Anyone who runs for governor in Alaska who promises to oppose any tax increase and veto any tax increase approved by the Legislature is uninformed about the details of state finances and irresponsible.

Former Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor and Anchorage sanitation businesswoman Bernadette Wilson are uninformed and irresponsible. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom could be right there with them.

Taylor and Wilson have both signed the so-called “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” promoted nationally by zealot Grover Norquist, to oppose all tax increases and veto any that might be approved by the Legislature.

Dahlstrom signed a version of the same no-tax pledge when she ran for Congress in 2024. She has yet to sign the gubernatorial version.

What these three and any other candidates need to understand is that Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the same dumb pledge years ago and now has had to admit that he was wrong by supporting a range of new taxes.

Of course he isn’t admitting this through his words. He is confessing through his actions—proposing a sales tax and higher minimum oil taxes.

While Dunleavy is half-hearted about his tax plans and doesn’t like introducing them, he has at last realized the error of his ways.

As he told the state Chamber of Commerce in Juneau, he introduced taxes this year because he doesn’t want to leave a shit pile for the next governor.

He didn’t use that word, but that’s what he meant. As the Anchorage Daily News reported, while speaking to the anti-tax Chamber, he asked himself: “Do I go out the door and leave a . . . ‘S pile’ for the next governor?”

He is leaving a shit pile for the next governor because the Legislature is not going to enact the all-or-nothing Dunleavy plan to approve new taxes, reduce state spending every year, end corporate income taxes and advance a plan to the voters to put a larger dividend in the Constitution.

The problem has gotten worse because Dunleavy refused to deal with it for all these years. Introducing taxes to deal with the state’s finances means he and his allies in the Legislature can no longer pretend that the only problem is the level of state spending. While I doubt that Dunleavy is serious about pushing his package, the underlying problem will get more public attention during the campaign for governor.

Taylor and Wilson made a big show of signing the anti-tax pledge, posing for a photographer as they did so. I wish I could say that staking out an irresponsible position will doom their chances.

It was clear eight years ago when Dunleavy ran for the state’s highest office that his approach to state finances was delusional. And it was also clear in 2022 when he ran for reelection.

The best thing about the governor’s 2026 tax plan is that it demonstrates the folly of Dunleavy’s delusion—the one that Taylor and Wilson have already signed onto.

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Tregarrick Taylor, Bernadette Wilson pledge to never support any Alaska taxes