Signatures gathered to exempt food from Kenai Peninsula tax

KENAI (AP) -- Petitioners promoting a sales tax initiative to exempt nonprepared foods for the Kenai Peninsula Borough's sales tax turned over more than 2,600 signatures to borough Clerk Linda Murphy late Monday afternoon.

If 1,935 of them are found to be valid, voters would be asked to approve or reject the tax exemption at the Oct. 1 municipal election.

''I'm confident that we have the appropriate number and everything is covered,'' said James Price, who led the push for the tax exemption.

Price also is running for the Alaska House from District 34. A Republican Moderate, he will challenge the incumbent, Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, in the November general election.

Price said he and co-sponsors of the initiative have been attending public functions, such as the Kenai River Festival and Soldotna Progress Days, collecting signatures. They also collected signatures at stores and malls.

Murphy said it would take at least this week, and possibly part of next week, to determine how many of the signatures are valid. The Alaska Division of Elections is providing a voter database for checking petition signatures, addresses and other identifiers.

Price said he is confident the tax provision has a chance at the polls.

''I do think there is going to be a battle,'' he said.

Price has experience drumming up public support on issues. He led the recent successful fight against building a private prison on the Kenai Peninsula.

If voters back the initiative, municipal income will drop significantly, according to an analysis by the borough.

The borough could lose upward of $2 million in sales tax revenue, while the various cities would find healthy percentages of their revenue streams drying up as well, according to officials with the cities.