Why does Alaska even GET federal tax money?

[SoCalDem]

1) they choose to have no sales tax
2) they choose to have no state income tax
3) they choose to keep lowering property tax
4) they get an "oil check" every year
5) they lowered the gas taxes

If Alaska can do all these things, why on earth do they not have the money to operate without federal tax money?

Most states have property taxes that continually go up, they have sales taxes, they have gas taxes, and they have state income taxes, and yet the federal tax money sent to Dc from these states goes to a wealthy, low-population state that refuses to spend "its own money"??

[maxsolomon]

1. uncle ted has power. lots of power.

if jim mcdermott (my house rep) was their senator, they'd all be lighting their homes with seal blubber.

[The Straight Story]

2. Maybe they pay federal taxes

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

4. That's a given, but when you see how do many truly poor states

have so little, it seems odd that such a rich state asks for federal money , when they choose to not tax themselves for things they alone will use....kind of like blowing your paycheck on a big party, and then asking Mom & dad to pay your rent..

[TahitiNut]

6. Alaska gets $1.84 in federal spending for every $1 paid in federal taxes.

:shrug: They're on welfare ... and the people of California, Illinois, and New York pay the tab.

[The Straight Story]

10. Yeah, well the dems should fix that and the iraq war funding too

but I ain't holding my breath ;)

[Mind_your_head]

3. They're a 'treasure trove' of resources that the rest of the states

have mostly tapped out.

Earthly resources are tapped out (mostly). That's why the 'new talk' is about "space"/other planets.

Soviet Georgia, the 'Stan' countries are just a 'vacuuming up' the small pieces of the pie.

(btw, I don't subscribe to this way of thought, but that's how I believe the 1% "think"/believe).

[BeatleBoot]

5. And the state's Population is less than San Bernadino

It must be because Caribou Barbie can see Russia from her house.

[Jennicut]

7. Alaska=the welfare state,that should be on their license plates

They should not be asking for so much in earmarks. I never knew Alaska was such a rightwing mess. Phalin being nominated for Rethug VP has opened my eyes to what a backwards weird place it really is. Beautiful but wacko. Nice to visit but God forbid you get stuck there.

[roguevalley]

12. I knew this shit would happen when palin got the nod. I knew we

would hear all kinds of shit from people in other places about how awful and stupid and hillbilly and 'backwards weird' we are. Too bad. sucks to be somewhere else I guess. It has rained the entire summer. We have had about eight days of sunshine. period. Go out of the cities and you are in the stone age. Things cost through the ass up here. We get along. We have two old trolls sitting on the money pot in congress that dole out the dough because that is how you build infrastructure from nothing. We don't pay state taxes because of the oil. when that is gone we will become Mississippi and whomever else is out there with no resource base. Until then, we have resources and we share them with our people. Our trolls will be voted out and we will be like everyone else, paying taxes and getting a small amount back. You wanna get in on the 'gravy train'? come on up. lots of space don't you know.

Edit: I liked Connecticut until now. What a slap from a state that elected Joe Lieberman. (My g. grandparents came from Connecticut and only had good things to tell the family about. I will hold to those thoughts.)

[unblock]

8. in fairness, it's hugely expensive to live there and in the national interest to have people there

by far the biggest state in area, and one of the smallest in population. harsh weather. very difficult to be completely self-supporting. i don't know exactly how the state gets money off the oil, and they could probably support themselves off that alone, but that's probably what, in effect, is happening. note that the federal government has decided (for better or for worse) that they want to effectively subsidize living in alaska so that the rest of the country can enjoy its economic resources.

[Patiod]

9. The other rationale

Whether realistic or not, is that the state is so "burdened" by Federal lands, that they need some sort of offset

[Obamanaut]

11. Maybe they sneaked into the foreign aid recipient list. nt

[Cleita]

13. When I was up there last August(2007)

they spoke about not wanting federal money. They wanted to keep what they thought was theirs up in Alaska. Of course now that I think about it I guess these were separationists we were talking with. I was confused. I thought that the reason they became a state was so that they could get federal money. All I have to say is that maybe you have to spend sometime in a place to get the feeling of what's going on.