News and Announcements
Report: Effects on Households of a Proposed Anchorage Municipal Sales Tax
In November 2025, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance briefly introduced a 3% sales tax proposal to the Anchorage Assembly. ISER researchers examined the implications and outcomes of the proposal, identifying several key conclusions: The proposed sales tax would produce almost $173 million in revenue per year. Visitors would contribute about 18% of the total revenues. The municipality’s lowest-income residents would pay 1.7% of their income in sales taxes while the highest-income residents would pay only 0.5% of income. Households with children would pay somewhat less sales taxes per person than households without children While the 2025 proposal is not currently active, the [...]
ISER at the 2026 UArctic Congress
Several ISER members were part of the Alaska delegation at last month's UArctic Congress in the Faroe Islands. This biennial meeting assembles researchers and institutional leaders from across the Arctic Circle to collaborate on shared goals for the region. Director Diane Hirshberg led the ISER contingent, representing UAA on two sessions. She co-chaired a panel on Indigenous approaches to education featuring participants from Finland, Canada, Norway, and Greenland, and was a speaker in the session "Building Capacity for a Sustainable Arctic: The Foundational Role of Circumpolar Education in Achieving Arctic Council Priorities". Elsewhere at the four-day meeting in the Faroes, [...]
CAEPR Presents Data to the Alaska State Board of Education
The school year is over, and ISER researchers are studying which Alaska educators choose to come back to their jobs next year – and why. They’ll present updated teacher and principal turnover numbers, as well as preliminary findings from their statewide educator survey on Wednesday June 3, 2026 at the Alaska State Board of Education. Join the virtual meeting on Wednesday afternoon to hear initial results on turnover patterns and teacher feedback. The agenda and video link will be available at: https://education.alaska.gov/State_Board
ISER Celebrates 65 Years
ISER Directors Diane Hirshberg (2021-2026), Gunnar Knapp (2013-2016), Steve Colt (2007-2009), Fran Ulmer (2005-2007), and Lee Gorsuch (1976-1994) The Institute of Social and Economic Research got its start in 1961, just two years after Alaska statehood. ISER has been at the forefront of public policy research ever since. To celebrate 65 years of impact, ISER held a celebration ceremony on May 19, 2026 at the Anchorage Museum. The event welcomed former ISER staff and directors, plus a wide network of supporters, leaders, decision-makers, and friends. In addition, nationwide peers and participants from the CUPSO conference were also in attendance. [...]
ISER hosts annual CUPSO conference
ISER is welcoming public service researchers from across the country for the 2026 Consortium of University Public Service Organizations (CUPSO) Conference! 🐏 This year's event, titled "Public Service on the Frontier," will gather research staff from dozens of universities to share their successes and help shape future public policy. The conference also coincides with the 65th anniversary of ISER, which has been providing non-partisan policy research for Alaska since 1961. Learn more about CUPSO and view the agenda at the conference website: https://www.cupso.org/page/annual-conference
Good Resource, Bad Vibe: How well does the media reflect economic activity?
Resource industries like oil and fishing are characterized by boom-and-bust cycles – there are “good years” and “bad years.” In communities that are highly connected to a particular resource, these economic shocks are foregrounded in the public attention. But how well does news coverage of the shocks reflect the actual health of the economy? In a new report, ISER researchers compare economic indicators with media coverage over a 10-year period in Homer, Alaska. The research explores the economic shock of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and looks at how media coverage aligned to the fishery performance during the recovery [...]