A new poll from the Alaska branch of the National Federation of Independent Businesses has found most of its 2,000 dues-paying members in Alaska are strongly opposed to a statewide income or sales tax. Members were more divided about the state’s use of Permanent Fund investment earnings to fund state government.
The results of the poll were released two days after Gov. Bill Walker released a fiscal plan calling for the elimination of the state’s $3.5 billion annual deficit through a wide range of new taxes and tax increases that would affect every Alaskan.
NFIB’s poll, conducted by mail, telephone, fax and email is an annual process that determines how the organization spends its political lobbying resources in Alaska. Denny DeWitt, the Alaska director of NFIB, said about 6 percent of the state’s membership has returned its poll, but that the results don’t tend to vary much after the first 5 percent of results are in.
The poll found 74 percent of NFIB respondents opposed to a personal state income tax and 60 percent opposed to a statewide sales tax.
When asked whether Alaska should use the investment earnings of the Permanent Fund to fund state government, 47 percent of respondents said no, and 44 percent said yes. Nine percent were undecided.
In non-budget items, 55 percent of respondents favored making it more difficult for employees or the state to challenge employers on overtime and minimum wage issues, and an overwhelming 92 percent of respondents said employers should not be forbidden from considering an applicant’s criminal history.
