Juneau Assembly keeps harbors as raw fish tax default but adds an exception

The Juneau Assembly on Monday kept the city's harbors as the default recipient of state raw fish tax revenue, but added an exception letting the Assembly direct the money elsewhere "due to extenuating fiscal circumstances."

The ordinance passed without objection and takes effect in 30 days. As introduced, it would have dropped the city code's requirement that the money go to the harbor fund.

The city's fiscal 2027 budget already puts about $400,000 in raw fish tax revenue toward general fund spending, City Manager Katie Koester said. During budget work, the Assembly directed her to look "under all the rocks and all the couch cushions" for money, she said, and the city recognized that the state-shared fisheries business tax, known as the raw fish tax, is eligible for general government services. The ordinance was meant to align city code with that practice, she said.

Mayor Beth Weldon amended it to keep the harbors as the default. "I would imagine if you ask most fishermen, they would agree with that," she said, adding that boats also pay harbor fees, which she called their user fee.

Asked what would count as extenuating fiscal circumstances, the city's attorney said there is "no specific threshold." Members would need to discuss at the time what they believe the circumstances are, with the direction coming through budget meetings. State law already lets the Assembly take the money, the attorney said, and the amendment "adds additional bookends."

In an August memo, Port Director Carl Uchytil wrote that Docks and Harbors "remains fiscally sound," but that the harbor fund is projected to end fiscal 2027 at $1.2 million, "perhaps the lowest amount ever," and that losing the raw fish tax costs the harbors about $450,000 a year. In September, the Docks and Harbors Board weighed raising the fee charter boats pay per passenger from $2.05 to $7.50.

Shem Sooter, who chairs the board but testified Monday as an individual, said he understood why the budget went the way it did. He asked the Assembly to "see if we can continue to send that towards the docks and harbors."

Asked about upcoming harbor projects, Sooter named recapitalizing the Statter Harbor breakwater and floats, a planned Statter Harbor expansion, a North Douglas boat launch ramp and the Aurora Harbor office, which he said he's been told was originally a garage. He put the work at "probably $300-400 million worth." Uchytil told the board in August that the breakwater would cost about $100 million, with an anticipated 80% federal share.

Before the vote, Assembly member Nano Brooks said the harbors have "a lot of major needs." "I don't want to see us getting in a habit of, you know, taking unnecessarily from them," he said.