Anchorage Assembly member and budget commission chair to hold spending forum Oct. 27

Anchorage Assembly Member Sydney Scout and Budget Advisory Commission chair Ian Mills will take residents' questions about city spending at a forum Tuesday, Oct. 27, organized with Stand Up Alaska, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group.

The forum runs from 6 to 8 pm at Bernie's Bungalow Lounge. Its public notice asks whether the city is "really facing a fiscal cliff." Other Assembly members may attend, but no official business will be conducted.

The forum lands in the middle of the city's budget season. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's proposed 2027 budget is due to the Assembly on Oct. 2. On Sept. 1, the Assembly took up a resolution establishing a Fiscal Future Initiative and calling for a community summit on the city's finances, now set for Oct. 30 at the UAA Student Union.

LaFrance's preliminary budget memo projects that revenue from sources other than property taxes will come in about $7.8 million below this year's budget. Most of that, about $6.3 million, is one-time money from this year that won't carry into 2027, the memo says. It also projects a $3 million drop in other taxes counted under the city's tax cap, which would shift onto property taxes dollar for dollar.