Candidates Differ on Taxes, Transportation

By Bauman, Margaret

Sales taxes, mass transit, public safety and the proposed Knik Arm bridge are just some of the issues on which Anchorage mayoral candidates remain at odds as the April 4 election draws near.

Incumbent. Mark Begich said March 13 that his priorities continue to be public safety, improved transportation and economic development, Challenger Jack Frost, a broadcast advertising personality, said he can do more to reduce clime and to lower the property tax cap. Challenger Thomas Higgins, a theater technician, said his priorities include functional mass transportation and bringing North Slope natural gas to the Anchorage area.

Begich, Frost and Higgins spoke at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Make It Monday forum, fielding questions about how they could best serve Alaska’s largest city if elected. A fourth candidate, University of Alaska student Nick Moe, did not, participate in the forum.

Frost was the sole supporter of the sales tax proposition on the April 4 ballot. Receipts from the 3 percent tax on retail sale and use of tangible goods within the municipality would be used to reduce property taxes.

“I can’t tell you I’m enamored” with the proposal, Frost said, but he liked the fact that “everyone pays something” and that it would reduce property taxes.

Begich and Higgins opposed the sales tax proposition as it appears on the ballot. Begich said he had serious problems with the measure in its present form, and that it needed some tweaking and that a full community discussion on the matter is warranted. Begich noted that some 11,000 of 16,000 small businesses in Anchorage have already benefited from a $20,000 exemption for personal business property value applied by his administration. Higgins said even with the sales tax that renters would continue to pay what they do now in property taxes, which are part of their rental fees.

While Begich, Frost and Higgins agreed on the need -for improved transportation for the Anchorage area, they had different thoughts on how to reach that goal. Construction of the Knik Arm bridge would provide an entirely different future for Anchorage, Frost said. “We need land,” said Frost, who backs the bridge. “I think we ought to press ahead.”

Begich said before any such bridge is built there are critical issues to resolve on the cost and location of the bridge connections into Anchorage, specifically regarding the Government Hill area. “Gambell and Ingra (streets) is where it needs to be connected,” he said.

Higgins, a strong advocate of mass transit, opposes the bridge. “We have to work on mass transit,” he said, arguing that only a small portion of the MatanuskaSusitna area population would actually use the bridge. Higgins also said he would like to see trains used for mass transit.

With the election a little more than two weeks away, state election officials said that as of March 3, Begich had spent $455,609 of his $600,547 campaign war chest, compared with $112,796 spent by Frost, who has collected $129,177 in campaign contributions. Higgins and Moe, both of whom have vowed not to raise or spend more than $5,000 on their campaigns, are exempt from reporting requirements, state officials said.

Copyright Morris Communications Mar 19, 2006

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