Homer Council to Vote on HART Sales Tax Renewal for November Ballot

The Homer City Council will vote tonight on placing a 20-year renewal of the city's road and trail maintenance tax before voters this November.

Ordinance 26-23, scheduled for consideration at the 6 p.m. meeting, would ask Homer residents on November 3 whether to reauthorize the 0.75 percent Homer Accelerated Roads and Trails sales tax for up to 20 additional years. The HART program requires voter approval every 10 years under city code.

The tax has funded recent work on Ohlson Lane, Bunnell Avenue and the Highland Drive culvert. City staff said in meeting materials that losing the HART revenue would cut Homer's ability to maintain roads and trails and build new sidewalks.

Homer established the HART program in 2017 through Ordinance 17-10(S)(A), which set the three-fourths percent sales tax and the decade reauthorization cycle. The tax generates dedicated funding for transportation infrastructure in the city of roughly 5,000 residents on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

The council will also vote tonight on accepting the city's fiscal year 2025 financial statements and annual management letter.

Voters will decide the HART question alongside other local and statewide races in the November general election. The ballot measure needs council approval tonight to meet election deadlines.

Last August, the same council voted down a separate 0.3 percent sales tax proposal for a recreation center. Council members cited the project's lack of definition in rejecting that measure, according to Peninsula Clarion reporting at the time.

The HART renewal faces a different situation. The program has operated for nearly a decade with visible results on Homer streets. City documents show the tax paying for reconstruction projects residents can drive past daily.

Still, the 10-year reauthorization requirement built into the original ordinance means voters retain regular control over whether the program continues. The proposed 20-year extension would be the longest authorization period the tax has carried.

Homer residents can attend tonight's meeting at City Hall, 491 East Pioneer Avenue, or join via Zoom. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Cowles Council Chambers.

City Manager Melissa Jacobsen oversees Homer's day-to-day operations. The council sets policy and approves ordinances like the HART ballot question.

If the council approves Ordinance 26-23 tonight, the city clerk will prepare official ballot language for the November 3 election. Voters would then decide whether Homer continues collecting the sales tax for road and trail work through the mid-2040s.

Without reauthorization, the current HART tax authority expires after its 10-year term. City budget documents would need to account for the loss of that revenue stream in future road maintenance planning.