The vote count changed a little but the results did not as Petersburg’s borough assembly Friday finalized voting from this month’s municipal election.
The assembly counted eight remaining absentee ballots and rejected two questioned ballots.
The closest vote was on the exemption for local candidates from state financial disclosure requirements. That failed, in the end, by only 29 votes. That will mean that people elected to the borough assembly, planning and zoning commission, hospital board and school board will have to continue to file income information with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
The tobacco tax ended up passing by 81 votes. That will mean a two-dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes starting in January. Other tobacco products and e-cigarettes will have a tax as well, amounting to 45 percent of their retail value. The new tax will be collected by the borough and will go into the borough’s general fund.
The only other measures passing were a new residency requirement for seniors who want the exemption from local sales tax, and the elimination of the senior tax break for Alaskans who don’t live in the Petersburg borough.
Both questions on ending or limiting the senior sales tax exemption failed by large margins. A question on raising the sales tax cap failed by 129 votes, a much bigger margin than a similar question just two years ago.
Four people were elected to the borough assembly, Cindi Lagoudakis, Bob Lynn, Kurt Wohlhueter and Jeigh Stanton Gregor. Joe Viechnicki spoke with Wohlhueter, Lagoudakis and Lynn following the meeting.
That was Bob Lynn, Cindi Lagoudakis and Kurt Wohlhueter, three of the four people elected to the Petersburg borough assembly this month. Wohlhueter mentioned funding for the fire hall, but likely meant the police station, the borough’s top capital project need. Jeigh Stanton Gregor was not at Friday’s meeting and he also was elected to serve a two-year term this month.
