Liberati v. Bristol Bay Borough

OPINION

MATTHEWS, Justice.

Appellants1 challenge a Bristol Bay Borough ordinance imposing a three percent (3%) tax on the sale of all raw fish caught within the borough.2 They contend that the ordinance is invalid because:

1. proper notice of a public hearing prior to the enactment of the ordinance was not given;

2. the tax is a severance tax on a natural resource and the power to levy such a tax is reserved exclusively, to the State by Article VIII of the Alaska Constitution;

3. municipal taxation of raw fish has been preempted by the State; and

4. assuming the tax to be a sales tax, it is on a…