Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska

The City and Borough of Juneau’s tax office has released its latest list of sales tax delinquents.

Thirty active businesses owe more than $68,000.

There’s an additional 17 businesses that have failed to comply with a repayment plan – leaving more than $600,000 in outstanding sales tax due.

“We send merchants several notices ahead of the time that you’re going to be on the list effective this date and a lot of merchants make the effort so that they do avoid the list,” sales tax administrator Clinton Singletary said. “I’ve had several tell me that they’ve seen hits to their business if they do get published. They’ll then take the steps later to do what it takes to stay off the list.”

The city has been publishing this list regularly since the 1980s as “an enforcement tool,” Singletary said.

In this newscast:

• A bear walks into a Lemon Creek liquor store, insert punchline here
• The City and Borough of Juneau releases its list of sales tax delinquents
• Sitka experiments with free downtown bus service
• An Anchorage store clerk suspected of shooting at a shoplifter faces charges

The Juneau Assembly has compiled its list of potential projects it wants the governor to help secure federal stimulus funding.

The Assembly considered nine projects and ranked its choices by ballot Wednesday at its Finance Committee meeting.

The list has now been narrowed down to five in order of priority:

• A wastewater biosolids system that reduces the amount of sewage waste it ships to Lower 48 landfills.
• A master plan for a marine services center between the Juneau-Douglas Bridge and the Yacht Club
• Rainforest Recovery Center’s expansion to help deal with the opioids crisis
• Juneau Access Project better known as “the road.” There’s a request for $40 million in federal matcching funds revoked by the state after Gov. Bill Walker canceled the state’s support for the project.
• Funding to extend the West Douglas road from a gravel pioneer road to a two-lane highway that would extend on the far-side of Douglas Island

Four projects that didn’t make the cut:

• Requested funding for a new Juneau Arts and Cultural Center, or JACC
• Money for deferred maintenance on Centennial Hall.
• Funds to renovate the former NOAA marine lab at Auke Bay
• Waterfront planning for development north of the Seawalk still under construction.

The list was in response to a May 19 letter from the governor’s office asking the city to rank its priorities for infrastructure investment to be submitted to the Trump administration.

Efforts are ongoing to collect sales tax from ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft that are now operating in Juneau.

Alaska state law narrowly defines how local governments can regulate transportation network companies, or TNCs.

Cities are legally able to collect sales tax, city attorney Amy Mead said.

“What we’re hoping for is that the TNCs will work with us to figure out some process so that the sales tax can be paid,” she said. “So that they can ensure that the drivers are properly registered and they can facilitate enforcing our code.”

Representatives from Uber and Lyft confirmed Tuesday that the companies are in talks with city officials.

“We have been communicating regularly with Juneau city officials in an effort to find a tax collection solution that works for all parties involved,” Uber’s Alaska representative David Williams said in a statement. “We look forward to addressing this issue collaboratively.”

Finance Director Bob Bartholomew said the city taxes the gross fare, which includes the company’s commission. How exactly the companies and drivers split the tax burden isn’t the city’s responsibility.

“We don’t know how they are working it mechanically, that’s what they have to work out and we have to understand how it’s working,” Bartholomew said. “But either the companies work with us or the burden falls solely to the driver.”

Local sales taxes have been contentious for both companies in other municipalities.

The New York Times reported that a lawsuit in New York filed by a drivers group last year alleged that Uber was forcing the drivers to pay its share of the sales tax, which the drivers said amounted to wage theft.

The newspaper said internal documents it examined pointed to millions of dollars in lost revenue for New York drivers.

Uber has since vowed repay the drivers and correct the practice.

A slim majority of the Juneau Assembly voted Monday to join other U.S. cities in endorsing the Paris agreement to combat climate change.

Dick Farnell of 350 Juneau was one of five citizens who spoke up to implore Juneau’s elected officials to back the global movement to reduce carbon emissions as envisioned by the U.N. accord.

“How many countries signed the Paris climate accord in 2015? I lost track when I tried to add them up,” Farnell said. “So I had to remember that there were only two countries that did not sign: Nicaragua, who thought it was not stringent enough, and Syria who happens to be distracted with other issues.”

That led Assemblywoman Maria Gladziszewski to make a motion that Juneau pledge to create a clean energy economy and adopt and honor the Paris agreement to reduce carbon emissions.

Assembly members Gladziszewski, Jesse Kiehl, Loren Jones, Norton Gregory and Beth Weldon voted in support of the Paris climate pact.

Mayor Ken Koelsch, Debbie White and Mary Becker opposed it. Deputy Mayor Jerry Nankervis was on a scratchy phone connection and did not respond to the roll call to vote.

The Assembly’s action was largely symbolic and Mayor Koelsch indicated he’d bring the motion back for reconsideration next month. He’ll need five votes to call a second vote.

In the meantime, Juneau joins more than 300 cities or mayors, including Anchorage, to pledge to support the Paris pact after the President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would pull out.

Also on Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed resolutions urging the White House to rejoin the Paris climate pact and commit to renewable energy.

Editors’ Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the mayor signaled his attempt to bring the motion back for a second vote.

The design and density of a high-rise apartment building proposed in downtown Juneau drew a lot of public concern at Monday’s Juneau Assembly meeting.

The Juneau Assembly voted in November to authorize the sale of the the city’s North Franklin Street parking lot to Seattle-based Eagle Rock Ventures LLC for $530,000. The developer had proposed turning the 23 parking places into an affordable housing complex.

But a pre-application submitted this spring has alarmed some community members. Andrew Heist was one who criticized the sketches.

“The most recent design calls for 130 single-occupant residencies, with shared kitchens on each floor,” Heist said. “Basically, a high-density boarding house right in the core downtown business district.”

He called on the city manager not to close the sale, which the original agreement envisioned would be completed by the end of this month.

City Manager Rorie Watt told the Assembly that the sketch is only a rough concept and not a formal application.

“The developer has no interest in executing the sale,” Watt said. “But what they are interested in is extending that date for a period of nine months and the purchase and sale agreement provides for that extension. And I think that’s in everybody’s best interest.”

The original purchase had been controversial over the development’s lack of parking. The developers would pay a fee in lieu of parking, but critics said it would be inadequate to offset its impacts to the neighborhood.