Military widows and widowers in Anchorage say their spouses made the ultimate sacrifice, but they sometimes find themselves stuck with the bills -- a scenario a new state law recently signed into law could help with next year
In the summer of 2010 Theresa Dayton lost her husband, Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Cicardo, one of four airmen killed in the crash of a C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane on Anchorage's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Cicardo wasn't only the the love of her life, he was also the family breadwinner.
"I went from him paying 99 percent of the bills to me paying 100 percent of the bills," Dayton said. "I spent 16 months not knowing for sure if I'd be able to keep the house -- you know, that was very, very worrisome."
Now one of Dayton's bills -- the mortgage -- will soon cost a little less, thanks in part to a proposition she helped get on the Anchorage ballot last year.
The municipal law allows local military widows or widowers to declare the first $150,000 of their home's cost tax-exempt. Dayton also backed a state bill, passed in the Legislature this year, that allows the Anchorage proposition to go into effect.
"We've got it approved on this level and we've got it approved on the state level, and now it's just a matter of we've got to check both of them and make sure there's not a problem," said Anchorage Assembly member Dick Traini.
The tax waiver will not count for this year, because the state bill says it's retroactive but the local proposition doesn't. As a result, military widows in Anchorage will have to pay full property taxes for 2013.
"I know at least one widow who moved away because the cost of living is so great, and then a lot of people in the military aren't originally from here so they go home," Dayton said.
Dayton says knowing that financial relief is on the way will help her make ends meet this year -- and continue to call Alaska home.
The state bill Gov. Sean Parnell signed allows municipalities to offer military widows and widowers the tax break. It's up to voters in each community if they will do so, but the Anchorage measure passed with 80 percent of the vote in 2012.
Contact Mallory Peebles