Alaska revenue commissioner Lucinda Mahoney to retire Sept. 9

Lucinda Mahoney, head of the Alaska Department of Revenue, will retire Sept. 9, ending a 30-month tenure as the official in charge of collecting the money that pays for the state budget.

In her resignation letter, Mahoney said, “it is now time for me to re-focus my energy on my health and my family.”

An interim replacement will be named “in the near future,” according to a statement from the office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Cabinet officials frequently quit during the transition between gubernatorial terms, and Dunleavy is seeking re-election in November. He finished No. 1 in the top-four primary election for governor.

Mahoney is the fourth member of Dunleavy’s cabinet to leave the administration this year. The state’s education commissioner and natural resources commissioners resigned for personal reasons, and Corrections Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom resigned to run for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Dunleavy.

Mahoney, a former chief financial officer of the Municipality of Anchorage, replaced Dunleavy appointee Bruce Tangeman in February 2020, shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her resignation letter, she noted that she is “proud of the work that the DOR team has accomplished during these unique and volatile times.”

“Despite the volatility, the overall fiscal condition of the state has improved over the past few years due to the strong leaders within the department,” she said.

The revenue commissioner occupies a seat on the board of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., and Mahoney served during the corporation’s best-performing year on record and in a year when the corporation finished with its first negative year in a decade.

Mahoney was one of five corporation members who voted to fire APFC executive director Angela Rodell in December 2021. 

That move sparked a special investigation by the Alaska Legislature, including subpoena-backed interviews of Mahoney and other board members. The results of that investigation are expected next month.