Kenai Peninsula voters could be asked to approve raising the borough’s sales tax cap. Under current law, the 3% sales tax is only charged on the first $500 of a purchase -- or $15.
But a draft ballot measure introduced by the borough assembly Tuesday would ask voters to double it. That would effectively cap the amount of sales tax paid to $30 per purchase.
Previous efforts to raise the cap have stalled. And last month, an ordinance seeking to remove the requirement of voter approval was introduced by Assemblyman Kenn Carpenter. He withdrew it Tuesday and replaced it with a new ordinance seeking the will of the people.
“The whole time we did this, I wanted mostly voters response to it,” he said. “I got some voter response and that's why the other ordinance was written.”
A cap on sales tax paid on residential rents would be unchanged. The proposed ballot measure is slated to go to a public hearing on August 6.
