Juneau's last budget year ended $8.6 million better than forecast, city slides show

Juneau ended its last budget year with about $19 million in unrestricted general and sales tax funds, $8.6 million more than the Assembly expected when it adopted the current budget, according to Finance Department slides shown to the Assembly Committee of the Whole on Monday.

The slides also raise the current year's projected unrestricted balance to $12.1 million, up from $3.3 million in a June 8 update. The Assembly holds its budget retreat Nov. 21.

The figures are labeled projected, and the audit of the year that ended June 30 is not complete.

The year-end balance is still about $13 million below the $32 million in the city's audited balance for the year before. Fiscal 2026 ran a $13 million deficit, with $200.1 million in revenue against $213.1 million in spending.

In March, the manager's proposed budget projected a $20.7 million year-end balance. It fell to $10.4 million by July after spending the Assembly approved during the year. The largest item was up to $9.5 million to repay Goldbelt under the gondola revenue-sharing agreement. That spring, the Assembly Finance Committee also cut $736,000 in recurring expenses from the budget, according to a May 24 report.

Sales tax brought in $66.3 million. That was $4 million under the $70.3 million budgeted but $5.2 million better than the $9.2 million shortfall the March plan assumed. The slides credit "Strong Sales Tax Revenue (Apr-Jun) fueled by conflict in Middle East" but do not say how the conflict raised Juneau's sales tax.

Investment income reached $10 million against $6.7 million budgeted. Salaries and benefits came in $3.7 million under budget.

The slides credit the current-year gain to April-to-June sales tax, a returned $1.8 million Gastineau Human Services grant and unspent money for supplies and services. The current budget still carries a $6.9 million deficit.

The slides list questions for the retreat: whether to keep recreation and capital spending at status quo, whether the manager's proposed budget should be balanced, how to approach aggressive revenue forecasting and whether to put renewal of the temporary 1% sales tax on the 2027 ballot. That tax is automatically repealed Sept. 30, 2028.

Juneau's 5% sales tax is made up of a permanent 1%, that temporary 1% and a temporary 3%. On Oct. 6, voters renewed the 3% tax through June 30, 2032, 7,840 to 1,946. They also approved a new 1% April-to-September seasonal sales tax for recreation, which the city estimates will raise $6.8 million a year.