Juneau charter passenger fee would rise to $7.53 by 2030 unless Assembly blocks it

A regulation before the Juneau Assembly on Monday, Nov. 16, would raise the fee charter operators pay for each passenger from $2.05 to $7.53 by 2030.

Docks & Harbors charges the fee to charter vessel operators for each passenger who boards a tour from a facility it manages. Under the proposed regulation, it would rise $1.37 each Jan. 1 starting in 2027: to $3.42, then $4.79, $6.16 and $7.53, plus annual consumer price index adjustments. The fee was first set at $1.10 in 2005. About 250,000 passengers paid it in the 2026 fiscal year.

City Manager Katie Koester recommends the Assembly take no action, which means the regulation is deemed approved. Under city code the Assembly cannot amend it. Members could instead approve it, or disapprove it and either send it back to Docks & Harbors or have it drafted as an ordinance or resolution. The meeting starts at 6 pm.

Port Director Carl Uchytil first floated a fee of $7.50 in late summer. Docks & Harbors held a public meeting Sept. 8 at the Mendenhall Valley Library, and its board voted 7-2 on Sept. 24 to advance the increase to a public hearing. That Oct. 29 hearing drew no substantial objections, according to the Assembly agenda. Earlier, the Southeast Alaska Whale Watching Association said the increase would hurt local family-owned tour businesses.

Uchytil told a Docks & Harbors committee in October that the harbor fund is losing about $500,000 a year in state-shared raw fish tax money that was redirected to the general fund. On Oct. 26, the Assembly voted to keep the harbor fund as that money's default destination unless members direct otherwise because of extenuating fiscal circumstances.