To tax or not to tax — that is the question during these difficult economic times.

Voters will be asked in the Oct. 6 municipal election to consider raising taxes on tobacco to go toward health and social service costs. Opponents argue the proposition is just another “sin tax” being placed on the backs of a select group, while proponents feel an increased cost of cigarettes means less young people will begin smoking and curb future health costs associated with tobacco.

The Assembly voted to put a proposition on the general election ballot to raise city taxes on cigarettes from 30 cents a pack to $1, and taxes on all other tobacco products from 12 percent to 45 percent.

The National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence-Juneau asked the Assembly in July to raise city taxes on cigarettes and tobacco to be closer in line with the rest of the state. Anchorage charges $1.30 per pack for cigarettes, and Sitka, Barrow and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough each charge $1.

The present city tax rate brought in $517,800 for Juneau in 2008. The new tax rate is expected to bring the total revenue to about $1.7 million a year if approved.

At $3.01 per pack, Alaskans pay among the highest taxes on cigarettes. The tax is higher in five states and equal to Alaska’s tax in seven others. The highest tax is in New York, at $3.76 per pack.

“The more expensive cigarettes are, the fewer youth start and it delays the age at which youth start,” has said Wendy Hamilton, tobacco program coordinator for NCADD-Juneau. “Studies have shown across the nation that there is a certain reduction in youth initiation based on how much you go up in your prices. That’s our main motivation.”

Some 90 percent of people who end up smoking as adults start in their teens, NCADD-Juneau Executive Director Matt Felix has said.

Initial ballot language for the proposition earmarked money for the Rainforest Recovery Center, but that was changed when elected officials argued that funding an alcohol treatment center with tobacco money was not appropriate. The Assembly decided in favor of more ambiguous language on where the money would be spent, deciding it should go toward “health and social service needs related to substance abuse and tobacco use, prevention and cessation.”

This push follows a 2003 ballot initiative when voters approved raising tobacco taxes to their current rates in a roughly 2-1 ratio. The tax went from 6 percent per pack of cigarettes to a flat 30-cent per pack tax, an average increase of about 15 cents per pack. Taxes on all other tobacco products from 6 percent to 12 percent.

By KIM MARQUIS
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Voters will be asked to approve $11.8 million in school bonds for a renovation at Gastineau Elementary in Douglas in the Oct. 6 municipal election.

The project is the Juneau School District’s top priority on a list of local schools that need to be updated.

Gastineau Elementary was built in 1957 and has never been fully renovated. The school needs upgrades to mechanical, ventilation and lighting systems, and needs to be brought up to code, District Facilities Coordinator Deb Morse said.

Teachers work in former closets with no windows or ventilation, carpets are stained and worn, walls are pock-marked and children eat lunch in the gym, Morse said.

The renovation would include a fence around the playground to keep kids in and bears out, said principal Angie Lunda. Work on the grounds could also fix flooding problems that sometimes put the back alleyway under 2 feet of water.

The building has good bones, Morse said, but needs a facelift.

The projects qualify for a 70 percent reimbursement from the state.

Voters in recent years have approved a new high school that was nearly $10 million over budget, extensive renovations at Harborview and Glacier Valley elementary schools, a playground at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School and a community pool that will be used by school children.

Voters are faced with the request as communities across the country tighten fiscal belts in a down economy.

If approved by voters, the bonds would be repaid over 10 years through a property tax increase, costing the owner of a $350,000 home an extra $42 per year in property taxes.

Similar renovations are needed at Auke Bay Elementary and the Marie Drake building, but the Juneau Assembly decided to place only one school project on the ballot this year.

The school district initially asked the Assembly to consider putting all three projects on October’s ballot, at a price of $44 million.

The school district anticipates coming back in future years to ask voters for funds for the other two projects.