Guest Editorial

I’m sorry to say this column is about taxes. Oil and gas taxes. Corporate taxes. Legislative debate over taxes. If you want to read about the World Cup or salmon fishing or summer recipes for the best potato salad, this is not your cup of iced tea.

But what better to talk about on the week of the nation’s birth than taxes, one of the major gripes of the colonies against England.

In the week before the nation’s 250th birthday, the Alaska Legislature is embroiled in its own debate over taxes. It has nothing to do with tea and everything to do with oil, which is the usual topic of tax debates in...