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Home – Political News – Alaska Senate Candidate Backed Income Tax Plan Critics Say Would Hit Lower-Income Earners Harder Than Millionaires

Alaska Senate Candidate Backed Income Tax Plan Critics Say Would Hit Lower-Income Earners Harder Than Millionaires

Alaska Senate Democratic nominee Mary Peltola once voted in the state Legislature for an income tax proposal that critics called regressive because its highest earners would have paid lower tax rates than many working families.

Legislative records show that while serving under the name Mary Kapsner in 2002, Peltola voted in the state House of Representatives for House Bill 303, which would have reinstated Alaska’s state income tax repealed decades earlier. She is currently running in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races.

Peltola, who served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, entered the 2026 Senate race to challenge Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rate the Alaska Senate race as a toss-up. Meanwhile, Inside Elections rates the race as lean Republican.

Most states with income taxes have either a progressive income tax or a flat tax. However, under the 2002 Alaska proposal, tax rates would have slightly increased from low- to middle-income earners before then declining as income rose for higher-earning individuals and households, a proposal critics called a regressive tax.

Under House Bill 303, the bill’s highest-rate schedule, the first $10,000 of adjusted gross income would have been taxed at 1.35%.........

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