The Wrangell sentinel., 1948-12-10
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE

When members of the new 18th legislature set up shop in Juneau next month they will find on their desks the printed report of the Board of Budget which contains the requests of the various agen- cies for funds for the next bien nium. The total figure is a little item of S17,4O3,341.24. Ct is re- liably reported the press table is willing to toss in the "A cents if the lawmakers will dig up the s17,403,341) Against this request they will find that the Budget Board anticipates a revenue dur ing the biennium of $6,640,O70 on basis of present taxes. Therefore, unless the members of the 18th do like their predecessors of the 18th and just appropriate a lot of money and go home, and let the Board of Administration worry a.. bout where the money is coming from, the No. 1 problem of the 18th will be balancing the Terri torial budget which, incidentally, is out of balance by around $S0O,- GOO aside from the appropriations W hieh were frozen because there wasn't sufficient funds.
 Three tax measures, similar to those which have been defeated in the past, already are in the works and probably will come be- fore the lawmakers as possible re- venue raisers. They include an ln- come tax measure, real property tax and a uniform business and oc- cupation license tax. The latter is not anticipated to bring in any substantial sum of money. The in- come tax as it was prescribed two years ago would provide for ten per cent levy on the amount the taxpayer pays the federal govern ment in income tax. Nobody has estimated what this might bring in but an off the cuff guess is a. round a million dollars year and it would take 10000 Alaska tax payers paying an average of $500 each to reach that total. In view of the fact Alaska is part of the Washington state region in the matter of paying federal income tax. an accurate Breakdown of AL aska's portion has never been made The property tax bill two years ago provided for a one per cent levy on actual value of the real property with deduction for those already paying within incor- porated towns. What this would bring in is another one of those "it remains to be seen" matters.
 Biggest item in the budget, in fact the major portion of it, is for education. Commissioner of Edu- cation James c. Ryan is asking for $7,435,639 for support of schools and the University of Alaska has a request for $3,557,270. Money appropriated by the last legisla- ture for schools and the Univer- sity, amounting to around $3,O00- 900, was frozen" by the Board of Administration during the present biennium due to the lack of funds. Appropriations last session were a. bout three and a half million over revenues As a result schools went without Virtually nothing has been done by way of repair and construction of schools since the beginning of the war in 1941. As a result, the lawmakers big prob lem will be what to do for educa- ton and how to get the money for that purpose.
 Death of Judge William A Holz- heimer at the age of 78 Che would have been 79 in Jan.) last Sunday in Juneau takes from the Territory one of its outstanding public figures. Prior to his retire ment a few years ago, Judge Holz- heimer served for years as U. S. District Attorney in the First Di- vision. During the Wilson admin istration he was Federal Judge o1 the Second Division at Nome. When not in the service of his country, the Judge had carried o law practice in Ketchikan and Juneau and had. through the years since the turn of the cen tury, when he first came north, haau an aotiya laadar in oomn,up