Kodiak Assembly splits over what a marijuana tax should pay for

A week before deciding whether to put a 3% marijuana sales tax on the October ballot, Kodiak Assembly members can't agree on what the money should do.

The split is over a new Community Well-Being Fund the tax would feed, earmarked for health, education and economic development. Jeremiah Gardner said he'll back the tax only if that fund comes out. "I can't get behind a new tax to generate more government spending," he said, arguing any new tax should offset others, in this case by cutting the mill rate by whatever it collects.

Jeff Woods would support it on similar terms, saying he distrusts earmarked taxes that vanish into the general fund. "I personally hate when a tax on a specific item goes and gets destroyed in the amorphous black hole that is general funds," he said. The sponsor, Janice Stevens, frames it as a way to diversify borough revenue and says the call belongs to voters, not the Assembly.

The public hearing is Aug. 6. If it goes to the ballot, voters decide Oct. 6, with collections starting Jan. 1, 2027.