Opinion: The Copper River Basin Already Knows

I moved to Alaska in 1957, two years before statehood. I have driven and flown through the Copper River basin more times than I can count. Glennallen sits at the crossroads of the Glenn and Richardson highways. People here chose distance. They chose space. Many built their homes with their own hands and paid them off years ago.

The Copper River Census Area is part of Alaska’s Unorganized Borough. There is no borough government. There is no property tax. The basin’s 2,617 residents live without an assessor showing up to tell them what their home is worth and what they owe for the privilege of owning it. People here pay for what they buy. They do not pay rent to the government on what they already own.

Most of America works differently. In Washington, D.C., a retired Marine named Bennie Coleman lost his duplex over a $134 tax bill. He had dementia. He forgot to pay. The city sold the home he bought with his dead wife’s life insurance money. In Minneapolis, a ninety-four-year-old woman named Geraldine Tyler lost her condominium over $2,300 in unpaid taxes. The county sold it for $40,000 and kept every penny. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in her favor in 2023 — but by then she had already lost her home.

Australia exempts owner-occupied homes from land tax entirely. Germany's effective property tax rate is a fraction of America's. Those countries still fund their schools and pave their roads. The Copper River Basin already lives the way they do. No assessor. No annual threat. No hidden rent.

I raised nine children in Alaska. In nearly seventy years in Alaska, I have seen what property taxes can do to families on fixed incomes who fall behind on a bill they never asked for. The Copper River basin proves there is another way. A home paid for should be a home kept. The Basin already knows.

Evan Swensen is a prior-to-statehood Alaskan, pilot, and book publisher in Anchorage.