|
Business personal property tax exemption passes on reconsideration
An ordinance increasing the business personal property tax exemption from $2,000 to $60,000 by 2008 will stand as approved by the Assembly last week.
At yesterday's [Monday] special meeting, the Assembly voted 5 to 4 not to reconsider the vote.
The original ordinance would have increased the exemption to a total of $20,000.
However, last week, Assembly member Merrill Sanford offered an amendment that increased the exemption by $20,000 for the next three years.
The amendment was approved on a vote of 5 to 4.
The amended ordinance was approved on a 8 to 1 vote.
But Assembly member and Chair of the Tax Policy Subcommittee, Jeff Bush, served notice of reconsideration.
He says the amendment came in late without adequate time to discuss it's financial impacts and he and two or three other Assembly members wanted more input from the CBJ Finance Department.
Bush says at this point he's not contemplating trying to alter the ordinance. He says it's done.
The program will be reevaluated in 2009.
The increased exemption will apply to about 1,070 additional merchants.
Community purpose property tax exemption tabled
The Juneau Assembly has tabled indefinitely an ordinance that would have repealed the community purpose property tax exemption.
The Assembly's Tax Policy Subcommittee determined that a number of the properties owned and operated by several local non-profit organizations probably don't meet the state requirements of being used exclusively for community purposes.
Assembly member Jeff Bush, who chaired the Tax Policy Subcommittee, recommended tabling the ordinance.
The state is in the process of trying to better define community purpose exemption.
Bush says Juneau is not the only community that's struggling with it. He says its difficult to define what a community purpose is and that's been what staff has struggled with over the years and what his committee struggled with.
Deputy Mayor Randy Wanamaker was also on the subcommittee. He said they didn't have enough information the informed decision that they wanted to make.
He said that's because it boiled down to their definition of optional categories and the state's definition which are both in flux. The city must follow the state's guidelines, but the state hasn't finished its work and Wanamaker says until that's done, the city can't determine whether it should retain or move away the optional category.
Under the optional category, if the city decides to grant an exemption to a non-profit, the state deducts the amount from the city's share of the state school foundation formula funds.
That deduction does not occur under terms of the mandatory community
purpose exemption.
Wanamaker says educational and medical non-profits are in the city's optional category. However, they are mandatory under state law.
He says city staff
has been directed to help them move over to the right category, so they can qualify under state tax exemptions.
The measure was on a list of tax exemptions that the Assembly took action on last week.
CBJ is currently providing $10.8
Million in exemptions to 16 parcels under the community purpose exemption.
Bus vandalism closes most Mat-Su schools
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Officials with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District
say repairs to buses belonging to its main contractor are estimated at ten-thousand dollars.
A vandal overnight damaged 45 of First Student's 97 buses and school was canceled for 14-thousand-700 students.
First Student holds the bus contract for 31 of the Mat-Su's 36 schools.
First Student official Dave Dickerson says the vandal removed the tire stems from tires.
He says the vandal also unplugged the engine block heaters.
Temperatures dipped to nine below zero in Palmer and Wasilla overnight.
Workers arrived at about three a-m and discovered the flattened tires.
Dickerson says two crews are making repairs on the tires and bus service should resume tomorrow.
(Wednesday)
He says First Student plans to add security to the lot on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.
Five schools not served by First Student opened as usual.
They include Willow, Talkeetna, Trapper Creek, Su Valley and Glacier View schools.
School District official Kim Floyd says the day will be treated as a snow day and students will make it up in June.
Gambling initiative denied for third time
The third time was not a charm for supporters of a proposal to legalize video gambling halls
Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman says he will not certify the latest application for an initiative.
It was denied the third time for the same reason. The Department of Law concluded the application does not comply with the constitutional and statutory provisions governing use of the initiative because it would create a monopoly for one person in Anchorage.
Victoria Scott, the main sponsor, has an option to buy the Anchorage land designated in the proposal.
Scott is the daughter of Las Vegas investor Shawn Scott, a former racetrack owner who has pushed for gambling initiatives in other states. Victoria Scott has said her father is not involved in the Alaska gambling initiative.
The proposal is to legalize video lottery terminals, machines that allow players to wager on any number of games from video poker to slots and keno.
Sponsors need certification from the Lieutenant Governor to begin collecting signatures to place it as an initiative on the 2006 ballot.
If certified, they would still need to collect almost 31-thousand-500 signatures before the legislature convenes in January.
A separate initiative to create a
state gambling commission is now gathering signatures.
State says all-Alaska natural gas pipeline fails to meet requirement
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Department of Revenue says an all-Alaska natural gas pipeline proposal does not meet requirements of state law.
Department officials say the Alaska Gasline Port Authority has NOT provided proof it possesses the finances to build the project or the ability to market the natural gas.
Revenue officials say the proposal does NOT meet requirements of the Alaska Stranded Gas Development Act.
The Alaska Gasline Port Authority is pursuing a plan to build a pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez.
The authority wants natural gas liquefied and shipped south by tanker to markets on the West Coast and overseas.
Revenue officials say they accepted the Port Authority's application in May with the stipulation that it provide proof that it possessed the finances to build the pipeline and the ability to market the gas.
The Port Authority had 90 days to meet the requirements.
Deputy Revenue Commissioner Steve Porter says that when the group failed to meet the conditions, its application was disqualified.
Chuck Logsdon -- a spokesman for Governor Murkowski on gas line negotiations -- says the department is ready to work with the Port Authority to correct deficiencies in its application.
(Fairbanks Daily
News-Miner)
 Highest wage states are in the East, lowest in the South; Alaska
ranks 6th
The U-S population is growing fastest in the South and West, but the money's staying in the Northeast.
According to the U-S Census, the highest household incomes are in states along the East Coast.
Connecticut has replaced New Jersey as the country's highest wage state, with a median income of nearly 56-thousand-400 dollars.
Alaska came in sixth place on that list, with a median income of 52-thousand-391 dollars.
The list of the wealthiest and poorest states hasn't changed much over the past decade.
Mississippi had the lowest median income, at nearly 32-thousand-400.
The rankings are based on 2003 Census figures, the latest available.
The median household income for the nation came in at more than 43-thousand-300 dollars.
Clues found in suspect string of
Kodiak break-ins
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - An accordion and a ``Stumble In Saloon'' wall
hanging may provide Alaska State Troopers and Kodiak police a break
in a series of break-ins along the city's road system.
Houses, boats, businesses and churches have been hit.
A hunter found some items dumped in the woods. Police believe
whoever dumped them there is involved in the break-ins.
The items included electronics and other expensive products. But
police say the accordion and wall hanging could produce more leads
in the investigation.
Neither the full-size, well-maintained black and white accordion or
the decorative, woodcarved wall hanging shaped like a miniature bar
has been reported stolen.
The wall hanging has a rowboat tied at a miniature dock and a tiny
sign reading, ``You know you are too drunk when you can't fish.''
The owners of these items are urged to Alaska State Troopers.
F-C-C tells television to
clean up its act
CAPITOL HILL (AP) - The chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission is warning cable and satellite T-V programmers to clean
up their act.
Kevin Martin says programmers risk coming under sharper government
scrutiny unless they give parents better tools to shield children
from racy shows.
Martin spoke at an all-day forum on indecency before the Senate
Commerce Committee, chaired by Alaska U-S Senator Ted Stevens.
In today's appearance, Martin declared television coarser than ever.
And he said that while people can always block the channels they
don't want, they shouldn't have to.
Martin is suggesting that federal decency standards be expanded to
include cable and satellite programs. He's also proposing to create
a ``family-friendly'' tier of channels that would offer shows
suitable for kids, such as the programs shown on Nickelodeon.
Congress is considering several bills that would boost fines against
indecency on the airwaves.
Stevens says some critics have complained the bills don't go far
enough and that decency standards should be expanded to cover cable
and satellite.
Ceremony planned for deploying troops
FORT RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) - A company of 150 Fort Richardson soldiers will get an early send-off
this (Tuesday) afternoon.
The soldiers from Company C, 84th Engineer Battalion, will deploy to Iraq in early December.
For about 60 of the soldiers, it will be their second deployment to Iraq within a year.
Their work is in high demand. The company builds roads and buildings as part of the continuing effort to improve infrastructure in Iraq.
Captain Justin Putnam says most people don't realize how little infrastructure Iraq had before the war.
The engineers also hope to make their counterparts in Iraq more self sufficient.
Putnam says this is less about building things than it is about helping the Iraqis to learn to do it themselves.
Owens' landlord denies seeing
former officer with dead woman's belongings
KOTZEBUE, Alaska (AP) - The trial of a former Nome police officer
charged with murder is drawing to a close in Kotzebue.
Matt Owens' former landlord testified Monday that she did
not see him with a dead woman's wallet or identification cards.
Charlotte Calandrelli was called as a new state witness. She refuted
allegations that she once told a co-worker that Owens had items
belonging to the late Sonya Ivanoff.
The state introduced two taped telephone conversations she had with
the former co-worker. In the first, she says she never went to
lawyers with any information. In the second, she outright denied
seeing the wallet or identification card.
The state is scheduled to call rebuttal witnesses today (Tuesday), when closing arguments could start. The defense rested
its case today.
---
Owens is accused in the shooting death of Ivanoff, who was last seen
alive during the early morning hours of August eleventh, 2003. Her
body was found at the end of a neglected road two days later. The
first trial in Nome ended with a hung jury.
Fin whale returns to Sitka
Sound
SITKA, Alaska (AP) - A fin whale caused quite the excitement last
September when it was the first of its species to be seen in Sitka
Sound in decades.
But now, it's back.
Sitka marine biologist Jan Straley viewed and photographed the whale
in Eastern Channel on Saturday, and identified it as the same one
that was there last year.
She recognized the same distinctive bump on the left dorsal fin and
the same markings on the body and the flank.
By comparing photographs, Straley has confirmed the whale also is
the same one that was spotted on two occasions by an Allen Marine
Tours catamaran south of Juneau in August.
Until last year, Straley says she had never seen or heard of a fin
whale in the Sitka area during the more than 20 years she has
studied whales there.
Light earthquake recorded near Anchorage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Some Anchorage residents reported feeling a light earthquake late yesterday (Monday) morning.
The magnitude four-point-oh earthquake was centered about 23 miles northwest of Anchorage in the Cook Inlet. The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says the quake was located at a depth of about 38 miles.
There were no reports of damage.
Prisoner leaves halfway house for Hilton
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anchorage
Police say a prisoner serving time for a felony drunk driving walked away from a halfway house and checked into the Hilton Hotel.
Forty-four-year-old Joseph Burns of Fairbanks spent two nights in the hotel before he was re-arrested on Friday.
Police say Burns signed out of the Cordova Center halfway house at 2-30 p-m Wednesday.
He was supposed to go to an appointment at the Alaska Native Medical Center and be back by six p-m.
Police Lieutenant Paul Honeman says Burns was caught when he tried to change the registration on his hotel room from his real name to another.
Burns was supposed to be in custody until February.
Burns was charged with escape and taken to the Anchorage jail with bail set at five-thousand dollars.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Soldotna man's love sick moose calls lands him on TV
SOLDOTNA, Alaska (AP) - George ``Bubba'' Hunt of Soldotna can cup his hands near his mouth to make an odd noise only a moose could love.
Well, a moose and Jay Leno.
Hunt's distinct sound has landed him a place on N-B-C's Tonight Show with Jay Leno tomorrow (Wednesday) night.
Hunt says he will perform a ``love sick moose call'' on a show segment titled ``Does this impress Ed
Asner?''
Hunt developed the call after years of hunting. And it's initial goal was NOT to impress the long-faced actor.
Hunt also plans to present the show's host with an Alaska gift, probably off stage.
He will give Leno a moose scapula - or cleaned bone that often is used to call moose when hunting.
Workers find plenty of help
wanted in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Nicole Guinchard left home with a fine arts
degree nearly two years ago. She left to find work in Alaska, but
now she's back in New Orleans, hoping to land a job waiting tables
at a top restaurant and support family members who lost their homes.
Jobs are so plentiful and paying so well that some residents are
slowly returning after fleeing from Hurricane Katrina. Many are
stymied, though, because there are few places to live and rental
rates for undamaged apartments have doubled.
Ship builders, fast-food restaurants and construction companies are
desperate to find workers, enticing job seekers with free laundry
service and signing bonuses.
It's like that everywhere along the Gulf Coast.
Charles Dupre, of Baton Rouge, is a former salesman. He says he's
willing to make a two-hour commute each way because the wages are so
high. He spoke with recruiters from a ship building yard and from
Home Depot about a sales job.
Guinchard, whose family is living in a trailer, says she should be
able to make 300 dollars a night waiting tables.
Instead, signs advertising job openings are nearly everywhere. Ads
for debris cleanup jobs promise a year's worth of pay for a month's
work. Retailers are setting up makeshift job fairs in parking lots.
---
On the Net:
City of New Orleans: http://www.cityofno.com
|
