Property taxes are a significant source of revenue for states and the largest source of tax revenue for localities. Nationwide in fiscal year 2020, property taxes consisted of 38% of total U.S. state […]
Alaska Property Taxes, Ranked
Irresponsible Alaska Budget: FY 2023
by Quinn Townsend and Vance Ginn With revenue forecasts as rosy as this year’s have been, the legislature’s passage of a very large budget for fiscal year 2023 (FY 2023) comes as no […]
Alaska’s Sales Taxes, Ranked
By Aubrey Wursten Sales tax levels and structure affect the spending habits of both companies and consumers, and states with low and simple sales tax schemes have a distinct advantage over their counterparts. […]
How a Retirement Plan Change Impacted Teacher Retention in Alaska
Authored and published by Reason Foundation. Abstract In 2005, Alaska enacted one of the most radical retirement system reforms in the public sector by discontinuing enrollment into its defined-benefit pension plan and creating […]
The Best and the Worst of the 2022 Legislative Session
As is often the case, there was no shortage of bills introduced to the 32nd Legislature (which comprises 2021 and 2022). Not counting resolutions, legislators introduced 690. Those that did not pass both […]
Alaska’s Public Education Revenues, Expenditures, and Outcomes
Click here to open a printable PDF of this report in a new tab. By Sarah Montalbano and Johan Soto Introduction The National Public Education Financial Survey, annually compiled by the National Center […]
COVID Relief Funding: Are Alaska’s School Districts Spending Responsibly?
Introduction The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) has released several dashboards showing how COVID relief funds for education in Alaska are being utilized. In total, Alaska’s school districts have received […]
Anchorage’s Fiscal Health Receives a ‘D’ Grade
As of 2020, Anchorage faced a financial cliff of $658.7 million, leading Truth in Accounting (TIA) to label it a “sinkhole city” because the municipal government did not have enough assets to cover […]
Alaska’s Unemployment Insurance Taxes, Ranked
Unemployment insurance taxes (UI taxes) have significant effects on a state’s business climate, and unfortunately, Alaska’s system ranks 43rd out of 50, according to a recent report by the Tax Foundation. UI is […]
Costs & Risks of Alaska Pension Changes
Experts from Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project recently joined us for a 45-minute discussion on the costs and risks of changes to Alaska’s pension systems. You can watch the recording here (begins 04:30), […]
Guide to COVID-19 School District Funding
Alaska has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds for education, most of which have gone straight to public school districts. Alaska Policy Forum (APF) has written extensively about […]
WEBINAR: Costs and Risks of Alaska Pension Changes
In 2006, the state of Alaska moved from one type of retirement system (defined benefits pension-DBP) for state employees to a 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement plan. The reason for this switch was concerns […]
Background on Federal COVID-19 Education Relief Funds
Alaska has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds, most of which have gone straight to public school districts. Collectively to date, schools have nearly $401 million in COVID-19 […]
Alaska’s Tax Freedom Day
March 25 was Alaska’s Tax Freedom Day (TFD)—the day Alaskans and businesses in Alaska had worked enough days to pay all state and local taxes for the year. This is the earliest state […]
Testimony: Retirement Benefits
Alaska’s Public Pension Health, Ranked
According to a report by our network partner, Tax Foundation, Alaska ranks 31st out of 50 states for how well-funded the public pensions are. As of 2020, one year after the Tax Foundation […]