A continuing citizens initiative to add a half percent sales tax to the Kenai Peninsula Borough October 2019 ballot was short of the signatures needed by it’s due date.
Long-time community member Linda Hutchings has spearheaded the endeavor…
Hutchings: “The number of signatures needed was 2,250, we were short by 400 signatures. More than 1,800 people across this borough came out and signed this petition.”
She says if the organizers decides to continue gathering signatures in an effort to resurrect the initiative in 6 months time, they will need an additional 1,300 signatures.
Hutchings: “But I thought maybe what the Assembly might want to consider is, there were 500 signatures out of Seward, there were 1,000 signatures out of Kenai, Soldotna, Sterling and K-Beach, and 300 out of the rest of the Borough. This would make me think that maybe your constituents are more in tune with this than what was considered before.”
The citizens initiative was a rehash of a tax increase proposal, that failed in the borough assembly, which would have increased the borough sales tax rate from 3-percent to 3.5-percent.