Anchorage proposal would replace yearly ambulance bonds with a $3.345 million levy

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and Assembly member Donald Handeland have proposed ending Anchorage's yearly borrowing for ambulances and replacing it with a $3.345 million annual tax levy that voters would have to approve. The Assembly reviewed the budget amendment at a work session Friday.

For at least a decade, voters have been asked each year to approve bonds for two or three ambulances, said Ona Brause, director of the Office of Management and Budget. A bond is borrowed money the city repays over time. The amendment says the city has paid more than $300,000 a year on ambulance debt since 2018. Brause said exact savings are still being calculated.

Under the proposal, $800,000 of the levy would buy two ambulances a year. Another $1.545 million would staff and supply one added ambulance, with seven full-time positions. Chugiak Volunteer Fire & Rescue would get $600,000 and Girdwood Fire & Rescue $400,000. Brause said funding for those two contract services has not kept pace with rising costs.

The amendment says EMS demand has risen 25% over the past decade and ambulances routinely operate above safe utilization thresholds. It covers replacing 19 areawide ambulances, plus three in Chugiak and two in Girdwood.

Brause said the levy would cost an average household about $40 a year, or about $8 per $100,000 of assessed value. Ambulances cost $375,000 to $400,000 each, she said, and skipping bonds also avoids the cost of issuing them. Handeland said the change would let Chugiak and Girdwood save toward their own replacements on their own schedule.

"We are moving to a system where we know what it costs and we are going to pay upfront for those things," Assembly member Erin Baldwin Day said. Assembly member George Martinez said a bond can sometimes be the more useful tool, depending on markets.

Brause said the levy should be a standalone areawide ballot question. Whether its rejection would leave the city out of a replacement cycle can be worked out before January, when officials must decide what goes on the ballot, she said. The Assembly takes up budget amendments Nov. 17.