Alaska and Montana Revisit Sales Taxes to Help Stabilize Revenue

Mounting concern over long-term revenue stability is pushing two of the nation’s five remaining sales tax holdout states—Alaska and Montana—to seriously consider adopting statewide levies for the first time.

The political and fiscal dynamics differ, but lawmakers and analysts in both states are searching for more durable tax strategies that will save them from the revenue peaks and valleys that plague budgeting. If either adopts a general sales tax, they would be the first state to do so since Vermont in 1969.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) proposed legislation in late January to create a “variable, seasonal sales tax” as ...