The City and Borough of Juneau clerk’s office certified three ballot petitions aimed at lowering local taxes in Juneau on Monday.
That means advocates can soon start collecting signatures of support in hopes of getting the proposals on the municipal ballot this fall.
The three petitions seek to cap the local property tax rate, remove sales tax on food and utilities, and make in-person voting the default again in Juneau’s local elections.
A Juneau advocacy group called the Affordable Juneau Coalition is leading the effort for all three petitions.
Joe Geldhof is a local attorney and member of the group. He also unsuccessfully ran for the Juneau Assembly two years ago. He said the purpose of the petitions is to make Juneau more affordable.
“There’s been a lot of discussion for a long period of time about how to do that, and the City and Borough Assembly and the city manager never seemed to accomplish anything on that,” Geldhof said.
The Assembly already considered removing sales tax on food a few years ago, but ultimately decided against it. The city currently taxes food and utilities at 5%. Geldhof said removing that tax would directly lower people’s bills.
“Because it impacts every resident, and especially lower and moderate-income,” he said.
But, on the flip side, those taxes bring in a combined $10 to $12 million in revenue to the city each year. If voters pass the initiative, City Finance Director Angie Flick said it likely means the city would have to cut back on spending or reduce services to make up for the lost revenue.
“That would be a sizable chunk of the city’s budget and would definitely require the Assembly to make some hard decisions,” Flick said.
The same goes for the petition to lower the mill rate. The city uses the mill rate to calculate how much property tax residents pay each year. Those taxes are expected to bring in about $63 million this fiscal year, which makes up roughly 40% of general fund revenue.
“While today, those limits might be manageable, it really does handcuff the city moving forward,” she said. “As the cost of services likely increases, it certainly could put the Assembly in a place where they’re having to make unpopular decisions.”
Right now, the city caps the mill rate at 12 mills, but the petition would drop the ceiling down to nine mills. While that could lower property taxes in the future for property owners, it again would likely come at a cost to the city. Geldhof said that’s the point.
“They need to start taking a hard look at all the expenses they do, and get back to funding essentials,” he said. “How that plays out, of course, is going to be up to the Assembly.”
That leaves the petition to make in-person voting the default again in Juneau. While that doesn’t address affordability outright, Geldhof said he thinks the change will make elections cheaper.
The Juneau Assembly approved an ordinance two years ago that made by-mail voting the default for local elections. But, residents can still vote in-person at city vote centers. Last year, a group of residents tried to repeal the ordinance but failed to gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot.
This time around, the petition would instead amend language in that same ordinance to make elections poll-based again, instead of by-mail.
The group will have until May 30 to gather just over 2,700 signatures for each petition to secure a spot on the ballot this October.
