Juneau's charter operators could see their per-passenger fee more than triple, as the harbor fund runs low

Juneau's charter and tour operators would pay much more for every passenger they take out — $7.50 a head, up from $2.05 — under a proposal from the city's port director, who says the harbor system needs the money to keep up with rising costs and looming expansion.

The increase comes as the fund that runs Juneau's harbors is projected to hit its lowest balance on record, about $1.2 million by mid-2027. Part of that squeeze is a change in the city budget that stops routing the state's "raw fish tax" to the harbors — a loss the port director, Carl Uchytil, put at about $450,000 a year. And the harbors face tens of millions in unfunded needs at Statter Harbor alone, including a roughly $20 million local share of an Army Corps of Engineers breakwater and, after that, a projected $100 million expansion of moorage there.

Uchytil argued the higher fee is reasonable given those pressures and the demands the charter fleet places on the harbor. He wrote that the fleet needs more oversight than Statter Harbor's small staff — the deputy harbormaster's four officers and one technician — can currently provide. Most charter boats moor at Statter, where the passenger-for-hire business now brings in more than $500,000 a year.

Charter operators, who already carry other costs, would get their say. Inspected charter vessels paid about $711 per boat this season on top of the per-passenger fee, and moorage for a 45-foot vessel runs $430 a month. The proposal calls for a public hearing so operators can weigh in, and the harbor board votes Aug. 27 on whether to hold one.

For comparison, Uchytil pointed to the U.S. Forest Service, which charges $7 per tourist to visit the Mendenhall Glacier — a fee the agency has proposed tripling.