Assembly begins multi-week budget process at April 7 Finance Committee meeting

The Juneau Assembly will begin its multi-week process to determine the City and Borough of Juneau’s budget for fiscal year (FY) 2022 at the Assembly Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 7 at 5:30 p.m. Join the committee meeting online at https://juneau.zoom.us/j/93917915176, call 1-253-215-8782 with webinar ID: 939 1791 5176, or watch on Facebook Live.

The City Manager introduced the budget during the Regular Assembly meeting on April 5. The Manager’s proposed citywide budget of $396 million is down $22.1 million from the FY21 Amended Budget. The budget proposes a property tax increase of 0.2 mills for the purpose of funding community grants for childcare support; resulting in a total mill levy rate of 10.86 mills.

The Assembly Finance Committee is scheduled to meet every Wednesday through the end of May to work on the budget. The public can comment on the budget at a public hearing during a Special Assembly Meeting on April 21 at 5:30 p.m.

The budget includes the following major components:

• $92.4 million for the Juneau School District, an increase of $0.8 million (0.9 percent) over the FY21 Amended Budget. This increase reflects expenditures associated with the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund grant that is intended to help address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students.
• $161.4 million for Enterprise Funds (hospital, airport, water utilities, docks, and harbors), an increase of $5.1 million (3.3 percent). This change is primarily due to the addition of a mental and behavioral health facility at the hospital.
• $82 million for general government, a decrease of $27.9 million (25.4 percent) from the FY21 Amended Budget. This was primarily driven by an influx of spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and increased federal stimulus from the CARES Act in FY21, a $7 million decrease in one-time funding of Assembly grants, and a $2.8 million general fund reduction of subsidized debt service due to unreimbursed school bond debt from the State of Alaska.
• $35.3 million for capital improvement projects, an increase of $1 million (3.1 percent) from the FY21 Amended Budget. Additional appropriations may be made throughout the year as funding is committed.
• $15.1 million for the debt service budget, a decrease of $0.6 million (3.6 percent) over the FY21 Amended Budget. This reflects a reduction in outstanding school construction debt, as multiple bonds were fully paid off during FY21.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the budget reflects reduced projections of sales tax revenues and cruise ship passengers fees in anticipation of no large cruise ship visitation in the summer of 2021. To offset these depressed revenues, the manager’s proposed budget utilizes CBJ’s $12.8 million allocation of federal stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to replace lost revenues in FY21 and FY22. Application of this federal aid to offset lost revenues in FY21 reduces the anticipated $4.6 million general fund deficit to zero, and in FY22 closes the projected $16 million deficit to $7.8 million.

For more information, contact Finance Director Jeff Rogers at 723-6907 or [email protected].