the valley's $700 tax trade

Matanuska-Susitna Borough voters will decide this November on a new areawide sales tax of 1% on most goods and services, paired with a new $75,000 property tax exemption for owner-occupied primary homes. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly sent the measure to the ballot with two members voting no, and a separate question asking voters to approve a 5% areawide alcohol tax is on the same ballot.

For eligible homeowners, the $75,000 exemption on a primary home's value works out to roughly $700 a year off the property tax bill. The exemption applies only to the home a person actually lives in, not to rentals or second homes.

Borough estimates put the new sales tax at bringing in up to $20 million a year, with the money coming from purchases across the borough. In cities that already collect their own sales tax, the borough's 1% would stack on top of the existing local rate. That would put the combined rate at 5% in Palmer, 4% in Talkeetna, 3.5% in Wasilla, and 3% in Houston.

Voters will weigh in on both the sales tax and exemption question and the alcohol tax question in the November election.