Haines voters face five ballot measures, four of them about taxes

Haines voters face five ballot measures on Oct. 6, and four of them are about taxes.

The biggest is a new severance tax on the borough's resource industries. It would charge gravel, timber and mining operators, who the borough says currently pay little or nothing in local taxes, and send every dollar collected into the principal of the borough's permanent fund rather than the general fund that pays for services. Mining operators, but not timber or gravel exporters, could avoid the tax by signing a payment agreement with the borough instead, with each such deal going back to voters for approval.

A second measure would add a 2 percent borough sales tax on alcohol.

The other three are citizen initiatives. One would repeal the seasonal sales tax voters approved just last year, which charges more in summer than winter, and return the borough to a flat year-round rate. Another would cut the maximum senior property-tax exemption from $300,000 of assessed value to $200,000.

The one measure not about money would go back to appointing the borough's planning commission, with the mayor's picks confirmed by the assembly, rather than electing its members, reversing a change voters made three years ago. It shares the ballot with an actual planning commission election, six candidates running for four seats.

One accessibility problem is worth flagging: three of the five measures are posted on the borough's elections page only as scanned images, so a voter using screen-reader software can hear the short ballot summary but not the ordinance behind it.

Early in-person voting opens Sept. 21 and runs weekdays through Oct. 5.