Anchorage Assembly reviews final Project Anchorage sales-tax draft, plans additional public hearings

Assembly members reviewed a final work-session draft of the Project Anchorage sales-tax charter change and discussed implementation details, funding priorities and next steps, including asking to continue the public hearing to March 18.

Assembly member Felix Rivera, who led the session, summarized the major revisions to the sponsor-submitted “SA” version, saying the administration and sponsors had lengthened the timeline for initial collection and removed the use tax from the proposal. “Two years is needed for the administration of the sales tax,” Rivera said, and later stated plainly that “the use tax is no longer needed.”

Rivera told colleagues the no-earlier-than date for initial collections was moved from July 1, 2026, to July 1, 2027, with a no-later-than date of Feb. 1, 2028. He also said the draft keeps a proposed 3% sales tax rate and now explicitly includes a business inventory tax exemption carried over from other versions.

Why this matters: sponsors framed the revisions as a response to months of public meetings, community council feedback and legal and economic analysis; they emphasized changes intended to reduce administrative complexity and political friction ahead of a voter referendum. Rivera urged that further implementation details would be addressed in a second round of work if voters send the measure back to the Assembly.

Key changes and discussion

- Use tax removed: Rivera cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision and work by Alaska’s remote-sellers tax commission as reasons the Assembly “no longer need[s] that use tax” to capture online sales. He also argued neighboring…