Juneau elections

Juneau voters will decide whether the city should implement a new seasonal sales tax system. The Juneau Assembly approved the ballot question at a meeting Monday night. 

The city wants to take greater advantage of the 1.7 million cruise ship visitors that come to town every summer by increasing the local tax in those months. 

But, a handful of testifiers at the meeting, like Auke Bay resident Tom Williams, argued it’s not a good deal for year-round residents. 

“I have a question for you — what in the world are you doing?” he said. “I think you need to get back and start to go back and figure out who you work for, because all you’re doing with this seasonal sales tax approach is squeezing a balloon.”

Assembly members say the change is meant to capitalize on cruise ship tourism spending. Right now, Juneau has a fixed 5% local sales tax rate. It’s made up of both permanent and temporary taxes that help pay for general government costs, some specific voter-approved projects and community priorities like child care support. 

The proposed seasonal sales tax system would change that. It would bump the rate up to a 7.5% tax from April through September and then drop it down to a 3% tax from October through March. 

Nearby Southeast Alaska tourism towns like Ketchikan, Sitka and Skagway have already adopted similar seasonal tax structures. Deputy Mayor Greg Smith said he thinks Juneau would benefit by doing the same. 

“When we talked about doing this in December, it was to hopefully help people see and feel that ‘I’m going to be paying less in taxes, and my family will benefit due to tourism,’” he said. “A seasonal sales tax does that.”

Earlier this summer, Assembly members removed a part of the original proposal that would have used the additional revenue from the new system to offset the cost of removing local sales tax on food and utilities. That’s because an advocacy group called the Affordable Juneau Coalition gathered enough signatures this spring to put that question on the ballot already.

The coalition also got enough signatures for a ballot question asking whether to place a limit on the city’s property tax rate.

Angela Rodell, a member of the group, testified against the seasonal tax proposal on Monday. She argued it would financially hurt residents more than it would benefit them. 

“At a time when many in our community are already struggling with the rising cost of living, housing, food, childcare, and utilities, substantially increasing the sales tax for six months over the summer is not only ill-timed, it is fundamentally unaffordable for working families and individuals on fixed incomes,” she said. 

Assembly member Wade Bryson said the seasonal structure is needed to help recoup the estimated $9 million loss in annual sales tax revenue the city could face if sales tax is removed on food and utilities, which would happen if voters approve the measure. 

“Allowing the citizens to answer the questions at the same time gives the citizens — gives all the voters — a chance to say ‘yes or no,’ if they want a giant hole in the budget. Do they want all of our social services to go away?” he said. 

The city recently notified local organizations that receive city grants that it would be withholding a portion of their funding until the election due to “the potential of significant revenue loss” if the citizen initiatives pass. 

Those organizations include the Juneau Community Foundation, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council and KTOO. 

Voting in this year’s by-mail municipal election ends Oct. 7. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters beginning Sept.19.

There is a small pool of candidates running for the open Juneau Assembly and Board of Education seats in this fall’s local election. 

The candidate filing period closed on Monday. Half a dozen seats are open for the Oct. 7 municipal election — three on the Juneau Assembly and three on the Juneau School District Board of Education. 

Incumbent Assembly members Greg Smith and Ella Adkison are running uncontested for their seats. Assembly member Wade Bryson faces one other candidate, Nano Brooks, who unsuccessfully ran for an Assembly seat in the last two elections.

At an Assembly meeting on Monday, Bryson said he is excited to face some competition. 

I’m quite proud of all of my work that I’ve done here on the Assembly, so I look forward to being able to showcase that as we move some of the city topics forward,” he said. 

Both Smith and Bryson are finishing up their second full, three-year terms. Adkison is finishing her first partial term after she was elected in 2023 to serve the remaining two years in the term of Assembly member Carole Triem, who resigned. 

At the meeting, Adkison said she suspects that state and federal issues might be pulling people’s attention away from local politics. 

“It definitely does surprise me — I fully expected to have an opponent,” she said. “I think obviously when more people run, it’s a sign of a healthy local municipal democracy. But I think right now, frankly, there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

Four people are running for two full-term seats and one partial-term seat on the Juneau school board this election. The candidates are Jeremy Johnson, Jenny Thomas, Melissa Cullum and Steve Whitney. 

Thomas unsuccessfully ran for a seat last election and led a recall effort of the board’s president and vice president. She and Cullum were outspoken critics of the board’s decision to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools. 

Board president Deedie Sorensen and member Emil Mackey currently fill the open full-term seats. Both members told KTOO last week that they would not be running for reelection. 

The winner of the partial-term school board seat will complete the remaining two years of former member Will Muldoon’s term. He abruptly resigned this spring. Whitney was elected by the board to fill Muldoon’s position until voters elect a new, full-time member. 

Voting in this year’s by-mail election ends on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters beginning on Sept. 19.

A local election shake-up continues as longtime Juneau school board member Emil Mackey says he has decided not to run for reelection after a nine-year tenure. 

Mackey said he changed his mind on running just this week.

“I’ve spent three terms on the board, including a consolidation process that was extremely taxing, emotionally and time-wise,” he said. “I think it’s time for somebody else to join the board, because I am just exhausted.”

His announcement comes just after board President Deedie Sorensen told KTOO on Thursday that she also is not running for reelection and will retire when her term ends this fall.

That means two full-term school board seats are open without incumbents for this fall’s municipal election. There’s also a chance to serve a partial term following former school board member Will Muldoon’s resignation this spring. 

The last chance to file for an open seat on the school board or Assembly is Monday, July 28, at 4:30 p.m.

Voters first elected Mackey to the board in 2015. He was then reelected in 2018 and again in 2022. He has a Ph.D. in public policy with an emphasis in higher education policy and a master’s in education from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Like Sorensen, he played a critical role on the board during the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools. Both Mackey and Sorensen faced some public backlash for their vote in favor of the consolidation and were the subjects of a failed recall attempt in last year’s election. 

Mackey said he is far from being done with public service in Juneau, but needs time away to focus on his family and business. 

“I’m coming out of the ninth round of a heavyweight fight, and I don’t feel like I need to start the first round of a new one,” he said. 

He said he’s “scared to death” that no one will run for his empty seat because of the difficulty of the role and the tough decisions board members are likely to face in the coming years. He blamed the lack of funding support from the state and federal government as the root of most of the Juneau School District’s problems.

The candidate filing period for Juneau’s local election opens Friday at 8 a.m.

Half a dozen seats will be open for the Oct. 7 municipal election — three on the Juneau Assembly and three on the Juneau School District Board of Education. There is no mayoral race this election. 

The Assembly seats currently filled by members Ella Adkison, Greg Smith and Wade Bryson will be up for the taking. All three told KTOO that they plan to run for another term. 

Both Smith and Bryson are closing in on the end of their second full, three-year terms. Adkison is finishing her first partial term after she was elected in 2023 to serve the remaining two years in the term of a member who resigned. 

School board seats filled by Deedie Sorensen and Emil Mackey will be open this election. Both confirmed their plans with KTOO to run for reelection. 

There’s also an opportunity to serve a partial term following former school board member Will Muldoon’s abrupt resignation this spring. Muldoon was reelected to serve a second three-year term last fall. He did not give a reason for his departure. His position is temporarily filled by former board member Steve Whitney. 

Two citizen initiatives will also be on the ballot this fall. Voters will be asked whether to place a limit on the city’s property tax rate and remove local sales tax on food and utilities.

The Juneau Assembly may ask voters whether to take on bond debt to fund repairs to schools and the city’s water and sewer systems, and whether to implement a new seasonal sales tax system next year. Members will decide whether to put those questions on the ballot later this month.

The deadline to file for a seat in this election is Monday, July 28, at 4:30 p.m. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters beginning on Sept. 19.

Two proposed ballot initiatives received enough public support to appear in Juneau’s municipal election this fall. Voters will be asked whether to place a limit on the city’s property tax rate and remove local sales tax on food and utilities. 

Angela Rodell is a member of the advocacy group behind the ballot initiatives called the Affordable Juneau Coalition. She said the goal of the two propositions is to lower the cost of living for residents in Alaska’s capital. 

“I look at it as ‘How do we get some money back to people so that they can feel like they’re getting a little bit of relief?’” she said. 

The advocacy group gathered more than 2,700 signatures for each proposition within the city clerk’s office’s extended deadline. It also sought signatures for a third petition to make in-person voting the default again in Juneau’s local elections. Rodell said it didn’t quite get enough signatures.

The city’s current local sales tax on food and utilities brings in a combined $10 to $12 million in revenue each year. If the ballot proposition to remove those taxes is approved by voters, city leaders say the city would likely have to reduce its spending or slash some services to make up the gap. 

The proposed cap on the city’s property tax rate would also significantly reduce the city’s income. Property taxes make up roughly 40% of the city’s general fund revenue.

Rodell, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor last election, said she hopes the proposed property tax limit will push Assembly members to make tough decisions and focus city spending on community needs versus wants.  

“What we’re asking the city to do is to continue to be really thoughtful about how and where and when they collect tax and spend that tax to keep Juneau affordable,” she said. 

The Assembly is also currently considering a separate proposal that would exempt food and utilities from sales tax by putting into place a new seasonal sales tax system. Members have until later this month to take public testimony and decide whether to put that question on the ballot for voters.

Voting in this year’s municipal election ends on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The local advocates who filed a petition with the City and Borough of Juneau last month to put harder limits on cruise ship tourism have withdrawn it. 

That means voters won’t see the question on the municipal ballot this fall. According to Karla Hart, one of the advocates who filed the petition, they weren’t able to gather the minimum of 2,720 signatures before Monday’s deadline. 

Hart said she still thinks there is a lot of community support for limiting the growth of cruise ship tourism, but there just wasn’t for this particular ballot measure. 

“In the conversations that I had with people, I don’t think that it’s the right initiative,” she said. “I think that we need to regroup and refocus and take on the myriad of different pieces that are really adversely impacting our lives.” 

The proposed initiative sought to impose a five-ship daily limit, cap the annual number of cruise ship visitors at 1.5 million a year, and limit daily cruise visitors to 16,000 people on most days and 12,000 on Saturdays. It also sought to shorten the season.

Those mirror agreements that the city has already signed with cruise lines. The difference is that those agreements are non-binding and voluntary, while the petitioners sought to make them law. 

The petition saw legal pushback from a tour company. The company’s attorney Scott Collins called the proposed initiative poorly drafted and “wholly inadequate in attempting to address the complexity of limiting, permitting, and penalizing cruise ship visitation.”

Hart said she may revive an iteration of last election’s failed Ship-free Saturday in a future election. But, in the meantime, she said she and other advocates plan to keep pushing for city officials and Assembly members to take action.

“I think that these efforts are important for keeping pressure on and showing that if things don’t improve for the citizens, we do have options and we are willing to exercise them,” she said. 

There are three other proposed ballot propositions currently still in the signature gathering phase. Those petitioners seek to cap the property tax rate, to remove sales tax on food and utilities and to make in-person voting the default again.