the proposed amendment, the real impact has been disguised by claiming the point of the amendment is to prohibit any increase without voter approval.

Truth is, Dunleavy doesn’t trust the voters, which is why he wants to cripple the initiative process in the Alaska Constitution.

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