Fairbanks Daily News Miner
With less than a month before voters decide the fate of a ballot proposition that introduces penalties for heavy air polluters and bans certain devices, two groups are gearing up on opposite sides of the issue.
Healthy Air Now helped craft and introduce Proposition 2. It and Interior Alaskans Opposed to Prop 2 are busy forming campaigns, refining stances and raising money for a heated debate.
Alaska voters will decide in 2012 whether local governments can increase property tax exemptions. An initiative that started locally has been recently approved by the state and will appear on the ballot during the next primary election. The proposition would allow cities or boroughs to give homeowners a bigger tax break.
Supporters of a hoped-for ballot measure to secure a bigger tax exemption for homeowners say they’re a few thousand signatures shy of their goal. The deadline to get a question on this year’s statewide ballot was Friday. The 2012 election looks to be the next best thing, said Mayor Luke Hopkins of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. “We have to ensure that we have enough signatures,” he said. If the initiative becomes law, it would allow municipalities to ignore up to $50,000 of the value of residential properties when imposing taxes.