City Council Considers Tax Increases to Cover Utility Costs
Friday, August 31 2012
At a meeting Thursday night, city council started to sift through its options for paying off massive upgrades of Unalaska’s utilities.
The city will overhaul its water, sewer, and solid waste facilities by 2016. Mike Hubbard from Financial Engineering Company presented the results of a study on those projects, and how the city will cover the cost of building and running them.
The operating costs for the three plants will be steep. To cover them, Hubbard said the city will need to raise utilities rates by as much as 97%, in some cases. Unalaska can also raise the property tax or sales tax to generate more revenue.
City manager Chris Hladick said a 1% increase in the city sales tax could bring in an additional $3 million. Councilor Dennis Robinson said he supported a higher sales tax.
"Increasing the mill rate would basically be taking money out of one pocket of the rate user and putting into the other pocket of the rate user," Robinson said. "Instead, I would prefer to see a sales tax increase. That way everybody pays that uses [utilities], even people that are visiting the community."
Hubbard said his projections aren’t final.
"You know, there could be additional grants that would ease the pain," he said. "But this is what we’re faced with right now."
Earlier in the meeting, Hladick pitched a plan to upgrade the city’s website. Councilor Zoya Johnson suggested Unalaska could build a new site for less than the $20,000 Hladick asked for. But council still advanced a budget amendment that included $20,000 for the website, and $60,000 to fix the fender system in position 3 at the Unalaska Marine Center dock.
Council passed a resolution that established the city’s federal lobbying goals for the 2014 fiscal year. The city of Unalaska will ask for $5 million to put toward the new wastewater treatment plant, and $6.5 million to pave Ballyhoo Road. The repaving fund would come from a prior allocation, originally granted to upgrade the ferry dock.
Under the resolution, Unalaska will lobby the federal government to be included in the Outer Continental Shelf revenue sharing bill. The bill gives Alaskan cities a small portion of the state’s profit from offshore oil development. The city will also ask for federal authorization to dredge the sand bar in Unalaska Bay. And Unalaska will pressure the government to finally open a Transportation Worker Identification Credential office, or TWIC office, in Unalaska.
homeowner on Sunday, September 02 2012:
A 97% increase in utilities and raising property tax. I can not afford to live on those increases. I I like my job but ever increases in utility and property tax is becoming too much.
I thought that that the new power house was going to be better and more efficient but the electric bills have gone up 100% And now new water and sewer plants needed and will go up 97%.
Can we have another "Financial Engineering Company" look at and try to lower are cost of living increases.
Can the City Manager and City Council think of and find ways to lower the cost of living and help the middle class, low, poor class, and especially homeowners?
Yes working at union jobs like City of Unalaska and ILWU are good ways. Another one or more Tradewinds Apartment housing or can the Feds lower homeowners utilities bills? Or work and live at Unisea, Westward, or Alyeska free utilities, housing, food, transportation.
Basically trying to say the middle, low, and poor class are being squeezed too much.