Legal Question in Tax Law in Alaska

We live in a rural community in alaska and my

Family lives on a small road which the city usually maintains and some reason the past two years the city and state refuses to maintain the road saying it is not their responsibility to fix the road but which we pay city sales tax for our purchases and yet do not receive any city services and are declined services when asked. My husband and I have built grading systems to fix the road several times we do snow removal of the road during winter beating our own personal equipment up to make it possible to transport myself and children to school/work safely. Currently the road is so mangled and horrible we worry if a fire or medical emergency happens the service will not be able to reach us because of the roads conditions! The school bus refuses to pick up or drop off because of the road meaning we have to transport our children down a mangled road to get to the bus itself. Is there anything we can do as we feel we are being taxed for services we are not receiving .


Asked on 1/19/16, 8:51 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Terrence Thorgaard Thorgaard Law Firm

You are not being taxed for services such as road maintenance. You are being taxed to provide revenue to the city, which in turn provides, using that revenue, many services, including maintenance of publicly dedicated roads. You haven't said whether the road is dedicated or not. It could be that the city formerly maintained the road by mistake and, once the mistake was realized the practice was discontinued.

If I were you I would talk to the city about why the road isn't being maintained anymore. It is possible, that if the road needs to be dedicated, you can arrange for that to happen. But find out first.

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Answered on 1/20/16, 8:40 am


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