Legislator proposes limiting income tax to amount of dividend

An Anchorage legislator has added another idea to the growing list of tax proposals before lawmakers who are struggling to cover the state’s revenue needs.

Rep. Zack Fields has proposed a personal income tax limited to no more than the amount of each year’s Permanent Fund dividend.

“It’s a net-zero tax on Alaskans,” he said last week.

No matter how much an individual earns, the annual tax would not exceed the amount of the PFD.

In addition, anyone earning less than $75,000 a year would be exempt from the tax.

The second-term Democrat described his bill as, “The simplest possible statute for an...