tomc
January 6th, 2005, 12:51 AM
I'm posting more than the usual short "tease" because this probably won't still be online for very long. The article goes into more detail than the excerpt I've put here. It's from the Anchorage Daily News and, if it works, here's the URL:
www.adn.com/front/story/5981797p-5882651c.html
A few days ago, in the dead of winter, a string of McKinley Explorer passenger cars owned by cruise-ship company Holland America rolled, empty, from Anchorage north about 50 miles to the Pittman area west of Wasilla. There, on a lonely, snowy siding, the cars were disconnected from the locomotive and left.
And that's where they'll stay pending resolution of a testy tax dispute between Anchorage officials and the cruise line, a company executive said Tuesday.
Holland America and at least one other rail-car owner are contesting higher property taxes that Anchorage officials want to impose on the cars.
By moving the eight cars out of town, Holland America hopes to minimize the amount of time they spend inside the Anchorage municipal limits and thus save money under the city's new property tax formula, said John Shively, the company's Anchorage-based vice president of government and community relations.
"This is not an issue of not wanting to pay any taxes," he said. "We've been paying property taxes right along."
Rather, the problem is that city officials last summer changed the policy on how railroad cars are taxed, and "we don't think their reasoning was particularly valid," Shively said.
www.adn.com/front/story/5981797p-5882651c.html
A few days ago, in the dead of winter, a string of McKinley Explorer passenger cars owned by cruise-ship company Holland America rolled, empty, from Anchorage north about 50 miles to the Pittman area west of Wasilla. There, on a lonely, snowy siding, the cars were disconnected from the locomotive and left.
And that's where they'll stay pending resolution of a testy tax dispute between Anchorage officials and the cruise line, a company executive said Tuesday.
Holland America and at least one other rail-car owner are contesting higher property taxes that Anchorage officials want to impose on the cars.
By moving the eight cars out of town, Holland America hopes to minimize the amount of time they spend inside the Anchorage municipal limits and thus save money under the city's new property tax formula, said John Shively, the company's Anchorage-based vice president of government and community relations.
"This is not an issue of not wanting to pay any taxes," he said. "We've been paying property taxes right along."
Rather, the problem is that city officials last summer changed the policy on how railroad cars are taxed, and "we don't think their reasoning was particularly valid," Shively said.