Alaska News

Assembly to grapple with surplus, education funding at Monday meeting

The Anchorage Assembly will hold a special meeting Monday evening to finalize plans for the city's $13 million surplus from last year and to decide on this year's property tax rate.

The Anchorage School District, facing its own budget shortfall that's expected to force teacher layoffs, is asking the city to cover a greater share of the cost of police officers who work in schools as well as the cost of tax collections.

Assemblyman Dick Traini, who led an Assembly work session on the budgets Friday, said school district staff and school board President Eric Croft committed to paying teachers with any money freed up by the city that had previously been used to pay for the police officers.

Monday's meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Loussac Library. Traini said the education advocacy group, Great Alaska Schools, planned to attend.

Reach Nathaniel Herz at nherz@adn.com or 257-4311.

By NATHANIEL HERZ

nherz@adn.com

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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