Anchorage

Anchorage budget proposal cuts spending, raises taxes and goes to Assembly Tuesday

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to vote on a city budget of nearly $481 million Tuesday night that shaves several million off the city's current spending but uses a bigger proportion of property tax revenue.

Among other changes, the proposed 2016 budget from Mayor Ethan Berkowitz calls for $4.9 million for more police officers and firefighters. But the city earlier this year projected a $11.5 million revenue shortfall, in part because of cuts in state revenue. To cover the gap and also pay for public safety spending, the administration asked department heads to cut budgets by 2 percent, and the Assembly in early November approved increases to the amount of traffic tickets and fees for some city services.

At the same time, the proposed budget calls for $11.4 million in increased property tax revenue, or $50 more in tax for every $300,000 in valuation -- numbers that hinged on a change to the city's tax cap calculation that the Assembly approved in October that expanded the city's taxing capacity.

While spending is down, budget documents show the city collecting $1.4 million more in property taxes than if the change had not occurred.

During a work session on Friday, the Berkowitz administration opposed amendments from the Assembly that aimed to cut down further on the size of the operating budget.

Those ideas included a year-long travel moratorium, merging accounting positions across departments, cutting back on long-term planners and eliminating the mayor's community grant program.

Assembly member Amy Demboski introduced more than 30 suggestions for line-item reductions to specific department budgets in the travel and supply categories. She also proposed changing police resource officers who work in schools from 10-hour shifts four days a week to eight-hour shifts five days a week, at an estimated savings of $1 million.

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Of 50 proposed Assembly amendments to the operating budget, the administration said it only supported two.

One was an amendment from Assembly members Ernie Hall, Patrick Flynn and Tim Steele to add $5,700 in funding for the Senior Activities Center. The boost covers inflation costs.

The other related to a proposal from Assembly members Dick Traini and Elvi Gray-Jackson to hire three new animal control officers.

Instead of three, city budget director Lance Wilber said the administration supported adding a single officer at a cost of $130,000.

The administration is also proposing making minor adjustments of its own to the city budget. Perhaps the most significant involves fire department staffing: Instead of 10 new positions in the fire department, the proposal is now to add five positions and cut overtime costs, Wilber said.

The administration still plans to pay for three police academies in 2016, with about 25 recruits per academy.

Budget documents show the latest budget proposal, with amendments included, is $262,405 below the maximum amount the city can collect in property taxes, or the tax cap. But the Assembly in October adopted a measure that increased the base of the tax cap by about $1.7 million -- the difference between the maximum amount the city could collect in property taxes, and what it actually collected in 2015.

At the same time, however, spending is down. The proposed 2016 budget is about $2.6 million smaller than the revised 2015 budget passed by the Assembly in April.

Assembly member Bill Starr said Monday he's nervous about how close the budget is to the tax cap, saying it gives the city "not much wiggle room" in the future.

Wilber said Monday he's comfortable with the city's proximity to the tax cap.

"I know that if we have some unique surprises … if weather comes in … we have that additional amount in the tax cap to go into it," Wilber said.

On the capital budget, the administration supported an Assembly amendment to add street improvements to Sylvan Drive, a residential street off Dowling Road, to the 2016 bond package.

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly was an ADN staff reporter.

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