POT, TAX LIKELY UP FOR VOTE

Petitions May Get Issues On Fall Ballot

Along with picking a new president this fall, Alaska voters will likely
face two other big questions - whether to legalize marijuana and cap
property taxes.

Sponsors of two statewide initiatives to do just that handed in petitions
carrying more than 40,000 signatures each this week to state elections
officials. That's nearly double the 22,716 signatures required to put the
measures on the Nov. 7 ballot.

State officials now have 60 days to certify that the signatures are from
registered voters.

Both proposals are likely to generate heated battles if they do end up on
the ballot.

The proposal to cap property taxes has already elicited dire warnings from
government officials, tax collectors and others, including the Anchorage
Chamber of Commerce. They say it will decimate municipal budgets and
services.

The measure would cap taxes at 10 mills, or $10 for every $1,000 of
property owned. The mill rate for the Anchorage Bowl now ranges from 12 to
18 mills, depending on what service area the property is in.

Anchorage officials have estimated the cap would cost the city at least
$80 million a year.

But the measure has been an easy sell, according to sponsors, who have
pitched the cap as a way to keep housing costs low and trim government.

"Only a handful of services are totally essential - water and sewer and the
roads," said Uwe Kalenka, an Anchorage restaurant manager and the main
sponsor of the initiative. "All the rest, if you look at it, are special
interest groups."

The measure to legalize marijuana and other hemp products will also be
fodder for private arguments and public debates, said Len Karpinski, a
co-sponsor and head of the state Libertarian Party.

The measure would legalize the use of marijuana for adults, regulating it
like alcoholic beverages. It would allow doctors to prescribe it for
medicinal use, and it would give amnesty to those convicted of past
marijuana crimes.

"It would let adults behave like adults and let police focus on the real
bad crime," Karpinski said.

Still, he said, "If it wins, it will be a squeaker."

Alaska voters in 1990, by 55 percent to 45 percent, made marijuana
possession a crime.

Supporters of a third initiative, to raise the state's minimum wage by more
than a dollar to $6.75 by the beginning of next year and require future
adjustments for inflation, were also hoping to make the Monday deadline for
the November election.

"It's in a gray area right now," said Megan Collie, who was counting
signatures Friday. "We're not absolutely sure we made it, but we're
hoping."

The state's current minimum wage is $5.65. Sponsors of the initiative to
raise it include Mano Frey, AFL-CIO labor leader; Julie Kitka, president of
the Alaska Federation of Natives; and Jim Sampson, a former Fairbanks North
Star Borough mayor.

The three measures were just a few of many initiatives being circulated
this past year and aimed for the November ballot. Three others will not
make the ballot.

An initiative to change how votes are counted in Alaska and another one to
legalize personal possession and medicinal use of marijuana do not have
enough signatures to be submitted, according to sponsors. A proposal to
more than quadruple state alcoholic beverage taxes also lacks enough
signatures, co-sponsor Jim Crary of Anchorage said Friday.