Anchorage

Anchorage Assembly approves $472 million budget for 2015

The Anchorage Assembly passed a final version of the municipality's 2015 budget in a relatively smooth two-hour meeting Wednesday afternoon.

At about $472 million, the budget adopted unanimously by the 11 Assembly members was about $2.6 million larger than Mayor Dan Sullivan's original proposal in October. In the last month and a half, the mayor has made amendments that include adding positions in several departments to help with implementation of the city's SAP software project.

City executives also will see a 3 percent boost in compensation. In a memo, Sullivan wrote that executive salaries have "lagged considerably," growing 2.5 percent over six years. He noted that in 2009, executives took a 5 percent pay cut to aid city finances in the aftermath of the recession.

The final budget also contains $200,000 in funding to prevent cuts in People Mover service and $72,000 to support bandwidth services and technology improvements in the Anchorage Public Library.

At the meeting Wednesday, the Assembly also narrowly approved funding to reinstate an associate planner position at the Community Development office.

The Assembly approved the last-minute addition of a $600,000 state funding request for a weather cover for East High School's six tennis courts. Sullivan, expressing his support for the project at Wednesday's meeting, described the cover as an "open-air, translucent fabric" that would shield the courts from rain and wouldn't need extra lighting. He said the idea came together over the last several days.

Assembly members Elvi Gray-Jackson and Dick Traini, who represent Midtown Anchorage and sponsored the proposal, said they have met recently with members of the local tennis booster community. Their proposal replaced a previous request for a $10.5 million multi-use recreational facility.

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The Assembly voted 10-1 to add the cover to the list of state legislative funding requests.

The municipality's legislative program, including the tennis court cover amendment, will be a topic of discussion at the Assembly's regular meeting on Tuesday.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the Assembly districts of Dick Traini and Elvi Gray-Jackson.

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly was an ADN staff reporter.

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