Anchorage budget office lists pool closures and bus cuts as possible options for 2028 gap

Anchorage's budget office showed the Anchorage Assembly on Friday what closing a $15 million to $30 million gap in 2028 could cost residents. The list includes three closed pools, a discontinued bus route and 21 police community service officer jobs.

Officials said none of the cuts are in the proposed 2027 budget. The list, drawn from proposals the departments themselves submitted, shows what a 2028 shortfall could require once one-time money runs out.

The administration used $12.1 million in one-time funds to close a $15 million gap in the proposed 2027 budget, Alaska News reported Oct. 3. That included $8.4 million from a remaining fund from the sale of ML&P. Office of Management and Budget Director Ona Brause said cuts at the 2028 scale would mean job losses, because some departments lack enough non-labor money, the spending other than on staff such as contracts and supplies, to absorb a 5% reduction.

Examples from the department proposals include:

• Eliminating the 21 community service officers and the CAP team: $4.7 million.

• Eliminating mobile intervention team medical officers and three school resource officers: $1.7 million.

• Fire reductions, including closing Tender 9, one of the department's water supply trucks: just under $6 million.

• Ending seven heavy equipment operator jobs, with longer plow-out times: $1.6 million.

• Cutting facility janitorial service from seven days to three, removing security posts and ending Graffiti Busters: $1.4 million.

• Ending Route 51 and reducing service on Route 65: $1.8 million.

• Closing the Bartlett, Dimond and Service pools: $1.1 million.

• Closing the Muldoon Library and reducing Sunday hours: $700,000.

• Reducing senior center funding and a Brother Francis Shelter funding line: $300,000.

Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day said the bus cuts would fall on particular neighborhoods. Route 51 runs past several senior living facilities, and Route 65, she said, "is the only bus service in southwest Anchorage."

Assembly Member Donald Handeland asked whether cuts would be spread at 5% across the board, comparing the transit cut with the similarly priced snow removal cut.

Municipal Manager William Falsey said departments are down to deciding whether they can afford laptops. "You'll have to do less with less," he said. He said the administration did not pick the most painful cuts to win support: "We are playing it straight."

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley said the mayor can veto line items and the Assembly can override. "So the buck literally stops with us," she said.

The Assembly takes public testimony Wednesday, Nov. 4. A vote is scheduled for Nov. 17.