(Photo by Mike Mason, KDLG – Dillingham)
Dillingham will try again on the fish tax. The City Council voted last week to send an annexation petition forward to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission to annex the Nushagak River Commercial Fishing District. The annexation was adopted by a local vote in 2012 but overturned by a court ruling.
The city hopes to reimpose a 2.5 percent raw fish tax on the district, which is the only commercial fishing district in Bristol Bay that does not currently collect a tax for local use.
Critics say Dillingham needs to find a way to share the tax with other Nushagak drainage communities, or focus on forming a borough.
The city’s annexation petition will now be sent to the LBC for review. The city hopes it ends up in Juneau for a legislative review in 2016.
