LaFrance budget would pay seven city plow operators, cut $1 million in snow contracts

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's proposed 2027 budget would pay seven full-time heavy equipment operators to plow Anchorage roads with city crews and cut $1 million from contracted snow removal. The Anchorage Assembly holds its first public hearing on the budget Tuesday, Oct. 20.

All seven operator jobs were listed as vacant in the Oct. 2 budget attachment that lays out the change.

The Assembly has already backed the idea once. In June, it voted 11-0 to spend $3.5 million in leftover 2025 road money, including $875,000 to hire seven new heavy equipment operators toward a goal of clearing every municipal road within 72 hours of a storm, Alaska News reported. At that June 23 meeting, an administration official said the money shifted spending from non-labor to labor costs to expand operator capacity and speed up snow removal.

In the 2027 budget, the seven positions would cost $884,260 a year. The budget document describes the $1 million contract cut as partially offset by the new positions, so together the two changes would lower spending by about $116,000. Both sit in the Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area fund, run by the Maintenance and Operations Department.

The proposed 2027 general government operating budget totals about $702 million, up from about $675 million in the revised 2026 budget. After Tuesday's hearing, the Assembly plans more work sessions and deliberations, with approval expected in November.