Anchorage studies four ways to fund a wildfire service area

Anchorage property owners across the municipality could eventually pay a new tax to fund wildfire mitigation, under a proposal moving through early study at the Anchorage Fire Department's request. A preliminary progress report headed to the Anchorage Municipal Assembly's meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18 outlines four possible funding structures for a proposed Wildland Interface Service Area. Assembly members stress the report is exploratory, not an action item.

The Anchorage Fire Department paid the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development $31,717 to study service area boundaries and funding options. The center intends to recommend that the service area cover the entire municipality, rather than only high-risk neighborhoods. The report describes wildfire as a community-wide public safety concern and calls for a proactive, funded mitigation effort, including a fully staffed wildland fire division within the department.

The four funding options include a uniform areawide assessment on taxable parcels, a tiered assessment by risk category, a highly localized assessment by district, and a uniform assessment based on some property attribute other than taxable value, such as parcel size. The report calls that fourth option a hypothetical exercise and says it is not clear whether it would be legally allowable. It cautions that details of each option could change based on stakeholder feedback or additional data. Under the simplest option, the report gives a preliminary estimate of a millage rate below 0.1 mills. For comparison, Anchorage's existing areawide fire service levy — a separate, already-established assessment that funds fire operations rather than wildfire mitigation specifically — stood at 2.18 mills in the 2025 revised budget.

The report flags unresolved legal questions, including whether multiple service areas would require separate votes and whether a tax based on parcel size is permissible. No 2027 budget impacts have been identified yet. Assembly member Zac Johnson said at the April 21 meeting that the request was "merely a request to the administration to investigate the feasibility and mechanisms by which something like a wildfire interface service area could be adopted."

Any new assessment would land on taxpayers who have already voiced frustration with Anchorage's property tax burden, even on unrelated measures. At the Assembly's meeting Aug. 4, during debate over a separate tax-incentive proposal for homebuyers and builders, residents testified that Anchorage property taxes are too high and urged members to find other solutions.

Final recommendations are due by the end of October. Under the project team's understanding of existing law, establishing multiple service areas would require residents of each to vote separately.