Juneau's harbor fund is near its lowest point ever, and charter boats may be asked to help fill the gap

Juneau's harbor fund is projected to fall to about $1.2 million by the end of next year — perhaps the lowest it has ever been — and the port director is now looking at whether charter boat operators should pay more per passenger to help shore it up.

Part of the shortfall is a decision that got little notice: the city's budget stopped routing the State Fisheries Business Tax to the harbor fund, an unexpected loss of about $450,000 a year. Against that backdrop, Port Director Carl Uchytil is asking the Docks & Harbors Board to hold a public hearing on raising the "passenger-for-hire" fee that charter operators pay — currently a couple of dollars per passenger plus a per-boat seasonal charge. He hasn't proposed a specific new number; the review itself is what's on the table when a board committee takes it up Wednesday.

There's a case that the charter fleet can bear more. Revenue from those fees has climbed past $500,000, rising sharply since Juneau finished $13 million in improvements to Statter Harbor in 2023. Uchytil also argues the growing fleet needs more oversight than the harbor can currently provide — a deputy harbormaster with just four officers and one technician covers several facilities all summer.

The operators see it differently. Tour operators have warned that higher fees threaten Juneau's competitiveness as a destination, though no charter operator's position appears in the board's materials. The committee will take public comment before any hearing is scheduled.